22 Hawthornden Road, Belfast, Co.Antrim, BT4 3JU

22 Hawthornden Road is one of a pair of semi-detached Arts and Crafts style cottages built in 1900, forming a three-bay, one-and-a-half storey house with an almost T-shaped plan. The main block runs north to south with returns to the east, and the building is attached on its north side to its neighbour, 24 Hawthornden Road. The pair was built by William Pirrie, owner of the Ormiston estate, and was known as Ormiston Villas. The buildings exhibit some character but are not considered to be of special architectural or historic interest, and are recorded only.

Exterior

The walls are built in Flemish bond red brick to the lower ground floor, topped with a projecting string course and brick special coping with a cyma moulding. Above ground floor cill level the walls are finished in pebble-dash, with a terracotta string course below the first floor window and a half-timber effect to the apex of the gable. Ivy obscures some brick detailing to the corners of the central bay.

The roof is hipped and gabled, covered in rosemary clay tiles with decorated terracotta ridges, ball finials to the gable ends, and smooth rolled terracotta tiles to the hips. Rafter ends are exposed to the west elevation. Rainwater goods are cast iron. The central red brick chimneystack has been rebuilt using a combination of reclaimed and modern brick and carries three clay pots.

The principal elevation faces east and comprises a single-storey lean-to porch set back from a one-and-a-half storey gabled return, which in turn sits proud of the remaining wall shared with the neighbouring property. The entrance door is painted timber set within a shallow arched head with a smooth render surround. The ground floor window to the gable is a tripartite timber sash: the central sash is 6-over-1 and the two side sashes are 4-over-1, with a painted cill flush with the wall. To the north bay there is a painted paired 6-over-1 sash window. At upper floor level in the central bay there is an oriel window with a top-hung timber frame divided into two lights, each with upper sections divided into six panes. A small flat-roofed dormer with a single casement window is shared with the neighbouring property to the north bay. Timber bargeboards are used throughout.

The south elevation comprises two bays: to the east a porch with a lean-to roof, and to the west the gabled end of the main north-south block. Windows are 6-over-1 timber sliding sashes, one centrally placed with a decorative vent above in the apex of the gable, and a smaller 6-over-1 window to the east.

The west elevation retains original walls to a former yard, sitting forward of the main house and topped with stone coping. A section of this wall has been removed and a conservatory added to the north. The elevation is single storey. Two windows remain to this wall: a painted timber top-hung window to the centre and a painted timber 6-over-1 sash window to the south. A flat-roofed dormer in three sections to the central hip has top-hung opening lights.

The north elevation is attached to 24 Hawthornden Road.

Setting

The house stands on a level corner site on the west side of Hawthornden Road at its junction with Knocklofty Park. To the front, facing east, there is a garden area behind a modern low brick wall. To the south-west corner of the site there is a modern red brick garage with a concrete tiled pitched roof and a metal up-and-over door. The rear garden has a hedge to its boundary.

Historical background

Early to mid 19th century maps show this part of east Belfast to have been largely open countryside. Hawthornden Road already existed at that time, but had virtually no buildings along it. The area began to develop in the latter part of the 19th century as it became an increasingly popular residential district for Belfast's business and commercial classes.

In the mid 1860s a mansion named Ormiston was built on the west side of Hawthornden Road for James Combe, a Scottish-born businessman. It was subsequently acquired by the shipbuilder Edward Harland, and then by William Pirrie, himself a major figure in the firm of Harland and Wolff. Pirrie was responsible for building numbers 22 and 24 Hawthornden Road. The Valuation Revision Book for 1897 to 1905 records that the pair of semi-detached houses was built in 1900, each given a valuation of £11. The first recorded occupants were William Childerley and James Castle, both listed as coachmen in the 1900 Belfast street directory. The 1901 census records that each house had three windows to the front and seven rooms in occupation.

The houses appear on the 1:2,500 scale Ordnance Survey map of 1902 with a ground plan matching their present-day footprint. At that time Knocklofty Park had not yet been laid out, and the 1902 map shows a path leading from the houses toward Ormiston itself. By the time of the 1913 street directory, one of the dwellings was called The Nook and the other The Bungalow. The 1935 street directory is the first to list them under their present addresses of 22 and 24 Hawthornden Road, at which point the occupants were respectively J. B. Louden, an agent, and W. M. Knight. Louden died that year but his widow Nora remained in the house until the 1960s. W. M. Knight, a high court official, died in 1962. Valuation records from the 1930s onwards show that the immediate lessor of number 22 was Harland and Wolff, while the lessor of number 24 was the occupier of number 22.