14 College Green, Belfast

14 College Green, Belfast

Two-storey terraced house with attic, built in 1876, facing south onto College Green to the northeast of the main quad at Queens University, Belfast. The building has group value with its adjoining neighbours at No. 10 and No. 12 College Green, forming part of a longer Victorian terrace (No. 2–26 inclusive) that overlooks the Theological College of the Presbyterian Church. The house now serves as part of Queens University's School of Social Science, Education and Social Work, internally connected to No. 12–24 (with No. 16 missing).

The roof is natural slate with a duo-pitched profile and black clay ridge tiles. Two red brick chimneys, rectangular in plan with corbelled brick copings and several octagonal yellow clay pots, are centred on the ridge; one is shared with No. 12 and the other with No. 18 College Green. A wall-head dormer with hipped roof sits on the front south-facing pitch, with a smaller duo-pitched dormer to the rear. The leaded roof to the single-storey canted bay and cast metal rainwater goods complete the roofline details.

The south elevation is the principal façade and is asymmetrical in composition. The entrance, positioned to the left, and a single-storey canted bay to the right mark the ground floor. At first-floor level, two equal-sized square-headed windows sit beneath a moulded string course forming the cill. The attic storey contains a wall-head dormer that interrupts heavy eaves supported on scrolled brackets above a deep plain frieze and moulded string course, all painted. Red brick in Flemish bond with painted masonry dressings forms the south wall.

The ground floor canted bay and entrance door both have painted surrounds, likely comprising combined stucco and dressed stone beneath the paint. A deep continuous base plinth with sub-floor vents and moulded top runs along the ground floor. The bay windows feature stop-chamfered detail to the head and jambs, with jambs extending to the plinth and deep bull-nosed stone cills recessed between them. Decorative round and diamond-shaped incisions with abstract cross motifs and other decoration feature above the bay windows. The entrance door is a square-headed timber-framed four-panelled replacement with plain glass fanlight set within a round-arched opening with roll-edge detail. The surrounding frame has a moulded cornice hood and decorative recessed roundels matching those above the bay. First-floor windows have moulded surrounds with cornice hoods enriched with diamond-head moulding projecting over a row of dentils. The paired windows in the attic dormer have canted heads with stop-chamfered lintels, sharing a projecting cill and containing 2/2 panes.

The west and east elevations are abutted by No. 12 and No. 18 College Green respectively (with No. 16 missing). The original return wall has been removed.

The north elevation faces the rear and has been almost entirely rebuilt following the removal of the original return around 2004, when a two-storey gabled extension shared with No. 12 was added in place of the original returns. The walling is red brick in English Garden Wall bond with soldier-coursed headers to openings and single-course corbelled brick eaves in header bond. To the right side at ground floor, a PPC aluminium-framed glass door leads from a modern stairwell to the rear yard, with blank walling above. To the left side, at first-floor half-landing level, a replacement 1/1 sliding sash window with margin panes and concrete cill sits beneath a modern steel lintel. An opening immediately above is bricked up, and in the wall-head dormer sits a modern timber-framed casement window. A projecting brick nib corbelled out from first-floor level and slated over at eaves level possibly represents a remnant from the original return or a former chimney location.

The building sits midway along College Green, which runs between Botanic Avenue to the west and Rugby Road to the east. A concrete dwarf wall and modern metal railings line the southern boundary, matching adjacent properties. The small front garden is paved with precast concrete slabs, as is the entrance step. The rear yard is bounded by a replacement red brick wall with brick-on-edge coping matching the gable extensions at adjoining properties. The yard provides shared amenity space for No. 12, 14, and 18 and comprises ramped paths to a ground-floor terrace, planted beds with red brick retaining walls topped by modern metal handrails and uprights, painted.

Windows throughout are single-glazed timber-framed sliding sashes with 1/1 panes unless otherwise described.