Thompson House, 428 Antrim Road, Belfast, BT15 5GA

Thompson House, 428 Antrim Road, Belfast

Thompson House is a mid-terrace, two-bay, three-storey with attic former townhouse built in 1872, constructed in red brick with stucco dressings to the designs of Redfern Kelly (1845–1928), a Belfast-based engineer best known for his work on behalf of the Belfast Harbour Commissioners. It forms one of seven similar houses originally known as Fortwilliam Terrace, a group of buildings set slightly back from the west side of the Antrim Road and screened by a row of mature trees behind a low rendered wall.

Kelly was a prominent figure in Belfast's industrial infrastructure, responsible for the deepening of the Victoria Channel, the reconstruction of the Alexandra Graving Dock following its collapse in 1905, and the construction of the Thompson Graving Dock. Though primarily an engineer of industrial contracts, he also designed a Masonic Hall in Larne and the Murlough Cottages in Dundrum. The terrace is named in his honour.

Historical context

The Antrim Road was originally laid out in 1830. By the 1850s, the land to the north of the Belfast Waterworks and the Limestone Road remained predominantly rural in character, as recorded on the second edition Ordnance Survey map of 1858. As Belfast's population grew rapidly and its shipbuilding, rope-making, and textile industries expanded through the mid-19th century, the townland of Skegoneill quickly became one of the city's most affluent districts, attracting gentlemen's mansions and wealthy merchants' houses. Fortwilliam Terrace was constructed on the grounds of Hopefield House, a two-storey, six-bay mansion formerly occupied by the Sinclair family, the majority of whose grounds were built over during the 1870s.

Annual Revision records note that the terrace was leased by Samuel Lawther, manager of Samuel Lawther and Co., local coal importers and ship and insurance brokers with premises on Corporation Square, who himself resided on Duncairn Street. No. 428 was initially valued at £40, and its first recorded occupant was J. C. Gardner, a flour merchant and starch manufacturer. By 1901, the house was occupied by James Lynas, a flax mill manager; the census building return for that year described it as a first-class dwelling comprising 14 rooms. In the 1920s it was home to the Reverend Alexander Harrison, minister of Fortwilliam Park Presbyterian Church.

Under the First General Revaluation of Property in Northern Ireland (1936–57), the building's rateable value was raised to £48. In 1937 the house was purchased by Belfast Corporation and occupied by Her Majesty's Government during the Second World War, after which it returned to domestic use before being converted into self-contained apartments in 1969. By the end of the Second Revaluation (1956–72), the total rateable value had risen further to £80. The terrace was listed in 1987, by which time No. 428 had been converted into a rehabilitation hostel administered by the Presbyterian Church in Ireland. A renovation carried out between 1987 and 1989 included re-slating the roof in salvaged slate and installing new sliding sash window frames. In 1993 the hostel was extended into the adjoining No. 426, with which it is now interconnected at all levels. The building continues in use as hostel accommodation.

A comparable terrace, also thought to have been designed by Kelly and formerly known as Castleton Terrace, was built in 1878 and sits almost directly opposite on the east side of the Antrim Road.

Exterior

The house is rectangular on plan, facing east, with an original gable-ended, three-storey red brick return to the rear. The pitched roof is covered in natural slate with roll-moulded black clay ridge tiles, set behind a stucco parapet wall with a deep moulded cornice and plain frieze. An original shouldered rendered chimney stack with lipped clay pots stands to the north party wall. A replacement steel downpipe breaks through the parapet wall at the north corner; uPVC downpipes serve the rear.

Red brick walling is laid in Flemish bond with cement pointing. Painted vermiculated quoins are present to the north corner of the front elevation only. Continuous moulded string courses run at first and second floor sill levels. Window openings are square-headed with decorative stucco surrounds, moulded sills, and replacement single-pane timber sash windows with ogee horns, except where noted otherwise.

The two-bay, three-storey east-facing front elevation is abutted at ground floor level by a painted rendered three-sided canted bay window with a continuous masonry sill, platband, and shallow cornice to the parapet. The second floor windows are framed by decorative painted lugged architrave surrounds with bracketed sills. The first floor windows are framed by scrolled foliate console brackets supporting a hood cornice, with moulded sills supported on stepped brackets.

The door opening in the left bay is round-headed with gauged brick and a projecting bull-nosed surround. The original painted timber panelled door has four raised-and-fielded panels and brass furniture, and is flanked by fluted Ionic columns supporting a dentilated lintel cornice with a plain glazed fanlight above. The door opens onto a terracotta-tiled platform and three steps descending to a bitmac and cobblelock front area enclosed by replacement steel railings and a pedestrian gate.

The south elevation is abutted by the adjoining No. 426. The rear red brick elevation is abutted by the original gable-ended, three-storey red brick return, which has a lean-to projection and is rendered at ground floor level. Window openings to the rear are gauged brick and square-headed, with painted masonry sills and a mixture of 2/2 horizontally-glazed timber sash windows and replacement timber casement windows. The north side elevation is abutted by a four-storey red brick addition built around 2005, which extends to the rear access lane. This modern wing detracts from both the house and the terrace as a whole.

The terrace's distinctive character derives from its vertical emphasis, graduated fenestration, and restrained neo-classical stucco mouldings. Additional architectural interest is provided by the low plinth stone walls flanking the entrance steps, which feature carved anthemion panels, and by the original stone pillar engraved with the word "Terrace" at the site entrance. The original rear return survives and adds to the historic value of the building.

Despite modifications to the internal layout and the extension added to the end gable around 2010, the building is largely intact and retains some original internal detailing. It has group value with the other listed buildings within Fortwilliam Terrace.