8 Shandon Park, Belfast, Co. Antrim, BT5 6NW

8 Shandon Park, Belfast

A semi-detached three-bay two-storey house with dormer attic, built in 1906 as part of a pair with No. 6 Shandon Park. The building is constructed in red brick and roughcast render in the Arts and Crafts style, with a projecting gable to the west and gabled rear return to the east. It was originally known as 'Woodlee' and predates the majority of houses on Shandon Park, which were constructed in the late 1920s and early 1930s.

The pitched natural slate roof is finished with saw-tooth terracotta ridge tiles and finial to the dormer. Decorative painted bargeboard and eaves board are present, with uPVC ogee moulded guttering discharging to uPVC square downpipes. Two-stage roughcast rendered chimney stacks to the north have flat sandstone coping with terracotta pots. A brick central shared chimney with cornice to sandstone coping and circular terracotta pots is also present. The pitched slate roof extends to the rear return.

The three-bay front elevation faces west and features a two-storey canted bay to the south with leaded hipped roof, a single-storey central entrance porch with leaded hipped roof, and a dormer to the south-west. Red brick forms the ground floor whilst the upper floors are roughcast rendered, with a projecting rendered cornice stringcourse between ground and first floor levels. The canted bay has a projecting rendered plinth, and painted stone sill courses run to the ground and first floors, with a painted header course to the ground floor windows.

Window openings are square-headed at ground floor and segmental-headed with moulded surround at first floor. Ground floor windows are one over one timber sliding sash, whilst upper floors have six over one timber sliding sash windows, with the central window to the canted bay featuring an eight over one configuration. The dormer has a pitched slate roof with decorative bargeboard and finial, rendered walls, and a square-headed opening with a pair of timber sliding sash windows. The entrance door is timber panelled with a multi-pane fanlight above and flanked by sidelights, approached by a short flight of concrete steps with painted rendered plinth having chamfered coping.

The south elevation has painted red brick ground floor with a six over one segmental arched window to the first floor of the main house; a square-headed opening to the ground floor with one-over-one sash. The rear return is three-bay two-storey, with red brick ground floor and roughcast rendered upper floor featuring a decorative brick string course. Square-headed openings have painted rendered sills and two over two timber sliding sash windows.

The east elevation contains the central gabled rear return, a two-storey flat-roof extension, and a single-storey smooth rendered extension with mono-pitch slate roof to the north bay. A square-headed opening to the first floor of the rear extension contains a margin paned timber sliding sash window with coloured glazing. The north elevation is attached to the adjacent property, No. 6 Shandon Park.

The house is set within its own grounds with a tarmac driveway and parking to the south and west. A single-storey outbuilding is located to the south-east, enclosed by a timber sheeted fence with gateway leading to the rear garden. Gardens to the rear are enclosed by a mature hedge boundary, with paving to the west, mature planting, hedge boundary to the west, and trees to the south.

The pair of houses at Nos 6 and 8 Shandon Park were built on land owned by William Kerr, a local builder and contractor. The Annual Revisions record that the semi-detached houses had been completed and occupied by 1906. No. 8 Shandon Park was initially valued at £33 and was first occupied by Henry A. Cutler, a civil engineer who served as City Surveyor to Belfast Corporation. The 1911 census building return described Cutler's house as a first-class dwelling comprising nine rooms. The fourth edition Ordnance Survey map of 1920–21 depicted the pair along their current layouts with two-storey rear returns, suggesting that no major structural changes have been made to the buildings since the early twentieth century. Cutler had vacated No. 8 by the 1930s when William McIlhagga, a local flax merchant, took possession of the dwelling, which was increased in value to £51. Ownership had subsequently passed to W. J. McAlister by the Second Revaluation of 1956–72, when the value was further raised to £60 and W. H. Mulholland was recorded as occupant. The building continues to be used as a private dwelling. Although the house is well-proportioned and retains some of its Edwardian character, there are considered to be better examples of this style elsewhere in the heritage record, and it is not considered to be of special historic or architectural interest.