121 University Street Belfast, Bt7 1Hp

121 University Street is one of a pair of substantial late Victorian terraced houses, built between 1890 and 1893 to designs by the noted Belfast architect William J Fennell. It stands on the south side of University Street at its junction with Sandhurst Road, in South Belfast, close to Queen's University. The street is characterised by red brick terraces and forms one of the main routes linking the Ormeau Road to the east with the University area to the west. A 20th-century hotel building stands opposite, and All Saints Church (1897–8), also designed by Fennell, lies immediately to the north-west.

The building is a two-bay, three-storey house with attic, constructed in red brick laid in Flemish bond, with dressings throughout in Dumfries red sandstone. The pitched roof is covered in natural slate with terracotta ridge tiles. A full-height projecting canted bay rises on the right-hand side of the north elevation, topped with a natural slate hipped polygonal roof, also with terracotta ridge tiles and a finial. A tall red brick chimney with cornices and clay pots sits on the west boundary shared with number 119. The original windows have been replaced with timber sliding sash double-glazed units throughout, and 20th-century rooflights have been inserted at attic level. Rainwater goods are painted metal; PVC soil stacks have been added to the rear.

The front elevation faces north and is set back slightly from the pavement behind brick dwarf walling with painted and rendered sandstone coping and piers, with replacement railings. The entrance is on the left side of the façade. The front doorway has a moulded sandstone architrave and above it a decoratively carved sandstone pediment bearing a crest depicting a pelican standing on a rose branch, with the motto 'PROBITAS FONS HONORIS' (Integrity is the fountain of honour) carved on a scroll below. A smaller carved pediment appears above the first-floor window over the doorway, and another to the centre bay of the first-floor canted bay, carrying the carved initials 'WG'. The original six-panel bolection-moulded timber front door survives, with a segmental overlight above it. The base of the steps retains its original Victorian tiles; the steps themselves have been modernly tiled and are fitted with modern handrails on each side, and a stairlift has been installed to the left. Windows on the two lower floors have segmental heads; those at second-floor level have straight heads. Chunky sandstone brackets support a projecting sandstone eaves cornice.

The east gable is fully abutted by number 123 University Street. The west gable is fully abutted by number 119. The rear elevation faces south and has a return to the right side with a single-storey infill at ground-floor level. The main rear block has painted brickwork at ground-floor level with brick above, splayed brick voussoir heads to the first-floor windows, and arched voussoirs to a large half-landing window opening above. There is a single window opening at high level on the east wall of the return.

The architect William John Fennell (died 1923) was a distinguished designer of churches, domestic dwellings and schools. His most notable works in Belfast include the Water Commissioner's Office (1883), 68–70 Royal Avenue (1885), Cooke Centenary Church (1890–92), the Mater Infirmorum Hospital (1894–1900), Cushendall Presbyterian Church (1899–1900), the Whitla Medical Institute (1902) and Harding Memorial School (1911–13). His domestic work includes a number of suburban villas, largely in the Malone area of Belfast, several of which are substantial semi-detached pairs. Fennell was a member of the Royal Irish Academy, a Fellow of the Royal Institute of the Architects of Ireland, and a founder member of the Royal Society of Ulster Architects. Original plans held by Belfast City Council are signed by Fennell and dated 1890, and the Northern Whig of 2nd September 1890 confirms that plans had been approved for two houses in University Street and Sandhurst Road for William Gabbey. The pair first appear in valuation records in 1893, at £45 each, suggesting a short delay between design approval and completion of construction.

The houses were built by William Gabbey, a well-known Belfast building contractor who had also operated a timber mill in Hope Street from at least the late 1870s, where he produced mouldings wrought to any design and joinery using the most improved machinery. By the time the present house was constructed, Gabbey had established a considerable reputation as one of the most eminent building contractors in Belfast. His obituary recorded that his houses were noted for the excellence of their finish and their workmanship, and when number 119 was advertised for sale in 1921 — almost thirty years after construction and long after Gabbey's death — his name was still being used as a selling point. He also collaborated with Fennell on at least one other occasion, constructing the two-acre Cullingtree factory for W W Cleland, packaging manufacturers, completed in 1904. Gabbey lived at Sandhurst Street and later at 'Princess Gardens' in University Street, and built numerous houses — and occasionally shops and commercial premises — across the area known as 'The Plains' of Belfast between approximately 1870 and 1906, as well as in Dungannon and elsewhere. He is known to have constructed houses in University Street, Magdala Street, Fitzroy Avenue and Agincourt Street, and most notably a terrace of four houses in Botanic Avenue to designs by architect Vincent Craig (one of which is now listed), as well as the terrace of Princess Gardens in which he himself lived (his former home there, built around 1880, is also now listed). He also built the adjacent terraces to the current dwellings in Sandhurst Road and at 109–117 University Street; his son and heir to the business, William C Gabbey, lived at number 117. By the summer of 1879 Gabbey's workforce, along with wives and sweethearts, amounted to around 300 people who were treated to a day trip to Newcastle. He was noted as one of the seven main importers of roofing slates in Belfast in 1896, and was selected as a government expert in building matters following an accident at Falls Foundry in 1903, retaining that position until his death in 1906. It was said at the time of his appointment that no gentleman was more frequently selected as arbitrator and expert in building matters. Gabbey was tragically killed in a railway accident at Carnalea Station in 1906.

