64 Donegall Pass, Belfast, BT7 1BU

64 Donegall Pass is a three-storey, two-bay mid-terrace early Victorian townhouse built around 1845–1846, situated on Donegall Pass close to St Mary Magdalene Church, south of Belfast city centre and east of Shaftesbury Square. It forms part of a listed terrace group and has been converted for use as offices, with alterations that have been largely sympathetic to its historic character.

EXTERIOR

The building has a square plan with a two-storey rear return. The principal elevation faces south and is asymmetrically arranged, with the front entrance positioned to the left and accessed by four steps shared with the adjoining property. Two windows appear at each of the ground, first and second floor levels.

The roof is pitched and covered in natural slate with clay ridge tiles, overhanging eaves with timber soffits and paired eaves brackets, and cast-iron rainwater goods consisting of semi-circular gutters and circular downpipes. The chimney and clay pots are replacements. The main walling is red brick laid to Flemish bond, with ruled-and-lined render to the ground floor. The rear elevation is finished in painted roughcast render.

Windows throughout are timber sliding sash with horns, in 6/6 and 6/3 configurations, set under flat arches with painted masonry cills. The first floor has continuous cills. The front door is a four-panelled raised-and-fielded bolection-moulded door with a margin-paned overlight, flanked by panelled pilasters rising to foliated console brackets that support a moulded canopy surmounted by stuccowork.

The rear elevation is asymmetrically arranged, with a margin-paned sash window to the left at ground floor level and windows at first and second floor matching those of the principal elevation. Two rooflights are set into the rear pitch. The right side of the rear elevation is abutted by the two-storey return, which has some replacement uPVC windows to the east cheek and a landing window over the return. The north face is blank. The left gable abuts number 62 Donegall Pass and the right gable abuts number 66.

INTERIOR

Although the interior has been modified to accommodate its use as offices, the layout and features of interest have largely remained unaltered.

SETTING

The building is flanked on both sides by the adjoining terrace. To the front is a paved area used as a private car park; to the rear is a tarmac yard enclosed by a palisade gate. The surrounding area consists principally of two- and three-storey residential buildings from various periods. The former School of Music sits opposite on the south side of the street, and St Mary Magdalene Church lies to the west.

HISTORY

The terrace, formerly known as Apsley Place, was built in 1846 in what was then a sparsely developed part of the growing town of Belfast. Donegall Pass had been laid out by the late 18th century across a heavily wooded area that served as a deer park belonging to the Donegall family, Belfast's principal landowners at the time. According to Brett, Donegall Pass and the Ormeau Road were originally laid out as carriage drives through these woodland estates, and it was not until the Donegalls' grip on their pleasure grounds began to loosen in the 1820s that building in the area was permitted. By 1823, the land on the north side of Donegall Pass had passed to Henry Joy, proprietor of the Belfast Newsletter and an active figure in the political life of the town. The construction of the gasworks to the east in 1823 probably contributed to the area's subsequent development. At the time Apsley Place was built in the mid-19th century, it was one of a handful of terrace developments along the northern side of the Pass, while the land to the south was largely divided among substantial villas set in spacious grounds.

The developer of the terrace was Thomas Gaffikin (1809–1893), a farmer's son and butcher who built several other terraces in south Belfast. Gaffikin himself lived at number 70, and later number 56 Apsley Place, from the time of construction until he moved into a new terrace he had built at Queen's Elms, where he remained for the rest of his life. He subsequently became the proprietor of a linen and linen-yarn business and served as a town councillor for Cromac and then St George's Ward. He left an important historical record in the form of his 1875 lecture entitled Belfast Fifty Years Ago, which provides a vivid account of social life in early 19th-century Belfast.

The houses were occupied by a succession of tenants whose changing occupations reflect the social shifts of Belfast's period of most rapid expansion. Early residents were often wealthy business proprietors or gentlemen, but as the merchant class gradually moved to the more fashionable surroundings of North Down and elsewhere, the tenantry shifted perceptibly towards the well-to-do petty bourgeoisie. By the time of the censuses of 1901 and 1911, some tenants were sufficiently prosperous to employ a domestic servant, while others supplemented their income by taking in boarders. Commercial use of the houses appears to be a modern development.

The recorded tenants of number 64 are as follows: Mr Howden (1846–7); Captain Robert Larmour (1852); William Tait/Tidd, Master of the Union Workhouse (1858); John Boyle of Morton Weir and Co., flax spinners of Dunmurry (1859). Griffith's Valuation of 1859 lists the occupier as John Cubbage, with the house valued at £27 and noted as having an extra third of a storey, possibly referring to the attic. Later tenants include Alexander McDonald, timber merchant of Corporation Street (1863–4); James McGouran, described as a counsellor (1865); John Rogers of H. Matier and Co., linen merchants (1870); and William Wylie, bank clerk (1877). A long period of residence followed by Harriet Gamble, who at the time of the 1901 census was a widow of 88 living with her companion and a domestic servant from County Tyrone. By 1911 the house had been taken over by Robert George Anderson, a provision merchant, who lived there with his three sisters and a brother, also a provision merchant. Two of the sisters worked as dressmakers, the third kept house assisted by a cook from Lancashire, and a boarder who was likewise a provision merchant also resided with the family. Robert G. Anderson is recorded in 1930, followed by William Hagley in 1935. By 1935 the building had become a laundry — possibly connected to the closure of the nearby Magdalene laundry in 1916 — and its rateable value was increased by £3 that same year. The building is now in use as offices.

Number 64 contributes significantly to the listed terrace group, retaining the style, proportions and detailing of the terrace as a whole and adding positively to its historic character.