14 Upper Crescent, Belfast, Co Antrim, BT7 1NT

14 Upper Crescent is a relatively large, three-storey rendered town house, one of ten similar — though not identical — properties forming Upper Crescent, a Regency-style curved terrace built in 1846. The building has since been converted to offices and flats. It is one of the plainer properties within the group.

Upper Crescent sits to the east of University Road and faces south over a small public park towards Lower Crescent, a similarly styled development of 1852 which, unlike Upper Crescent, is arranged as a straight terrace rather than a curve.

The front elevation is asymmetrical and faces roughly south. On the ground floor to the left is the entrance, comprising a panelled and glazed door with a rectangular fanlight, framed by panelled pilaster jambs; this door has not been in use for some years. To the right of the doorway are two tall plain sash windows, their lower lights boarded up. The ground floor is finished in rusticated render. At first floor level, two larger windows are set on a sill course; these have sash frames with Regency-style horizontally orientated panes to the top sash (a 4-over-8 arrangement). The upper floors are finished in plain render. At second floor level are two much smaller windows with Georgian-paned sash frames (3 over 6), resting on a more pronounced, cornice-like sill course. Above the first floor window heads there is a broad plain course, on which sits a thin moulded string course. Above the second floor windows is a further plain course, above which the elevation terminates in a parapet with plain — probably stone — coping.

The rear elevation could not be seen in its entirety. To the right-hand, eastern side is a two-storey gabled return with a plain sash window to the left on the first floor. To the left, western side, the return merges with a two-storey projection with a mono-pitched roof, which has a metal-sheeted door at ground floor level and a similar window at first floor. Both the gable and the south face of this projection are finished in plain cement render. Internal evidence indicates that the main rear façade has a window to the left on the ground, first, and second floors, all with Georgian-paned sashes — 6 over 6 on the ground and first floors, and 3 over 6 on the second floor. Between the first and second floor levels on the right-hand side there is a tall stairwell sash window, also with Georgian panes in a 6-over-6 arrangement. This rear façade appears to be mainly brick. The roof is a gabled slate roof. To the west there is a tall rendered shared chimneystack with a projecting coping and uniform pots; a smaller chimneystack rises from the gable of the return. Cast iron rainwater goods are present throughout.

Upper Crescent was built in 1846 by timber and shipping merchant Robert Corry, and was indeed known for the first few years of its existence as "Corry's Crescent". The development of this area was made possible by the selling off of much of Lord Donegall's Belfast estate in the early to mid 19th century, which opened up large areas of land around the town. The lands to the south, along the Malone Ridge, were particularly attractive, leading to the construction of many fine late Georgian-style terraces from the mid-1830s onwards, a trend accelerated by the establishment of the prestigious Queen's College nearby in the later 1840s. These grand terraces were occupied by Belfast's professional and business classes, who vacated their older residences in the town centre, which were gradually converted into shops and offices.

Upper Crescent was among the grandest of these southern terrace developments. The authorship of the design is uncertain, though architectural historian Dr Paul Larmour has suggested the involvement of Charles Lanyon. Corry himself undertook the building work and took up residence at the eastern end of the crescent. Immediately to the south lay a large lawn which Corry initially used as a garden; shortly after it was laid out, however, he had it ploughed up and used to cultivate vegetables for the relief of local workers suffering as a result of the Great Famine. To the north of this garden ran an old watercourse flowing northwards into the Basin, a reservoir east of the Dublin Road. To the east lay smaller gardens belonging to other occupants of the Crescent, and further east and north-east ran Albion Lane, a narrow semi-rural laneway stretching from the north end of Bradbury Place to the east end of the present University Terrace.

In 1852 Corry built a further terrace — the erroneously named Lower Crescent — to the north of his former garden and just south of the old watercourse. It was built in much the same style as Upper Crescent and was occupied by a similar mix of professionals and businessmen, though by as early as 1860 the ground floors of some properties were already in office use. In the later 1860s a railway line was cut immediately to the north of Lower Crescent, following the line of the old watercourse. In 1873 a large sandstone building, originally Victoria College for girls, was added to the west end of Lower Crescent, and two further houses were added to the east end before the close of that decade. The most easterly of these, Rivoli House, was designed by William Hastings and originally contained a dance academy run by a Frederick Brouneau. The new railway line cut across Albion Lane and led to the laying out of the wider Botanic Avenue.

Upper Crescent also saw further building in the 1860s and 1870s. Two large properties designed by William Hastings were erected at the west end in 1869, one of which — Crescent House, now the Bank of Ireland — also fronted onto University Road. In 1878–79 two further houses were inserted between those of 1869. Between 1885 and 1887 the large Presbyterian Crescent Church was erected to designs by Glasgow architect John Bennie Wilson on the west side of Corry's former garden, and in 1898 a two-storey terrace, the present Crescent Gardens, was built on the site of the smaller eastern garden plots.

During the first half of the 20th century most properties in Upper and Lower Crescent, as well as Crescent Gardens, remained private dwellings. By 1960, however, many had been given over to business use or divided into flats, and the former Rivoli House — later known as Dreenagh House — had become the Regency Hotel. By the beginning of the 21st century none were occupied as private dwellings. In the mid-1990s three of the 1860s–70s houses at the west end of Upper Crescent were demolished and replaced with a modern office block. In 2000 the railway cutting to the south of Lower Crescent was built over in preparation for a new development.

Number 14 specifically was occupied in 1849 by a Mrs Dickey, followed by a Henry Smith, described as a linen manufacturer, by 1852, and a Jane Millford by 1860. A Reverend W.S. Darley became resident in the later 1870s, with a Mrs Thompson listed in the 1899 directory, a William Galloway described as a damask designer in 1920, and a Reverend R.H. White in 1930. During the 1950s this building and its two eastern neighbours, numbers 15 and 16, together served as the Ulster Nature Cure Clinic. In the 1960s all three were acquired by the nearby Queen's University and converted to student residences. It is likely that the most significant internal alterations were carried out at this point, though the earlier presence of the Ulster Nature Cure Clinic may well have involved earlier changes, including possibly the creation of doorways between the formerly separate properties.