551 Ormeau Road, Belfast

551 Ormeau Road, Belfast

Built in 1887, this is a two-storey terraced house with an attic, forming part of a terrace of nine dwellings originally known as Rosetta Terrace. It is situated on the west side of Ormeau Road, a main arterial road approximately 2.5 miles south of Belfast's city centre, in an area that expanded rapidly during the late nineteenth century as the city developed southwards along the Ormeau, Lisburn and Malone Roads.

The house is constructed of red brick and render, with a natural slate pitched roof. The front elevation faces east and displays the characteristic proportions and detailing typical of late Victorian residential architecture. The ground floor is finished with smooth render, while the upper floors are of red clay brick laid in Flemish Bond. A single-storey flat-roofed canted bay projects from the front to the left of the entrance door. The door is replacement painted timber with two upper glazed panels, set within plain architraves and crowned with a bracketed flat hood. The door retains the number 3 painted on the overlight, referring to the terrace's original numbering system from when it was called Rosetta Terrace.

The first floor contains two windows, above which runs a band of glazed blue bricks beneath a decorative brick cornice comprising several rows of alternating projecting brickwork. The roof features a single-pitched dormer with a timber finial and a round-headed 1/1 window. Two tall red brick chimney stacks with single blue brick courses and simplified cornices flank the roofline. The current windows are replacement double-glazed painted timber with 1/1 sashes.

The rear elevation comprises a double return with pitched natural slate roofs. The main block has a 1/1 window on the ground floor and a 2/2 window above, both set in unpainted lined rendered walls and topped with a pitched roof dormer similar to the front. The first return features red brick walls with a timber door with glazed upper panel and 2/2 painted timber sliding sash windows either side on both ground and first floors. This return steps back to join a narrower additional return, now part of the internal accommodation, which has a small top-hung window on the ground floor and a full-sized 1/1 window above. The end gable and smaller return are finished with unpainted render. The yard is covered in historic clay quarry tiles. The rear boundary wall was rebuilt in new clay brick with a large opening providing access to a modern parking space separated from the rear laneway by a timber fence and gate.

The interior layout remains largely intact and contains high-quality Victorian detailing throughout. The property is recorded as a second-class dwelling containing nine rooms.

The terrace originally numbered nine houses (547 to 563 Ormeau Road). The four southernmost properties (557-563) were completed in 1886, with the remaining five, including number 551, completed in 1887. Development was undertaken by H. Scott, a pawnbroker with premises at 117 Shankill Road, who occupied what is now number 557. An October 1886 letting advertisement described the first group as 'large houses' with three reception rooms, five bedrooms, hot and cold water and modern improvements. Advertisements for the second group, completed in 1887, promised well-finished properties with two reception rooms on the ground floor and six bedrooms.

The first recorded occupant of number 551 was Benjamin Lindsay, noted as chief clerk at the Belfast General Post Office. The 1901 census records Lindsay and his wife Elizabeth, two grown-up daughters, a granddaughter and further grandchild, along with Mrs. Lindsay's mother, Eliza Gowdy, residing at the property. The Lindsay family retained occupation until circa 1963, followed by George Brown (clerk) from that date, and Alan G. Trudgett from approximately 1985. The building was listed in 1986.

The house sits on the west side of Ormeau Road facing east across towards Knockbreda Park and Knockbreda Presbyterian Church. Each property in the terrace has a small front garden the width of the house, accessed via a straight path built with alternating blue and red clay tiles set in a diamond pattern. The gate pillars, boundary walling and railings are modern replacements. The immediate setting is residential, comprising mainly semi-detached red brick houses and some terraces built at the end of the nineteenth and beginning of the twentieth centuries.

The building has considerable group value as part of the listed brick and rendered terrace of which it forms an integral part.