224 Antrim Road, Belfast, Co. Antrim, BT15 2AN

224 Antrim Road is a former end-of-terrace house, built in 1870, now converted into seven self-contained flats. It was designed by the Belfast architectural firm Thomas Jackson & Sons and constructed for William Ridgeway Jackson (c.1840–1886), a local engineer and architect who was the younger son of Thomas Jackson (1807–1890). The building stands at the corner of Antrim Road and Eia Street, terminating a terrace of houses along the west side of Antrim Road, and is listed together with its gates and walling.

The house is two bays wide, three storeys tall with an attic, and built throughout in random coursed tooled sandstone ashlar — a material that makes it immediately distinctive from the five adjoining houses in the terrace, which share similar proportions and aligned eaves and ridges but are constructed in red brick. A full-height canted bay window projects from the front elevation, and a three-storey return extends to the rear.

The pitched roof is finished in natural slate with roll-moulded black clay ridge tiles. The slightly raised south gable has raking stone coping on moulded kneeler stones, surmounted by a tall profiled sandstone chimneystack. Lead ridges cover the bay window, and cast metal guttering is set on a moulded sandstone eaves course, with metal downpipes. The walling has a painted moulded plinth course, a continuous sill course at first-floor level, and a frieze below the eaves.

Window openings are square-headed with smooth sandstone ashlar sills and surrounds. The jambs are stop-chamfered, and the window heads feature a broken pediment detail notched into the surround. Windows throughout are single-pane timber sash with slender ogee horns. The stone head over the middle of the ground-floor bay window is inscribed "EIA" — the name by which the house was historically known.

The front (east) elevation has two bays with the canted bay window to the right, alongside a gabled entrance porch. The porch has a segmental arch-headed door opening with decorative shoulder stones, flanked by stop-chamfered piers and corbels that support squat columns with stiff-leaf capitals, and a lead-lined stone coping to a shallow pediment. The door itself is possibly original, with diagonally-sheeted panels, flanked by side panels, and a plain fanlight above with etched glazing reading "Society of St. Vincent de Paul." The door opens onto a stone platform and two nosed stone steps, flanked by painted stone plinth walls. A small front area is enclosed by iron railings set on a stone plinth wall, with matching gates.

The gabled south side elevation is two bays wide and is extended by a further four windows as a lower three-storey return. A pair of diminutive round-headed windows occupy the gable at attic storey. This elevation also has a small railed area matching the front. The rear (west) elevation is abutted by the three-storey return, which has a stepped rear gable built in red brick laid in English garden wall bond, with uPVC windows. The north side elevation is abutted by the adjoining three-storey red brick building. To the rear is a small yard enclosed by a tall rendered wall.

The firm responsible for this building, Thomas Jackson & Sons, was formed around 1867 when William R. Jackson and his elder brother Anthony T. Jackson (1838–1917) entered into partnership with their father. Thomas Jackson himself was a significant figure in mid-19th-century Belfast, having laid out Cliftonville in the 1830s and designed notable buildings including St. Malachy's Roman Catholic Church and the Old Museum on College Square North. Plans held at Belfast City Hall confirm that No. 224 was designed by the family firm in 1870.

William R. Jackson did not live in the house himself but leased it to Robert A. Macrory, a local solicitor whose firm, Macrory & Co., had offices on Waring Street and in Dublin. The house was known as "Eia" and was initially valued at £58 in the Annual Revisions, rising to £65 after a rear outbuilding was erected in 1875. It was the first building to be constructed in the terrace that now runs between Eia Street and Allworthy Avenue (nos. 224–236 Antrim Road). The adjoining red brick terrace, known as "Laurington Terrace," was built in the 1880s.

Macrory eventually purchased the house outright and continued to reside there until around 1901, when the Census of Ireland recorded it as vacant. Around 1905 the Macrory family leased it to Dr. John Smyth Morrow, a physician who taught at Queen's University Belfast and lived there with his wife and daughter. The 1911 census described the house as a first-class dwelling with 20 rooms, along with a stable, coach house, and store among its outbuildings — all now demolished — to the rear. Morrow vacated the house around 1920, and Samuel J. Hutchinson, a local dental surgeon, took possession. Under the First General Revaluation of Property in Northern Ireland (1936–57), the dwelling's rateable value was increased to £94, standing at £80 by the end of the Second Revaluation (1956–72).

The building was listed in 1987. From the 1980s it was owned by the St. Vincent de Paul Society and used as a charity shop. An extensive renovation took place around 1989, which included repair of the sliding sash windows, restoration of the stonework, replacement of the chimney pots, and installation of cast iron rainwater goods. The building continued as business premises for the St. Vincent de Paul Society until around 2009, when it was converted into seven self-contained apartments. Some openings to the rear have been blocked up, and the rear return has uPVC windows, both of which detract from the building's overall integrity. Nevertheless, the front and side elevations retain their architectural character, further enhanced by the ornate entrance gates, stone steps, plinth walls, and railings that define the site boundary.