100 Malone Road ('Montpellier'), Belfast, Co Antrim, BT9 5HP

Montpellier, 100 Malone Road, is a large, relatively plain late Georgian style detached residence of around 1840, finished in painted lined render with in-out quoins — originally built in brick, with the stucco likely applied in the 1870s. It is believed to be the earliest of the suburban villas erected along what is now Malone Road, following the opening up of the Malone ridge to development in the mid-19th century. The house stands on the east side of Malone Road, approached by a driveway to the north-west which also serves neighbouring numbers 96 and 98, with its back to the road itself and a large garden to the east and south-east.

The front, east-facing elevation is symmetrical. At its centre is the main entrance: a timber panelled door reached via three stone steps, with a large elliptical arched fanlight featuring spider-web tracery and curving interlaced tracery to the sidelights, together with panelled aprons and panelled pilaster jambs. Surrounding the entrance is a portico added around 1875 — sharing similarities with the porticoes of the neighbouring properties of that date — consisting of Corinthian columns with respondent pilasters set on a conjoined base, supporting an entablature with cornice and a flat roof with glazing. To the left of the entrance are two Georgian-paned sash windows (six over six) with simple moulded surrounds and linking cills; to the right of the entrance is an identical arrangement. There are five further similar windows to the first floor. The other elevations are similarly rendered. The south gable has a window to the centre of the ground floor, as on the front but without a surround, and a similar window to the centre of the first floor, with a small plain sash window to the right at attic level. The north gable has two windows to the left at ground floor level, as on the south gable, though the right-hand one is slightly shorter, and a small window to the left at attic level.

The rear elevation is largely obscured by a large one-and-a-half storey rear return, which appears to have been extended in the early 1900s. To the west it directly abuts the neighbouring property of number 98, and to the south it spans over what appears to have been a formerly open yard, abutting a summerhouse further to the south. The only clearly exposed face of the return is the north, single-storey face, which has a timber sheeted door, a large multi-leaded-light window to the left, and a very narrow leaded-light window to the right. The north side of the return roof features a curved eyebrow dormer characteristic of the Edwardian period, with Velux windows close to the ridge. The lower portion of the south side of the roof, which spans over the former yard, is largely glazed. On the rear façade of the main house there is a sash window to the left on the first floor, as on the ground floor south gable, but with decorative railings over. Internal evidence suggests there is a similar window to the right, though this could not be seen from the outside. To the centre of the rear façade is a small three-over-three sash window set at upper half-landing level.

The main gabled roof is slated with stone parapets and three Velux windows to the front, which replaced some Edwardian dormers. There are two tall rendered chimneystacks, one to each gable, with cornice courses and plain pots of recent appearance. A smaller rendered stack sits to the rear.

To the south of the rear return is a single-storey summerhouse of apparently recent addition, rendered with a slated hipped roof topped with a small glazed cone-shaped dome. Its east-facing front has a central glazed double door with a glazed fanlight gable above and large flanking multi-paned windows. To the south-east of the summerhouse there was once a glasshouse, demolished around the 1980s. Abutting the right-hand side of the north gable is a recently added gate screen with sympathetic square gate piers featuring cornice caps and ball finials, and simple wrought iron gates.

The interior retains features of interest, including slightly Tudoresque fireplaces in some of the bedrooms which closely match those found in Wilmont Terrace, built near the north end of the Lisburn Road in 1840 — a detail supporting an earlier construction date than some sources have proposed.

The house has a well-documented history. After 1823, leases in perpetuity began to be granted by the Donegall estate in relation to land to the south of Belfast, eventually leading to the development of what are now the University, Lisburn Road and Malone areas. In the decades immediately following 1823, parcels of land were acquired by Belfast's professional and mercantile classes for the erection of country residences and villas along the Malone ridge, where previously only a few humble farmhouses had stood. Montpellier was one such residence, erected by Thomas Gilmore — a tea, wine and spirit merchant with premises in High Street — on fourteen acres of land he acquired in 1836. The exact date of construction is uncertain: the house is shown on the Ordnance Survey map of 1858, and Paul Larmour's secondary account suggests 1852–54, but the current resident knows of no evidence to support this, and none was uncovered during the compilation of the listing record. Given the house's late Georgian appearance, Gilmore's acquisition of the land in 1836, the similarity of its bedroom fireplaces to those of the 1840 Wilmont Terrace, and the 1860 valuation grading of A+/B+ — suggesting a building closer to twenty years old than eight at that date — construction at least a decade before 1852 seems more probable. The 1860 valuation also confirms the building was in brick at that stage. As well as the main house, Gilmore built a small single-storey gate lodge known as Montpellier Cottage to front the drive, which originally curved in an east-south-easterly direction from what is now Malone Road, and laid out a garden to the south.

Thomas Gilmore died in 1870, and the house and its land were acquired by Samuel Gibson, a Belfast druggist and grocer. By this stage the suburbanisation of the Lisburn Road and University area was well advanced as the town's business classes pushed further south into the Malone, making it profitable to subdivide plots such as Montpellier's. In 1875–76 Gibson erected two new large houses — Carlton House — just to the north of the original building, another to the west, and in 1877–78 a large villa to the south, where he himself was to reside. The small gate lodge, the original drive and the garden were all cleared away in the process. Changes were made to the original house at the same time: a portico was added — described in the listing text as Ionic, though the present portico has Corinthian columns — outbuildings were built between the house and the new property to the west, and the building was likely rendered at this point to match the new portico. After 1878, when Gibson had moved into his newly built villa to the south, Montpellier passed through a number of tenants, including a stockbroker named John McKee, followed by a John Glover, and then in the late 1890s and early 1900s by Samuel Dill MD, Professor of Greek at Queen's University. In 1912 a storey was added to the outbuildings to the rear, creating a new separate property known as The Nook. Montpellier remained in Gibson family ownership until 1951, when it and The Nook were sold to the present owner's father. Since that time there have been some changes to the rear return, and The Nook was divided internally into two properties around 1968. The large villa to the south was demolished in the mid-1990s; only a former outbuilding, now converted to a flat, survives immediately to the south of number 98.

The neighbouring properties to the north — the present numbers 92 and 94 — were built in the mid-1870s, and number 96 is another large house of the 1870s sited just to the west. Number 98, sandwiched between Montpellier and number 96, dates mainly from 1912 when a storey was added to those original outbuildings.

The name Montpellier may relate to the French connections — possibly trading links — of the Reverend George Macartney-Black, from whom Thomas Gilmore purchased the land in 1836.