17 Malone Place, Belfast, County Antrim, BT12 5FD

17 Malone Place is a two-storey, two-bay Victorian mid-terrace dwelling built around 1850, forming part of a terrace located off the Lisburn Road adjacent to Sandy Row, approximately one mile south of Belfast city centre. The house has a square plan with a two-storey rear return. It was originally built as an end-terrace property but now sits as a mid-terrace unit.

The exterior retains its general historic character, though some features of interest were lost following refurbishment of the terrace around 2000. The roof is pitched with natural slate and clay ridge tiles, and is fitted with replacement galvanised steel rainwater goods. The chimney is a replacement in red brick. The main walling is red brick laid to Flemish bond, with a replacement projected smooth rendered plinth course and a corbelled eaves course. The windows are 1/1 timber sliding sash with double glazing and horns, set under flat arches with painted masonry cills. The front door is a replacement timber panelled door with a fixed rectangular overlight, flanked by replacement surrounds and a canopy.

The principal elevation faces south and is asymmetrically arranged. At ground floor level there is a door to the left and a single window to the right; the first floor has two windows. The left gable abuts number 19 Malone Place and the right gable abuts number 15 Malone Place. The rear elevation is also asymmetrically arranged, though the view is largely obscured; the right bay is abutted by a replacement subservient red-brick two-storey return.

The terrace faces directly onto a narrow street. Opposite is a rubble masonry wall bounding the embankment to the railway, and a small park enclosed by gated railings. On the opposing side of the Lisburn Road stands the University Road Moravian Church. The former Maternity Hospital is located to the west, and a large modern apartment block lies to the north.

The terrace was built in at least two phases. The earlier part, which includes number 17, dates from the late 1840s, with further houses added in the early 1860s. The site at the bottom of Sandy Row lay well outside the urban area of Belfast until the 1850s, with Sandy Row itself likely following a route laid down in medieval times. On the first edition Ordnance Survey map of 1832–3, a small structure is shown on the site, perhaps associated with the Malone turnpike which was situated at this junction, but the area was otherwise little developed, consisting mostly of housing associated with the major routes into Belfast. By the time the terrace was built, the surrounding landscape was a mixed-use area of factories, brick fields, housing, larger mansions, and much open ground. The most prominent local structure was the Union Workhouse and Fever Hospital, dating from 1841 and 1849 respectively, and several of the terrace's inhabitants worked there at one time or another.

According to Brett's annotations of the 1850 Hodges and Smith map, on which the terrace makes its first appearance, the site belonged from 1798 to a gentleman named William Irvine. In 1826 it was purchased, together with the neighbouring plot, by Arthur Gaffikin, butcher and property developer, who later became the proprietor of a linen business. Gaffikin is commemorated in the name of Gaffikin Street, which runs to the rear of Malone Place. The terrace does not appear in the street directory of 1846–7 but is present in the 1850 edition, giving a likely construction date of the late 1840s for numbers 9 to 19. The terrace was built to the rear of a larger house called Malone Cottage, which faces onto Sandy Row (then known as Malone Road). It is possible that Malone Cottage and Malone Place were built together as a development by Gaffikin, or that he sold the land as individual building plots.

In Griffith's Valuation of 1860, Sarah Warnock is listed as landlady, and the houses are valued at £10. An advertisement in the Belfast Newsletter of 1857 described the properties as "neat, well-finished houses in Malone Place, adjoining the Post Office, containing Parlour, Kitchen, Three Bedrooms with Gas and Water at the greatly reduced rent of £11." Numbers 21 to 29 of the terrace were built between 1860 and 1863 by property developer Moses Tate, valued slightly higher at £11, or £12 for number 29, though these valuations were later reduced in 1888. The Belfast Newsletter of 1862 noted that "a number of respectable houses have lately been built on the above Ground and others are in progress of erection." Further building land nearby was offered by Arthur Gaffikin, and four slightly larger houses were built on the far side of Blondin Street between 1870 and 1877. These were subsequently taken over as the Midnight Mission Rescue Home, a refuge for so-called fallen women, and eventually became a maternity hospital serving unmarried mothers. The four dwellings were demolished in 1924 and a new Rescue and Maternity Home was built on the site to designs by William Godfrey Ferguson. In 1973 Malone Place Hospital was absorbed by the Jubilee Maternity Hospital, though it ceased to be used for maternity services after 1981 and has remained the property of the Health Trust.

The first valuation map to show the terrace, dating from around 1860, shows ornamental railings and a step to the front of each of the original six houses, with a rear return and outbuildings in the yard of each. A later edition from around 1860–1895 shows a boundary post and watering trough at the junction with the Lisburn Road, and a tramline running behind the terrace in Napier Street, which provided employment for some residents.

The houses appear to have been home to people of varying social standing, mostly from the skilled manual, clerical, and supervisory classes. Many trades are represented, though a large proportion of residents worked in the textile industry in some form, either in manufacturing or as drapers, tailors, or in other ancillary roles. The Belfast Newsletter provides occasional glimpses of less respectable activity: in 1867, Jane Crosbey of number 17 was summonsed to court on a charge of having been disorderly in the public street, with magistrates receiving information "as to the character of the house she kept." By the time the 1901 and 1911 censuses allow a fuller picture, most houses were occupied by large extended families of the respectable skilled working classes, rarely able to afford a servant.

The houses were frequently renumbered during the latter decades of the 19th century, making it difficult to pinpoint individual occupants with certainty. As far as can be determined, number 17 was occupied in 1850 by James Caldwell, a book-keeper who died that same year aged 32. Subsequent occupiers included Jeremiah Briggs, draper (1858–9), Catherine Boyd (1860), Robert and Hugh McNaughten, both book-keepers (1861–4), William Crossley, ship-builder (1865), George Green, draper (1870), and Peter Stirling, sewing machine maker (1877–80). A long period of residence followed by Alex Paisley, variously described as a clerk and labourer, from 1884 to 1899, and then Steven Paisley, possibly a son, also working as a clerk, in 1900. By the 1901 census, the occupier was Isabella McDevitt, a widow from Scotland, living with her seven children aged between 11 and 27. Two of the older children worked as plumbers; others were a brass finisher, a machinist, a monitress, and an errand boy. From 1907, the house was occupied by the Magill family. In the 1911 census, John Magill, a labourer, lived there with his wife and four children; his son was a mechanic, his eldest daughter worked in the home, and the younger two were a machinist and a salesgirl.

The house remains in use as a domestic dwelling. Its overall intact external appearance contributes significantly to the group value of the terrace and makes a positive architectural contribution to the character of the area.