42 Hamilton Street, Belfast, County Antrim, BT2 8LP

42 Hamilton Street is a terraced two-bay, three-storey redbrick late-Georgian townhouse, built around 1835 as one of a terrace of six similar houses lining the south side of Hamilton Street in Belfast city centre. It is one of the finest remaining examples of late-Georgian terraced housing in central Belfast.

The Building and Its Exterior

The house is constructed in redbrick laid in Flemish bond with a rendered plinth course. The pitched roof is covered in natural slate with black clay ridge tiles, and there are shared redbrick chimneystacks at either end of the terrace, each fitted with clay pots. Cast-iron guttering runs along a stepped redbrick eaves course, with cast-iron downpipes below.

The two-bay, three-storey front elevation retains its late-Georgian proportions and character. Window openings are square-headed with painted masonry sills, rendered reveals, and replacement 6/6 timber sash windows. The slightly off-centre entrance has a round-headed door opening with a moulded surround, flat-panelled pilasters to either side, a stepped lintel cornice, and a decorative fanlight above. The replacement timber panelled door opens onto a concrete platform approached by three nosed steps, flanked by a low rendered plinth wall and replacement iron railings enclosing a small paved front area with a railed area below.

The east side elevation abuts the adjoining No. 40 and the west side abuts No. 44. The two-bay, three-storey rear elevation is adjoined by a single-storey lean-to extension that spans the entire terrace, added during the late 20th-century restoration. The rear windows have camber-headed brick arches and are irregularly placed to light the main rooms to the right and the half-landings to the left. The lean-to has a bipartite 6/6 timber sash window and a single timber glazed door opening onto a communal rear bitmac parking area. This parking area is accessed via pairs of tall timber sheeted gates at either end of the terrace, supported on pairs of tall redbrick piers with redbrick screen walls and concrete coping.

History and Occupants

Hamilton Street was developed in the 1830s on reclaimed land to the south-east of Belfast's town centre, land created by the construction of a paper mill dam along the Blackstaff River at what is now the junction of Ormeau Avenue and Cromac Street. The first edition Ordnance Survey map shows that Nos. 36–40 were in place by 1832–33, and Nos. 42–46 were likely completed shortly afterwards. The street took its name from the family name of the Dukes of Abercorn, who resided at No. 3 Hamilton Street from 1818, a house since demolished.

In its early years, Hamilton Street attracted high-ranking merchant-class residents, many connected with the newspaper and printing trade. By the 1850s the area had become more distinctly working class as businessmen moved to grander houses in the Belfast suburbs. Some of the larger neighbouring houses on Joy Street were converted into lodging and boarding houses for students attending Queen's College, established in 1849, though the majority of the similar houses on Hamilton Street, including No. 42, were maintained as private dwellings. In 1971, C. E. B. Brett described the houses on Hamilton and Joy Street as "the best example left in the city of late-Georgian Belfast."

In 1852, when the terrace was numbered differently as Nos. 24–34, No. 42 was occupied by a Mr. Richard Creeth, a merchant with offices in Waring Street. By 1859, Griffith's Valuation recorded that the house had passed to Mr. Darcus Campbell, who rented it from the owner Elisha Crawford — who also owned the rest of the terrace. The valuer rated No. 42 as a B+ class dwelling (described as "not new but in sound repair"), measuring 6 by 7½ yards, valued at £17, and noted that the tenant did not occupy the entire house.

In 1876 a Ms. Margaret Nicholl came into possession of the house, at which point its value was reduced to £16. By the time of the 1901 Census, the house was occupied by Nicholl's daughter Eliza, a Roman Catholic housekeeper, her sister Teresa, who worked as a hemstitcher at a clothing factory, and her brother Samuel, a musician who played at local Music Halls. That census described No. 42 as a second-class dwelling with five rooms and no out-offices. During the Nicholl family's occupation, ownership of the entire terrace — apart from No. 46 — passed around 1906 to a Captain E. Gibbons, who continued to own the terrace until at least the 1970s.

By 1911 the Nicholls had vacated, and Mrs. Margaret O'Hanlon and her extended family moved in; the 1911 Census records ten people living in the house, comprising O'Hanlon's children along with her siblings and their children. Notably, the census building return for 1911 described the house as a first-class dwelling with eleven inhabited rooms — a significant contrast to the five rooms recorded just a decade earlier. The O'Hanlon family left before 1918, when Mr. James Courtney took up residence, remaining until the 1930s. In 1935, under the first general revaluation of property in Northern Ireland, the value of No. 42 was increased to £19 10s.

During the Second World War, Hamilton Street was badly damaged in the Belfast Blitz, when the Luftwaffe targeted the nearby shipyard industries and many houses along the street were lost. Nos. 36–46 were repaired and included in the second general revaluation of Northern Ireland, which ran from 1956 to 1972, during which No. 42's value was raised to £21. Members of the Courtney family continued to occupy No. 42 until the 1980s, when all houses in the terrace fell vacant and fell into a state of dilapidation.

Restoration

Many of the remaining houses on Hamilton Street, extending around into Catherine Street North and Joy Street, were demolished in 1988. By that time, the surviving Nos. 36–46 had also fallen into serious disrepair. Between 1988 and 1990 the Hearth Revolving Fund restored the terrace, adding a new lean-to extension at the rear. While this restoration was carried out in a sensitive manner and the exterior walls were retained, the work resulted in the loss of the original interior features. The building was listed in 1985 along with the rest of the terrace and remains occupied as a house. No. 42 contributes significant group value to the terrace as a whole, retaining the style and proportions that make this a rare surviving example of late-Georgian terraced housing in the centre of Belfast.