5 Waterloo Park, Belfast, Co. Antrim, BT15 5HU

5 Waterloo Park is a detached, five-bay, two-storey painted brick house built in 1934 to a Modernist design by Belfast architect Robert Sharpe Hill (1879–1961). It stands on a rectangular plan on a prominent sloping corner site at the junction of Waterloo Park and Waterloo Park North, in the townlands of Low Wood and Greencastle — an area that was developed as a suburban residential neighbourhood during the interwar period. The house is a comparatively rare surviving example of Modernist domestic architecture in Northern Ireland, and sits in notable contrast to the Neo-Georgian style of the majority of houses on the same street.

Robert Sharpe Hill practised independently after an earlier partnership with Eric R. Kennedy around 1908 to 1910. The Dictionary of Irish Architects records that he predominantly carried out domestic work, and the Irish Builder confirms that he designed a number of houses on Waterloo Park between 1933 and 1934 for Robert McIntyre, a local builder based at 721 Antrim Road who owned and leased all the properties on the street. The site was leased by McIntyre, and upon completion the house was valued at £65 in the First General Revaluation of Property in Northern Ireland (1936–57). Its first tenant was Archibald Wilson, a director of a local company, who remained at the property until his death in 1941, after which his widow took possession. By the 1950s the house was occupied by a Mr M. Phillips, and by the end of the Second General Revaluation (1956–72) its value had risen to £79.

The house has a flat concrete roof with a raised parapet and flat concrete coping, and a stepped parapet to the south and west elevations. Rainwater drains via a lead box gutter discharging through the parapet to a cast-iron painted hopper and circular downpipe. There are two smooth rendered chimneys forming the south and west walls of a second-floor rooftop extension. All openings are square-headed and fitted with painted timber casement windows unless noted otherwise.

The principal south-facing front elevation is five bays wide with curved-plan corners to both the east and west. The composition includes a set-back second-floor rooftop pavilion, a single-storey bay extending to the west, a recessed entrance lobby, and a first-floor balcony terrace with a garage at lower level to the east. The balcony has a flat leaded roof on a curved plan, supported on circular metal posts above a timber-sheeted curved wall with flat coping. The garage to the east has a flat roof and red brick painted walling, with a raised smooth rendered band to the south-west bay and forming a header to the garage opening. A flight of concrete steps leads to the east extension. There are square-headed corner windows to the ground and first floor at the recessed porch and balcony, and to the east of the first floor. The entrance door is a five-panelled glazed door with horizontal panes, sidelights, and a fanlight over — all with obscure glazing — approached by a tiled entrance lobby forming a single step. The number '5' appears in silver lettering at first-floor level above the entrance door. The east extension has a corner window and door.

The east side elevation is three bays wide and two storeys high, with a triangular oriel window at first-floor level. The second-floor roof pavilion has a fixed window and a sliding door. The single-storey ground-floor extension has a corner window to the south. The rear north elevation is three bays wide and two storeys, with a flat-roofed attached garage to the west side having a raised parapet, a corner window to the west at first-floor level, a fixed window and sliding entrance door to the second-floor roof pavilion, and a window to the east extension. Five terracotta-tiled steps lead to a raised terrace adjacent to the south elevation of the garage. The west side elevation is two bays wide and two storeys with a narrowly set-back first floor and the attached garage extending to the north. A projecting single-storey bay to the south has curved ends and full-width glazing.

Internally, many original finishes survive, including terrazzo flooring, tiles, and timber panelling to the hallways. The general layout has remained unchanged since the 1930s, though a single-storey flat-roofed lounge was added to the roof terrace between 2007 and 2009 as part of an extensive renovation prompted by roof failure and rising damp and rot throughout the building. This programme of work also included repair of the roof, complete refurbishment of the interior, and the installation of new glazing and window frames throughout.

The house is set within its original boundaries. To the south and east there is a dwarf red brick wall with hedge, and a hedge boundary to the north, with gardens to the east overlooking Belfast Lough. Entrances to the south and west are marked by pairs of red brick piers on a square plan with rendered pyramidal coping and decorative metal gates in a geometric pattern. A concrete pathway leads to the entrance door to the south, and a driveway runs adjacent to the garage to the west. The house was listed in 1994.