364 Beersbridge Road, Belfast, Co. Antrim, BT5 5DZ

364 Beersbridge Road is a semi-detached two-bay house of one-and-a-half storeys, built in 1880 and most likely designed by Young & Mackenzie, described by the Dictionary of Irish Architects as "the most successful architectural practice in Belfast" and the leading architects for the Presbyterian Church in the North East, who also received some of the most important commercial commissions in the city. The house was originally known as 'Myrtle Cottage' and forms part of a row of three pairs of semi-detached houses on the north side of Beersbridge Road, together representing part of the easterly expansion of Belfast during the late Victorian period.

The building has a rectangular plan form and is oriented south-east to north-west. It is constructed in un-coursed rock-faced Scrabo sandstone with a cut stone plinth course and a continuous projecting cut stone string course at first-floor cill level. The half-hipped natural slate roof has terracotta ridge tiles, projecting eaves with exposed rafter ends, and half-round cast-iron rainwater goods. Two wall-head dormer windows rise from the roof, each with lead-flashed cheeks, a hipped natural slate roof, terracotta ridge tiles, and exposed rafter ends. There are two chimney stacks: an original red brick stack to the south-west with a corbel and tall clay pot, and a rebuilt red brick stack to the north-east, also corbelled, with small modern clay pots, rising from an original stone base and shared with the neighbouring property.

The main elevation faces south-east and has a single square-headed window at ground floor level, with double windows to the north-east. Ground floor windows have stone relieving arches over stone lintels, and there are two dormers at first-floor level. All windows are now timber top-hung casements with painted sills, replacing the original sliding sash windows. The south-west elevation carries timber bargeboards with exposed purlin ends. A projecting entrance canopy, positioned centrally on this elevation, has a natural slate hipped roof supported on timber brackets. The entrance door is a modern glazed multi-pane timber door with a glazed fanlight, set back from the face of the wall and reached by two steps. A cast-iron boot scraper sits in a small arched recess to the lower north-west of the entrance. There is a single square-headed window opening to the south-west of the entrance, with a similar opening at first-floor level in the apex of the gable. The south-west elevation is joined to a modern flat-roofed single-storey garage with rendered walls and a metal up-and-over door. The north-west elevation has two square-headed tall window openings and two hipped dormers to the roof above. To either side of these original openings, modern single-storey flat-roofed extensions have been added, both with rendered walls; that to the left also has uPVC windows and abuts the rear yard wall. The north-east elevation is attached to the adjoining house. Despite the replacement of the original sash windows and the addition of modern extensions to the rear, the majority of original fabric and detailing survives intact and the interior has retained some of its character, style, and proportions.

The house sits on the north side of Beersbridge Road with a small front garden bounded by a hedge, and with large paired timber-sheeted gates to the vehicular entrance.

The historical background of the building is well documented. Nos 364–374 Beersbridge Road were built in 1880 for the Bloomfield Land and Building Company Limited, a company formed by the landowning Boyd family in 1874 to secure leases for building projects in the East Belfast townlands of Ballyhackamore and Ballycloughan. Young & Mackenzie's papers record that the firm designed five double houses for the same company along the Beersbridge Road (nos 382–400) in 1878, and nos 364–374 are remarkably similar in design to those houses, though more impressive, featuring additional dormer windows and Scrabo sandstone facades rather than red brick. The terrace was first depicted on the third edition of the Ordnance Survey maps in 1901.

No. 364 was first recorded in the valuation sources in 1880, when the Annual Revisions set its rateable value at £15, and it was at that time occupied by a Mr Isaac Green. By 1911 the house was occupied by a Mr James Eaton, a draughtsman employed in the local shipyards; the census building return for that year described Myrtle Cottage as a second-class dwelling consisting of six inhabited rooms. By the cancellation of the Annual Revisions in 1930 the rateable value had decreased only slightly to £14 10s, but under the First Revaluation of 1935 it was raised to £28, at which it remained through the Second Revaluation of 1956–72.

No. 364 was listed, along with the adjoining dwellings, in 1984. Immediately after listing, the windows were replaced with modern frames. Further restoration work took place in 1985 when the roof was reslated and the chimney rebuilt. In 2006 the stone facade was repaired and repointed. The building has group value with the adjacent row of semi-detached houses at nos 366–374 Beersbridge Road.