595 Ormeau Road, Belfast

595 Ormeau Road is a three-storey red-brick late Victorian terraced house, built in 1871 as one of a pair of additions (with its near-matching neighbour at no. 593) to a short terrace of five slightly smaller dwellings further to the north (nos. 583–91 Ormeau Road, originally known as Belvoir Place), which were largely constructed around 1864, apart from no. 591 which dates from 1870–71. The whole group was probably developed by Thomas Courtney, listed as the immediate lessor in the valuation records. An advertisement from May 1871 described the new additions as "new two-storey houses, with good attics, situate in Ballynafeigh...neatly and comfortably finished...good gardens front and rere...in the most healthy locality, with a dry soil and mild, salubrious air." The house sits on the west side of the Ormeau Road, just south of its intersection with the Ravenhill Road, approximately 3 km from Belfast city centre, in a predominantly residential stretch of late 19th-century red-brick terraced housing with some varied 20th-century development. It is one of only two houses in the terrace of seven that have an expressed attic level.

The house is rectangular on plan, with a modern single-storey extension to the rear added in 2016. The front and rear walls are smooth red clay brick: Flemish bond to the front elevation and English Garden Wall bond to the rear. The roof is finished in fibre-cement slate.

Front elevation (facing east) The front elevation features a replacement painted timber three-panel door with overlight in plain glazing, positioned to the right, and a 1-over-1 uPVC double-glazed top-hung window to the left at ground floor level. The doorway is segmental-headed with a masonry keystone and stepped reveals; the window opening is also segmental-headed. Both openings have soldier course headers. At first floor level there are two similar windows with square-headed openings, also with soldier course headers. All window openings have smooth painted plaster reveals. The brickwork is laid in Flemish bond, with a series of slightly projecting decorative polychromatic brick courses, now painted white, running at eaves level. A tiled road sign plate reading "Ormeau Road" is attached to the outer edge of the house at first floor level. The roof has two modern rooflights and metal guttering, and there is a large replacement profiled red-brick chimney stack on the left-hand side with red clay pots.

Rear elevation (facing west) At ground floor level the rear elevation is fully abutted by the modern single-storey extension, which spans the entire width of the house. The extension roof is part flat and part mono-pitch, finished in fibre-cement slates, with walls in smooth cement render and uPVC windows and doors. At first floor level of the main house, there is a modern square-headed window opening with a uPVC double-glazed top-hung window to the right, and a round-headed opening with a uPVC double-glazed arched window to the left. Above this, at second floor level, is a taller matching arched window. The arched openings have smooth painted plaster reveals and soldier courses at their heads. The rear brickwork is partly painted white and laid in English Garden Wall bond. There is a modern rooflight in the main roof, and uPVC rainwater goods and soil stacks are fitted to the rear.

Side elevations The north side elevation adjoins no. 589 Ormeau Road. The south elevation is the exposed gable end of the terrace. It is blank and finished in slapdash render with smooth plaster bands to the edges, clipped verges, and a replacement profiled red-brick chimney stack at the apex with red clay pots. A modern red-brick wall approximately 2 metres high has been erected along the face of the gable at ground level — possibly associated with the modern apartment development adjacent — and extends westward along the single-storey rear extension and along the rear garden, with the flat roof of the extension projecting slightly above it.

Setting To the front there is a small garden with a concrete path, set behind a replacement painted brick wall with metal railings and gate, and a modern low red-brick wall enclosing the south side. The rear of the terrace is bounded by a laneway. The original rear yard has been replaced by the 2016 extension. On the far side of the laneway is a large modern detached garage built in materials similar to those used in the extension. The original garden area extends westward to the rear of the garage. Notably, the yards and original garden allotments of the terrace as a group survive remarkably intact to the rear, forming a distinct and coherent group.

The recorded sequence of occupants of no. 595 is as follows: William Templeton (1871–c.1875); John Millin, described as a manager (c.1885–c.1888); George Long, a clerk at the Custom House (c.1888–1906), recorded in the 1901 census with his wife Susanna and their grown-up daughter; Catherine Duffin, recorded in the 1911 census with her four grown-up children, the building at that time classified as a second-class dwelling containing eight rooms; John Lindsay, a nurseryman (c.1914–24); Mrs. Long (1924–c.1929); John Lindsay again (c.1929–c.1933); Thomas Duffin, a stone cutter (c.1933–c.1940); the Lindsay family once more from around 1940 to c.1968, latterly Miss Lizzie Lindsay; and finally John O'Hara, a chef, who was still resident in 1995.

The house is a good example of a modest late Victorian urban terrace dwelling, built during a period of rapid southward expansion of Belfast along the main thoroughfares of the Ormeau, Lisburn and Malone Roads. The listing extends to the house and the street sign. Despite the replacement of the original sliding sash windows, front door and front boundary wall, and the addition of the large rear extension, the building retains its external character. The listing covers the house and the attached street sign as a group, reflecting its architectural style, proportion, ornamentation, setting and group value with the adjacent terrace houses, as well as its age, local interest, and the relative authenticity of the surviving fabric, notwithstanding alterations that detract from the building.