20 College Gardens, Belfast

20 College Gardens is a mid-terraced, three-storey with attic (and semi-basement) red brick late Victorian townhouse, built in 1881. The architect is not known. It forms part of a block of four houses together with nos. 19, 21 and 22 College Gardens, which are largely symmetrical to the front: no. 19 mirrors no. 22 at the gable ends, with nos. 20 and 21 between them. The building sits midway along College Gardens, a tree-lined street of similarly scaled late Victorian townhouses running from Malone Road to Lisburn Road, within the Queens Conservation Area. The houses face south and overlook the grounds of Methodist College.

EXTERIOR

The roof is natural slate with red clay crested ridge tiles. To the front pitch there is a flat-roofed dormer clad in sheet metal, and to the rear pitch a smaller flat-roofed dormer and three modern rooflights. The chimney, shared with no. 19 and centred on the ridge, has been rebuilt in salvaged red brick and is topped with several circular clay pots.

The projecting moulded eaves to the front are carried on scrolled modillions. Below them runs a deep decorative frieze comprising fluted pilasters between alternating panels — each panel containing a central roundel within a moulded rectangular frame — and paired raised and fielded panels, with a bestial head moulding at the base of each pilaster. The rear eaves are simpler, with alternating angular bricks; this same detail is carried over the return.

Rainwater goods to the front (south) are ogee-profile cast iron gutters with circular-section cast iron rainwater pipes. To the rear (north), cast metal ogee-profile gutters are paired with uPVC rainwater pipes.

The main walls are red brick laid in Flemish bond with stucco dressings to the south elevation, and English Garden Wall bond to the north and return. Windows throughout are timber-framed double-hung sliding sashes with 1/1 panes to the front, and a mix of window types to the rear; note that the first and second floor sashes to the front have been fitted with double-glazed units.

Front elevation (south): The composition is asymmetrical, with the entrance to the left (west) at ground floor and a projecting bowed bay of three windows to the right at ground floor. Above, the first floor has three windows — two paired over the bay and one aligned with the entrance — with the same arrangement repeated at second floor, and a flat-roofed attic dormer centred on the eaves containing two pairs of powder-coated aluminium-framed double-glazed casement windows. With the exception of the attic, all openings are segmental-headed and diminish in height from ground to second floor. The ground floor bay windows have curved glass, and the middle window of the three has its upper sash divided vertically into three lights.

At the base of the front elevation is a painted render plinth with a moulded top and sub-floor vents that appear to be original.

The entrance door is square-headed and timber-framed, comprising two panels with raised fields and bolection moulding, with a plain glass overlight on a simple transom. The surround is an elaborate stucco composition of concentric arches with egg-and-dart and chevron moulding, a pitched keystone and simple pilasters, all painted. The ground floor bay has a cornice and frieze similar in character to the main roof eaves, and a Renaissance-style balustrade. The frieze is continued across the main façade and repeated below the continuous projecting cill at second floor level.

Ground floor windows have deep moulded stucco surrounds with moulded brackets below the continuous projecting cill; the second floor windows repeat this arrangement but substitute a simple chevron stucco moulding for the brackets. The first floor windows have plainer surrounds between cill and impost level, where a continuous stucco band enriched with classical-style mouldings runs between the windows; above this band the surrounds become more ornate, with floral detail and exaggerated pitched keystones.

Rear elevation (north): Surveyed from Elmwood Mews, with no access to the rear yard. The detailing is considerably simpler than the front, with flat-arched openings and soldier-coursed brick headers. A full-height projection and double return were built at half-landing level to the right (west) side. To the left of this, there is one opening at each of first and second floor, plus a modern flat-roofed dormer to the attic, clad in vertical sheeting (probably uPVC) with matching casement windows.

The second floor window is a timber-framed multi-paned (9/9) top-hung double-glazed casement with a concrete cill and modern brick infill below, suggesting the opening has either been moved or replaced a former escape door. At first floor there is a uPVC-framed double-glazed tripartite window spanning the full width of the yard, with a painted steel lintel above. Below first floor level there is a flat-roofed extension to the yard, with a parapet wall in salvaged red brick and an angled brick coping relating to the original rear eaves detail. The projection is blank with lighter brick to the centre, possibly indicating the former location of a chimney matching that of no. 21, now removed.

The north face of the hipped-roof return has one opening at second floor, centred on the hip, which appears to be powder-coated aluminium and is most likely a door opening onto a flat roof with a raised parapet. The ridge tiles to the hip are modern, possibly red clay.

The north face of the flat-roofed return has its wall extended in height to form a second floor parapet, with a hopper and rainwater pipe discharging from the flat roof on the east side. There are two windows at first floor: one small casement window offset to the left, and a large round-arched sliding sash window with 1/1 panes fitted with stained glass sandwiched between float glass. The ground floor is not visible, though soldier-coursed brick spanning almost the full width of the return indicates a wide glazed opening beneath.

