57 University Road, Belfast, Co Antrim, BT7

No. 57 University Road is a substantial three-storey late Georgian style terraced house built between 1840 and 1843, forming one of a matching group of four such properties. It sits in the middle of a terrace originally known as 'Botanic View', which occupies the west side of University Road between Camden Street to the north and Fitzwilliam Street to the south. The wider terrace includes three similar but slightly lower three-storey houses of around 1840–41 and a short two-storey brick group of 1852 at the southern end, all now converted to flats or offices. The whole group was extensively renovated around 1984–85, when the properties were divided into flats and new stairwell returns were added to the rear.

The east-facing front façade is asymmetrical. On the ground floor to the left is the original entrance doorway, which is no longer used as an entrance — the flats are now accessed from the rear stairwell return. The doorway has been retained as a decorative feature, with a traditional-style panelled and glazed surround that now functions as a window. It has panelled pilaster jambs, a plain rectangular fanlight above, and the whole assembly is framed by plain pilasters with decorative console brackets supporting a cornice hood with a tympanum-like blocking course over. Steps and a short path remain in front. To the right of the doorway on the ground floor are two flat-arched windows with Georgian-paned sash frames (six panes over six). At first-floor level, directly above, are two further windows with matching frames, and at second-floor level are two similar but shorter windows, again in line with those below.

The ground floor is finished in square channelled rusticated render, painted in a darker shade than the upper floors. The first and second floors are in plain render with simple moulded surrounds to the window openings; it is probable that these upper levels were originally in brick. The main roof is slated and gabled, with a mono-pitched slated roof over the rear return. There is a tall rendered chimneystack to the north with a string course and decorative matching chimney pots. A bracketed verge course runs along the front, with a plainer version to the rear; both have what appears to be recently fitted moulded guttering. The downspouts are modern and square in section. A small front garden is enclosed by low rendered walls and planted with shrubbery.

To the rear, on the right-hand side of the west elevation, there is a large full-height stairwell return shared with No. 59 next door, erected around 1984 and spanning part of both properties' elevations. The original individual rear returns of each house were demolished to make way for this shared structure. On the west face of the return there is a sash window at first half-landing level and a slightly shorter sash window at second half-landing level, both with Georgian-style panes. On the north face of the return, to the left at ground-floor level, is a doorway with a modern security door giving access to the stairwell and to the ground-floor flat of No. 57 (and that of No. 59). Immediately to the right of this doorway is a single-storey flat-roofed brick projection housing the dustbins for the three flats. The south face of the return mirrors the arrangement of the north face, but with a small sash window to the right at both first and second-floor levels, each with Georgian-paned frames (four panes over two). On the rear façade of the main body of the building, to the left of the return, there are two windows per floor; the left-hand window on each floor is larger, and those at second-floor level are shorter than those below. The ground-floor windows are covered with security grilles. The upper-floor windows have Georgian-paned sash frames (first floor: six over six and four over two; second floor: six over three and four over two). The entire rear elevation is rendered and painted as the upper floors of the front, with quoin details picked out in a darker shade.

The history of the building is well documented. Prior to the early 19th century, the present University Road was the main route south from Belfast towards Dublin. The land on either side consisted of long, narrow strip farms stretching westward from the road, many leased by the Donegall estate to Belfast merchants from the mid-18th century onwards. In 1819 the present Lisburn Road was laid out through these farms, and by 1839 the Ulster Railway had cut through their lower fields. From 1823 the Donegall estate began granting perpetual leases on land to the south of Belfast, opening the area to development. John Alexander, whose family had held a lease on 31 acres in the townland of Lower Malone since the early 18th century, had acquired the land outright from Lord Donegall in 1823 for £480. It was on this land that Alexander built the three-storey portion of 'Botanic View' terrace — the present Nos. 53–65 University Road — between 1840 and 1843. He also parcelled out adjacent portions to other developers, leading to the construction of Fitzwilliam Place (Nos. 71–75) in 1846–48, dwellings along the newly laid out Fitzwilliam Street (Nos. 2–8) in around 1849–50, and Camden Terrace along Camden Street in 1849–52, with the two-storey southern portion of Botanic View in place by 1852.

These new dwellings, alongside contemporaneous development at Fountainville Terrace, Upper and Lower Crescent, Prospect and Claremont Terraces, and University Square to the east, marked the beginning of the suburbanisation of South Belfast and the movement of the town's professional and commercial classes away from the centre. The earliest inhabitants of Botanic View reflected this character, with a surgeon, an engineer, a drawing master and various businessmen recorded in directories of the late 1840s and early 1850s. The whole of 'Botanic View' remained in Alexander family ownership until 1881, when Nos. 53–65 were sold to Robert Kelso Mathewson. In 1950 the properties came into the possession of Queen's University, with No. 67 acquired separately by Queen's in 1963. In 1982 the University sold the entire group to the Malone Housing Association. Until that point the houses had largely remained in use as private dwellings, though Nos. 57–59 served as a branch of the Ulster Bank in 1971–72, and No. 55 served as a temporary post office during the same period. No. 59 was demolished in 1979 after sustaining damage in a bomb blast. In the mid-1980s the Malone Housing Association converted the whole group into flats: No. 59 was rebuilt, and it along with Nos. 53, 55 and 57 were each divided into three flats, with six flats shared between Nos. 61, 63, 65 and 67. All original rear returns were demolished and replaced with new shared stairwell projections. In March 2000 the entire group was reconveyed to Queen's University.