The carved stonework on both houses bears the initials 'WG' above the first-floor windows and a crest and motto associated with William Gabbey above the doorways. The crest depicts a pelican standing on a rose branch with the motto 'Probitas Fons Honoris' — Integrity is the fountain of honour. Fairbairn's Book of Crests identifies this pelican, rose branch and motto as belonging to 'Moses Gubbay Esq of Poona, East India'; it is unclear whether William Gabbey was genuinely descended from the Gubbay family or had simply adopted part of a coat of arms belonging to a man with a similar name. Despite stamping both buildings so clearly with his identity, Gabbey does not appear to have lived in either of them.

Both houses remained vacant in street directories and valuation records until 1896, when they were let to tenants. Number 121 was given the name 'Ravensdale'. Its first recorded tenant was Thomas H McComb, a grain merchant and flour importer, whose family remained at the house until the 1930s. The valuation officer's notebook of 1907 records that McComb was the brother-in-law of William Gabbey, having married Gabbey's sister Victoria; street directories show that McComb's business premises occupied the upper floor of the same Hope Street address as Gabbey's saw mill. The Belfast Revaluation of 1900 described the three-storey dwelling as having six sitting rooms and bedrooms and one attic room — slightly smaller than its neighbour at number 119 — fitted with gas and a bathroom, with the valuer estimating the cost of construction at £732. The 1901 census records Thomas McComb, corn and flour merchant, born in County Louth, resident in the house with his wife, a one-year-old daughter and a domestic servant. Following Gabbey's death in 1906, his Scottish-born widow Jessie moved in with the McCombs, and is recorded in the 1911 census along with her daughter, granddaughter and a general domestic servant from County Cavan; Thomas McComb himself was absent at the time of the census. Gabbey's widow continued to live at the house until her death in 1916. From 1912 the McComb family let out furnished rooms, initially advertising them as suitable for two or three gentlemen dining out; by 1913 access to a piano was also offered, and by 1914 full board at moderate terms. These advertisements continued intermittently until at least 1922.

After the McComb family left in the early 1930s, the house stood vacant for a period. The valuer's binder of 1935 noted that it had been empty for three and a half years, partly owing to a dispute as to ownership, but judged the house to be well built and in good condition. The accommodation at that time comprised two reception rooms, six bedrooms, an attic room, kitchen, scullery, two pantries, a lavatory and a bathroom with hot and cold water. The current plan form differs slightly from the valuer's plan of 1933, as an extension has been added to the rear since that time. In 1937 the house was sold pursuant to a court order as a result of a legal case, and by 1939 valuation records give Edward Collins as the owner.

From around 1941 the house was briefly occupied by the government during the war, in a similar way to its neighbour at number 119, though the specific use is not recorded. By June 1943 it had become an employment agency for domestic staff, run by Mrs Dempsey, who remained in occupation until the early 1950s. The next occupant was Miss Eileen McManus, who was resident until the mid-1960s, when the house was advertised to let with planning permission for office use. Subsequent occupants in the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s included Grolier Publishing Company, a US-based publisher of general encyclopedias; Monson, Robinson & Co Ltd, producers of self-adhesive labels; and Sunshield Ltd, producers of Scotchtint window film. However, the majority of occupants during this period were connected with construction as architects or engineers. These included Dr I G Doran, a consulting engineer who worked with architect John McGeagh on the new library building at Queen's University and appears to have been at the house temporarily, perhaps while working on that project; Bunyan, Meyer & Partners, a Surrey-based firm of consulting engineers who opened a Belfast office in the late 1970s and carried out minor construction projects in the area; Cooke and Kettyle, quantity surveyors known for projects including the Rail Transport gallery at the Ulster Folk and Transport Museum; Delany, McVeigh and Pike (now O'Mahony Pike), a Dublin-based firm of architects, engineers and planning consultants responsible for numerous buildings — particularly schools, housing and business premises — in the Republic of Ireland during the 1970s and 1980s, whose partner James Pike was awarded the Royal Institute of the Architects of Ireland Gandon medal for lifetime achievement in architecture in 2017 and was known as a pioneer in Irish housing, being among the first to introduce system-building in the 1960s, with the northern office appearing to have been involved in a small number of projects including a factory in Newry; and J Wilson Robinson, architect and former rugby player, who had previously worked as an architect for the Housing Executive in the 1970s before moving into consultancy. In the late 1980s and 1990s the offices were occupied by Belfast Microfilm Bureau and then by K R Graphics. A series of planning applications made between 2008 and 2015 resulted in the conversion of the premises from offices into visitor accommodation, which remains its use as of 2025.

The authenticity of the building is conveyed most powerfully through its interior, where the original ornate, high-quality, decorative plasterwork cornicing has survived to an exceptional and exuberant standard, representing arguably some of the finest such work in Belfast. Original joinery has also survived. The sandstone crest and monogram carved above the doorways and first-floor windows link the building directly to its builder, William Gabbey, who lived nearby and was responsible for some of the area's most prominent dwellings. These physical and historical connections add considerably to the building's local interest and raise its special interest well beyond what is apparent from the exterior alone.