West elevation: Abutted by no. 21 College Gardens and its return. A sheeted and painted timber privacy screen stands between the two properties at ground floor level.

East elevation: The main building is abutted by no. 19 College Gardens. The east face of the projection and double return was surveyed from Elmwood Mews. The projection has one opening at each half-landing level where visible: at attic level, a replacement timber sliding sash with double-glazed 1/1 panes; at second floor, a bricked-up opening presumed to have been a fire door given its proportions; lower levels are not visible. On the double return, walling is painted up to second floor cill height, with informally arranged openings: one wide uPVC-framed glazed opening at first floor, appearing to incorporate what were originally two windows (indicated by soldier-coursed headers); and two smaller openings at first floor towards the north end, one bricked up and the other fitted with a replacement timber-framed double-glazed sliding sash with 1/1 panes and a stone cill, painted. A decorative metal wall vent to the right of this latter window is probably original. Ground floor and basement are not visible, assumed to be enclosed by the flat-roofed extension across the yard.

SETTING AND APPROACH

No. 20 sits mid-terrace in its block, rectangular on plan and aligned east–west parallel to College Gardens. The building is set back from the tree-lined street, with a hedge marking the boundary and front gardens to both adjoining properties. The front door opens onto a broad step with a coloured band formed in polished concrete aggregate, flanked by painted dwarf walls: that adjoining no. 21 retains an open balustrade between square end piers, while the opposite side retains only the pier adjacent to the entrance. The path from the replacement metal garden gate to the entrance step is formed in precast concrete paving slabs, which return along the front of the bay. The remainder of the front garden is grassed, with a mature tree near the gate. Along the north boundary there is a salvaged red brick yard wall with alternating angled brick coping, likely forming a parapet to the ground floor terrace behind, with two modern garage doors at basement level opening onto Elmwood Mews.

HISTORICAL BACKGROUND

College Gardens — originally named College Gardens Avenue — was laid out on land that before the early 19th century had formed part of a series of strip farms running from what are now the Malone and University Roads to the Bog Meadows, probably established in the early 17th century. This arrangement was disrupted by the cutting of the Lisburn Road in 1816–19 and the construction of the Ulster Railway in 1837–39. Around the same time, greater security of tenure from the Donegall estate led to the gentrification of the remaining farmland, with the creation of small country villas and the laying out of modest demesnes within the former farm plots.

The land immediately north and south of College Gardens had belonged to one such villa, 'Vermont', a pre-1770 house possibly rebuilt or enlarged around 1815 and enlarged again in the 1840s — on the latter occasion by John Riddell, a Belfast ironmonger. The construction of Queen's College a short distance to the north-east in 1845 set in motion the suburbanisation of the area. In 1865, Vermont itself was sold for the establishment of another educational institution, Methodist College, which was completed in 1868. A new private avenue was laid out on the lower ground immediately to the north, with building plots on the northern side. Development proceeded eastward along College Gardens: the present nos. 1–6 were built in 1871, nos. 7–18 in 1877, nos. 33 and 34 in 1879, nos. 19–22 in 1881, nos. 23–26 in 1882, and nos. 27–32 in 1883.

No. 20 belongs to a terrace of four symmetrically arranged single-fronted townhouses built in 1880–81. The identity of the architect is not known; however, the developer of everything in College Gardens from no. 11 to no. 32 appears to have been the Reverend George Cron, then minister of the Evangelical Union Church in Wellington Place.

The 1884 street directory records the occupant of no. 20 as Mrs. Susanna Black. Mrs. Mary Ann McCalmont is named as householder in 1897, and in the 1901 census she is recorded as living there with four grown-up children, two house guests and two domestic servants; the building is noted as a 'first class' dwelling with the family occupying 14 rooms. Joseph McKee, described as a commission agent, is named as resident in 1907, followed around 1909 by the Reverend Joseph McKinstry, Minister of Randalstown Presbyterian Congregation. In the 1911 census, his household comprised his wife Rosetta, their five mainly teenage children and two domestic servants. The McKinstry family remained until at least 1918. By 1924, Wyclif McCready is named as householder, occupying the property until at least 1932.

During the Second World War, no. 20 and its neighbour no. 21 were taken into government hands. In the post-war period no. 20 continued as offices, being occupied successively by a consulting engineer, Mr. E. Reid, and by the Geological Survey of Northern Ireland from 1951. The Geological Survey was the sole occupant by 1960 and remained in occupation until at least the publication of the last street directory in 1996. The property returned to use as a private dwelling in 2014, at which time the double garage extension to the rear and the heightening of the end of the return — to create a rooftop terrace — were carried out.