6 Cyprus Avenue, Belfast, Co. Antrim, BT5 5NT

6 Cyprus Avenue, Belfast

This is a two-storey semi-detached house built in approximately 1877, constructed from rock-faced, random-coursed Scrabo sandstone and attributed to the prominent Belfast architectural partnership Young & Mackenzie — described by the Dictionary of Irish Architects as the most successful architectural practice in Belfast, the leading architects for the Presbyterian Church in the North East, and recipients of some of the most important commercial commissions in the city. The house forms one of a pair of semi-detached houses with the adjoining No. 4 Cyprus Avenue, and together they sit within a wider group of two pairs of semi-detached villas that also includes Nos. 2 Cyprus Avenue and 99 Upper Newtownards Road. These four houses were originally known as Plevna Villas, built on a spacious site between Cyprus Avenue, Beersbridge Road and Upper Newtownards Road in the townland of Ballyhackamore, East Belfast.

Architectural Description

The house has an L-shaped plan form with a two-storey hipped-roof canted bay to the front. The roof is finished in natural slate with angled black clay ridge tiles and projecting eaves, drained by uPVC half-round guttering discharging to circular downpipes. Two rectangular-section rendered chimney stacks rise from the roof, each with a corbelled coping and red clay chimney pots. The walling throughout is laid to rock-faced random-coursed Scrabo sandstone with a chamfered plinth course. Window openings are square-headed with flat-arch lintels and painted cills, and are fitted with original two-over-one double-hung timber sash windows to the ground floor and four-over-one double-hung timber sashes with ogee horns to the first floor, except where otherwise noted.

The principal elevation faces south and is composed of three bays. The western bay contains two windows to the ground floor and one to the first floor. Immediately to its east projects a three-sided canted bay rising through both storeys. To the east end is a recessed bay containing the main entrance: a square-headed door opening with a chamfered stone surround, fitted with a panelled and glazed timber door with fanlight, and a cast metal lamp mounted to the wall to the right of the door.

The east elevation is made up of a bay to the south, two projecting gabled bays, and a lean-to bay to the north. The northern bay at ground floor level has a uPVC casement window, with a one-over-one double-hung timber sash window above.

The rear elevation faces north and contains a replacement uPVC casement window and two square-headed door openings with replacement glazed timber doors at ground floor level. A modern gabled projection at first floor level to the western end is supported on timber brackets, with plain barge boards, vertical hung slates to the elevation, and uPVC casement windows. At the centre of the first floor is a square-headed opening fitted with a two-over-two double-hung timber sash window. A two-storey modern extension is also present to the rear, together with a projecting three-sided modern cantilevered extension at first floor level to the rear. These rear extensions were added after 1987.

The west elevation is abutted by No. 4 Cyprus Avenue.

Setting and Grounds

The house sits to the north side of Cyprus Avenue. The grounds include a gravelled driveway and a large lawned garden to the east and north, with a more modest landscaped garden to the south. The site is enclosed by a hedge to the south, east and north, and a timber fence to the northwest. The southern boundary is marked by a painted cast iron gate supported on metal standards topped by fleur-de-lys finials. The house and its neighbours make a positive contribution to the character of the local area and the group sits within a conservation area.

Historical Background

In the mid-19th century the townland of Ballyhackamore remained predominantly rural, occupied by only a small number of gentlemen's manors including Bloomfield House and Greenville House, as recorded on the second edition Ordnance Survey map of 1858. By the 1870s the industrial expansion of Belfast and the development of the Belfast and County Down Railway had prompted the development of new streets and housing across the townland.

The four Plevna Villas — Nos. 2 and 6 Cyprus Avenue and Nos. 4 Cyprus Avenue and 99 Upper Newtownards Road — were constructed for the Bloomfield Land and Building Company Ltd., a company formed in 1874 by the landowning Boyd family to secure leases for building projects in the East Belfast townlands of Ballyhackamore and Ballycloughan. The Annual Revisions record that the villas had been erected by 1878. Young and Mackenzie's own papers confirm that the firm designed four villas in the Bloomfield area in 1877, and that the builder contracted to carry out the work was J. Smyth and Son. The following year the same firm designed a terrace of cottages on Beersbridge Road for the Bloomfield Land and Building Company (Nos. 364–374 Beersbridge Road). A plan of the buildings dating from approximately 1878, included in the Annual Revisions, depicts Plevna Villas in layouts consistent with their current form, suggesting that few significant alterations were made to the original design in the Victorian period.

In 1878 the valuer set the total rateable value of No. 6 Cyprus Avenue at £27 and recorded it as occupied by a Ms Jane Turner. By 1890 the villa was in the hands of Robert Fullerton, employed as a manager. From 1892 it was occupied by the Reverend Colin McKay, a retired Methodist Minister, and following his death in approximately 1897 the house passed to his widow Sarah McKay, who continued to reside there until approximately 1918, when a Mr James P. Gillespie took possession. The 1901 census described the house as a first-class dwelling containing eleven rooms, and the Belfast Revaluation of 1900 increased its rateable value to £30. The First General Revaluation of Property in Northern Ireland (1936–57) raised the rateable value further to £48, and the Second General Revaluation (1956–72) increased it again to £50. Between the 1930s and 1970s the house was occupied by S. L. Ross, a local coal importer.

Of particular historical note, the Annual Revisions record that ownership of Plevna Villas passed to the Irish mathematician William McFadden Orr in approximately 1900. The Oxford Dictionary of National Biography records that William McFadden Orr (1866–1934) was born in Comber, County Down, and held the post of Professor of Mathematics at the Royal College of Science Dublin between 1891 and 1933.

The house is listed together with its gates and piers. It has group value with its neighbouring houses, and is of architectural interest for its style, proportion, ornamentation, and plan form. It is of historical interest for its age, authenticity, historic associations, and for the authorship attributed to Young and Mackenzie.