585 Antrim Road, Belfast, Co. Antrim, BT15 4DX

585 Antrim Road, Belfast — Semi-Detached Victorian Villa, c.1865

This is a semi-detached, asymmetrical, gabled, red brick house of three bays and two storeys with an attic, built around 1865 to the designs of Robert Young. It forms one half of a pair known as Fortwilliam Villas, the other being No. 587 next door. The house is an impressive and well-proportioned example of the High Victorian eclectic style, making confident use of polychromatic brickwork, elaborate pierced timber bargeboards, and foliate carvings. Despite the replacement of its original windows, it retains its external character and most of its original interior.

SITUATION AND SETTING

The house sits in its original mature landscaped setting on the east side of Antrim Road, facing west and set well back from the road. It is accessed via a shared tarmac driveway shared with the adjoining house (No. 587) and a further late 20th-century dwelling. The front lawn is elevated and enclosed by tall brown brick walls with timber gates.

EXTERIOR

The roof is pitched and hipped, covered in artificial slate with roll-moulded black clay ridge tiles, lead valleys, and triangular dormer windows. Three tall chimneystacks of profiled polychromatic brick rise above the roofline, each topped with tall octagonal clay pots. Rainwater goods are cast iron throughout, with moulded cast-iron guttering carried on painted angled brick eaves course to the north section, and on overhanging sheeted eaves with exposed rafter feet and purlins to the south section, with cast-iron downpipes.

The walls are red brick laid in Flemish bond with original pointing, painted stone quoins, and a chamfered stone trim to the projecting brick plinth course. Window openings are square-headed with stop-chamfered reveals and lintels, painted stone sills, and replacement uPVC windows throughout.

The three-bay front elevation is organised around a central entrance bay. To the right is a three-sided canted bay window surmounted by a gabled attic-storey oriel with polychromatic brick panels and a replacement window at attic level. The left-hand bay has paired windows at both ground and first floor. The entrance is a basket-handle-headed doorway with a stop-chamfered painted stone surround enriched with foliate carvings and surmounted by a hood moulding with bird label stops. The door itself has been replaced with double-leaf hardwood panelled doors and a plain glazed overlight. The doorway opens onto a tiled platform enclosed by a low plinth wall, fronting a tarmac parking area.

The north elevation has randomly placed window openings and is abutted to the right by a tall chimneystack with polychromatic brick detailing. A flat-roofed extension abuts the left-hand side, with a rear entrance opening onto a paved area. The east elevation is joined to the adjoining No. 587.

The two-bay south elevation features a slightly advanced three-storey gable to the right, with deep overhanging eaves carried on decorative brackets and an elaborate pierced timber bargeboard. This gable has triple pointed-arched windows at first floor level and a diminutive window opening to the attic. The remainder of this elevation includes a later bay window with French doors added around 1990, a slender window opening, and a first-floor door opening onto a steel balcony.

HISTORICAL CONTEXT

Fortwilliam Villas were built on land formerly belonging to the Fortwilliam House estate, which was broken up in the mid-19th century. According to architectural historian Paul Larmour, a large number of mansions and villas were erected on the former estate during the 1860s and 1870s, though only a few now survive.

The architect, Robert Young (1822–1917), had established his independent practice in Belfast in 1852. Around 1867, shortly after designing Fortwilliam Villas, he entered into partnership with his former pupil John Mackenzie to form Young and Mackenzie, which became the most successful architectural practice in Belfast by the end of the 19th century. The buildings were first recorded in the Annual Revisions book of 1862–66 and appear in the Belfast Street Directories of 1865, confirming a construction date of around that year.

Both houses were initially valued at £66 each and leased to tenants by Young. The first occupant of No. 587 was Robert Young himself, who had previously lived at No. 268 Antrim Road. He remained at Fortwilliam Villas until the 1870s, when he moved to Rathvarna House in Chichester Park, a house he had built for himself. The next recorded occupant of No. 587 was a Ms. Mary Grimshaw, followed from 1880 by the Reverend John Henry Smythe. After Smythe's death in 1887 the property passed to John Gregg, a local iron merchant.

The 1901 census of Ireland described Nos. 585 and 587 Antrim Road as a pair of first-class dwellings, each comprising thirteen rooms. By 1911, No. 587 was occupied by William Hunter, a local magistrate and merchant and partner in Wright and Hunter, cabinet makers and upholsterers with premises on Arthur Street. Hunter lived at Fortwilliam Villas until his death in 1927, after which his widow Mary Hunter took possession. Robert Young continued to be recorded as owner of both properties until the First General Revaluation of Property in Northern Ireland, conducted between 1936 and 1957. Mary Hunter remained at No. 587 until 1946, when she purchased both buildings outright. The house was subsequently occupied by a Mr. Hooton Mitchell from the 1950s through to the 1970s.

Nos. 585–587 Antrim Road were included within the Somerton Road Conservation Area, designated in 2000, which was recognised as exhibiting a very high standard of townscape character, with many period Victorian and Edwardian properties contributing to the special quality of the suburban setting.

Note: Although the listing description refers to No. 585 throughout, certain historical details in the associated record appear to relate to No. 587, the specific property occupied by Robert Young. Both houses are described together as Fortwilliam Villas and share the same architectural and historical significance as a pair.