69 University Road, Belfast

This property forms part of the southern portion of Botanic View terrace, a two-storey building constructed in 1852, probably by William Sherrie, a brush, card and bellows manufacturer recorded in North Street in the Belfast directories of the 1850s and 1860s, and who appears as the immediate lessor in the valuation records of around 1862.

The building's existence reflects the broader transformation of South Belfast during the mid-19th century. Before the early 19th century, University Road was the main route south from Belfast towards Dublin, climbing the Malone Ridge and twisting south-west towards Lisburn. Long, narrow strip farms stretched westwards from the road, sloping down towards the Bog Meadows. In the mid-1700s, the Donegall estate leased many of these farms to Belfast merchants who sublet them to tenant farmers, whose humble farmhouses scattered along the road itself. The transformation began in 1816-19 when the present Lisburn Road was laid out, cutting through the farms, and accelerated after 1823 when the cash-strapped Donegall estate began granting leases 'in perpetuity'. With the unity of the Malone farms destroyed, the area opened to developers. John Alexander was one such developer; his family had held a lease of 31 acres in the townland of Lower Malone since the early 1700s and acquired the land outright from Lord Donegall in 1823 for £480. Alexander constructed the three-storey portions of Botanic View terrace (present nos.53-65 University Road) in 1840-43, whilst parcelling out adjacent portions to other developers, leading to the construction of Fitzwilliam Place (nos.71-75) in 1846-48 and dwellings along the newly laid out Fitzwilliam Street (nos.2-8) in around 1849-50. Camden Terrace appeared along the newly laid out Camden Street in 1849-52. The two-storey southern portion of Botanic View (nos.67-69 and no.1 Fitzwilliam Street) was complete by 1852. These new dwellings, along with others such as Fountainville Terrace, Upper and Lower Crescent, Prospect and Claremont Terraces, and University Square to the east, marked the beginning of the suburbanisation of South Belfast and the drift of the town's professional and commercial classes away from its centre.

No.69 first appears in the street directory of 1858, when it was listed as vacant. James Craig occupied it by around 1860, followed in 1862 by James Stewart Shearer (a traveller). John Kelly, a brush manufacturer of Bridge Street, succeeded him around 1864, followed by Miss Mary Pollock, who lived there from at least 1870 to around 1898. Mrs. Anna Adams was the next occupant; in the 1901 census she is noted as a 72-year-old widow residing at no.69 with a domestic servant, and the house is described as a second-class dwelling with nine rooms in use. Before 1907, the property was converted to a surgery by H.H.B. Cunningham, an ear, nose and throat specialist, returning to domestic use by 1911 when Mrs. Mary Armstrong and her two children lived there. By at least 1918 it was home to James McCartney, a merchant tailor, passing to Augustus Campbell (manager) around 1937. Miss M.F. Johnson became the householder in the mid to late-1940s and retained the property into the 1960s. The building was converted to a dental surgery before 1967, originally run by George Blair, and remained so until 2008, when it was given over to office use. The ground floor was converted to a café in 2015.

The property is located within a conservation area.