20 Joy Street, Belfast, County Antrim, BT2 8LE

No. 20 Joy Street is a mid-terrace, three-storey redbrick Georgian townhouse built around 1840, situated on the junction of Joy Street and Catherine Street North in Belfast city centre. It forms part of a terrace of nine similar houses lining the east side of Joy Street, and is widely regarded as one of the finest examples of late Georgian terraced housing surviving in Belfast.

The house is rectangular in plan, facing west, with a pitched natural slate roof finished with roll-moulded black clay ridge tiles. Two rendered brick chimneystacks with clay pots rise from the roofline. Cast-iron guttering runs along the brick eaves course, and a cast-iron downpipe serves the front elevation. The walls are of redbrick laid in Flemish bond with cement pointing and a moulded plinth course. Window openings are square-headed with rendered reveals, painted masonry sills, and replacement six-over-six timber sash windows. The front elevation is two windows wide. The front door opening is round-headed, with a moulded surround incorporating a keystone, scribed pilasters, and impost mouldings; it contains a replacement timber panelled door with a lintel cornice and replacement fanlight, set above a tiled step. An iron bootscraper is set into the wall within a rendered surround. The north side elevation abuts the adjoining house at No. 18, and the south side elevation abuts No. 22. The rendered rear elevation is abutted by a single-storey return and contains both square-headed and round-headed window openings fitted with replacement six-over-six timber sash windows.

The building was sensitively restored around 1985 by Hearth Housing Association — work carried out by the firm W. D. R. & R. T. Taggart for the Housing Executive between 1982 and 1986 — and much of the original architectural fabric remains intact. It was listed in 1985 along with the rest of the terrace, and continues to be used as a private dwelling.

The street takes its name from Henry Joy, a relative of the United Irishman Henry Joy McCracken, who owned a paper mill that formerly stood at the junction of Ormeau Avenue and Cromac Street. The construction of the mill's dam reclaimed acres of land to the south-east of Belfast's town centre at the turn of the 19th century, and Joy Street and the surrounding Markets area were subsequently laid out during the late Georgian period, developing gradually southward from May Street on this reclaimed ground.

The terrace first appears on the second edition Ordnance Survey map of 1858, but it was certainly in existence before that date. Construction of neighbouring buildings in the area, such as Nos. 36–46 Hamilton Street, had begun by 1832–33 according to the first edition Ordnance Survey map, and Belfast Street Directories first recorded the terrace in 1843, though at that time Joy Street carried a different numbering system. The grandiose redbrick terraces erected around 1830–40 were originally occupied by well-respected merchants. Following the Great Famine, however, a mass influx of working-class labourers into Belfast led the merchant classes to abandon the area by the 1850s in favour of the new suburbs at Malone to the south. The buildings on Joy Street and Hamilton Street passed to working-class occupants, and a number of the larger dwellings were converted into lodging and boarding houses. The establishment of Queen's College in 1849 brought a significant student population to the Markets area seeking cheap lodgings, a presence that lasted until around 1850–70 before students relocated closer to the university. The lodging houses subsequently became home predominantly to business lodgers and to performers appearing at the nearby music halls and concert halls.

The recorded history of No. 20 reflects this broader pattern. In 1852 the Belfast Street Directories record that the house was occupied by John Adam White, a bookkeeper. By 1859, Griffith's Valuation recorded that a Ms. White was in possession of the property, which she vacated that same year. White had been a tenant of a Mr. Ebenezer Crawford — who owned the entire terrace at that time — at an annual rent of £18. The property valuers described it as a three-storey class B+ dwelling (meaning "not new but in sound repair"), measuring six by eight yards and valued at £16. By 1877 and 1880 the Belfast Street Directories record that a Agnes Gunning resided at the address and operated a lodging house from the premises. Annual Revisions indicate that a Mr. James Jameson was listed as resident until around 1906, though in practice he had vacated the address well before that date. In 1884 the house was reduced in value to £15, a reduction applied to the entire terrace at the same time, though the reason is not recorded.

By the 1901 Census, James Quest, a Roman Catholic RIC officer, had come into possession of the house. Like many householders in the Markets area, Quest let out rooms to boarders, many of whom were musical artists or actors performing in nearby concert halls and theatres. The 1901 Census Building Return described the house as a first-class dwelling with nine rooms; by 1911 this had reduced to eight rooms. In 1900, when Quest was first recorded as occupant, the property was again reduced in value to £12 10s., but by 1906 this had risen to £14, at which point a Ms. Charlotte Harding purchased the entire terrace from Ebenezer Crawford. James Quest vacated the house between 1901 and 1907, when Hugh Rice, a Roman Catholic chef, took possession. Rice continued to occupy the house until his death in the 1940s, and a member of his family — his daughter Elizabeth — lived there until the 1970s.

In 1920, Nos. 14–26 Joy Street were put up for public auction, with a yearly rent for the terrace and a number of attached buildings totalling £416 3s. The First General Revaluation of Northern Ireland in 1935 recorded that the terrace had come into the ownership of a Mr. Joseph Tyney, who is presumed to have been the successful bidder at auction and who was described in the 1911 Census as a manufacturer of ship parts. At that time No. 20 was recorded simply as a private dwelling occupied by Rice and valued at £21; this was increased to £22 by the second revaluation, which took place between 1956 and 1972.

In the mid-1960s, the Sub-Committee of the Ancient Monuments Advisory Council recommended that Nos. 14–26 Joy Street should be maintained as an excellent illustration of Georgian housing in pre-industrial Belfast. Architectural historian Marcus Patton has described the intact terrace as the finest block of Georgian houses in Belfast and a good example of the grandeur and dignity of the Markets area as it was first developed.

No. 20 contributes significant group value to the terrace as a whole, retaining the style, proportions, and architectural character of this rare surviving example of late Georgian terraced housing in the centre of Belfast. The property lies within a conservation area.