8 Fitzwilliam Street, Belfast, Co. Antrim, BT9 6AW

8 Fitzwilliam Street is a three-storey, late Georgian style terraced house of around 1849–50, set at the western end of a short block of four matching properties. The block occupies the eastern end of the south side of Fitzwilliam Street, with Queen's University Belfast's Student's Union to the south and University Road — along which Lanyon's original university building stands — to the west. The front façade faces north.

The ground floor of the front façade is finished in rusticated render with a chamfered base and a cill band at first-floor level. The render is painted. On the ground floor, to the left, is a four-panel timber door with a rectangular fanlight with margin panes. The doorway has a thin pilaster jamb to the right and a much thicker pilaster to the left, the latter acting as a shared pier with the doorway of No. 6. Above the doorway sits a hood on simple metal brackets — somewhat functional in appearance — which merges with the hood of No. 6's doorway. The hood has timber cladding to its edge and a simple cornice. Two steps lead up to the door. To the right of the doorway are two windows with plain sash frames glazed with Georgian panes (six over six) and moulded surrounds. Two steps lead up to the doorway.

At first-floor level there are two similar windows but without surrounds. These are more widely spaced than the ground-floor windows and do not align directly with them. The first-floor front windows of the whole terrace rest on a shared cill band. At second-floor level are two windows similar to those at first-floor level, in line with them, but slightly shorter. The upper portion of the front façade above the rusticated render is in brick and is finished with a dentilled cornice. Apart from a few Velux windows, the front façade remains largely original. The western gable is blank and finished in plain painted render.

The rear façade of the entire terrace is finished in plain unpainted cement render. Numbers 6 and 8 share a low two-storey gabled return. The western face of No. 8's return has a plain sheeted doorway to the left at ground-floor level, with two windows to the right fitted with modern timber frames and security bars. On the first floor of this face, to the far left, is a small plain sash window, also with security bars. The south-facing gable end of the return has a single canted first-floor oriel window to the right (belonging to No. 6) and a single sash window to the left (belonging to No. 8), the latter glazed with Georgian panes matching those on the front façade.

The main rear façade of No. 8 has a sash window to the left at each floor level, all in line with one another, with the second-floor window slightly shorter than those below. The ground- and first-floor windows have security bars. To the right of these windows, above the return, are two stairwell landing windows; the upper of the two is considerably shorter and sits close to the eaves. All rear windows have sash frames with Georgian panes — mostly six over six, except the small upper stairwell window which has three over three panes — with the upper sash of the first-floor window being plain.

The roof of the terrace is gabled and finished in Bangor blue slate, with rendered parapets to each gable. Each property has a small Velux window to the rear. There are chimney stacks serving the whole terrace: the eastern stack (belonging to No. 2) is rendered and fitted with tall, uniform cream-coloured clay pots; the broader central stack shared by Nos. 4 and 6 is partly rendered and carries a variety of pots; and the western stack (belonging to No. 8) is in brick and has no pots. The roof of the return is in fact made up of two gabled sections with a valley between them, concealed behind an all-encompassing end gable. Both are covered in Bangor blue slate and share a brick-built stack at the end gable with one original-looking octagonal pot. The return roof of No. 8 has a Velux window to its inner side. Cast iron rainwater goods serve the main building, with mainly PVC rainwater goods to the return. A high rendered wall encloses the yard to the rear.

Fitzwilliam Street was laid out in the 1840s, one of several new streets linking what was then the Malone Road (now University Road) to the New Lisburn Road (now Lisburn Road), the latter having been cut in 1817 as a intended replacement for the Malone Road as the main route southwards out of Belfast. The land on which the street was built had been leased from the Donegall estate since 1711 to the ancestors of one John Alexander, who renewed his title in 1823. In 1849 Alexander leased part of this land to William Magill Collins, a solicitor with offices in Arthur Street, and in 1866 Collins acquired full title to the property. Shortly after obtaining his initial lease, Collins built the present terrace of Nos. 2–8. Like many other terraces appearing around the newly built Queen's College at this time, the block was designed to attract Belfast's middling professional and merchant classes, though the houses were a clear step below the grander dwellings of University Square.

Among the earliest tenants in 1854 were Henry Hugh Boyd, described as an agent and accountant; Robert Leadbetter, a linen manufacturer; James Benn, a wine merchant; and a Mrs. Wardle. Subsequent directories record later tenants of similar character well into the 20th century — wine merchants, accountants, dentists, clergymen, and company directors — as well as academics connected to Queen's University. William Magill Collins died in 1880 and the properties passed to his daughters and their descendants. In 1932 the terrace was conveyed to Queen's University, which appears to have rented the houses to individuals who were probably university staff. From the late 1960s onwards, with the expansion of Queen's, the properties were given over to various university departments, including Italian, Geography, and Extra Mural Studies, as well as the QUB Photographic Society. By 1986 the terrace was largely occupied by the Institute of Irish Studies, with the Faculty of Theology occupying No. 2. That same year, significant internal renovation of the whole block was carried out: doors were inserted at first- and second-floor level to link the formerly separate dwellings, and certain rooms were amalgamated. The whole group continues to be used by the Institute of Irish Studies.

No. 8 specifically appears to have been originally rented by James Benn, the wine merchant. By 1858 it was occupied by a Major Child, listed in directories as a staff officer of pensioners, and from 1861 to 1877 by a William McIlwrath, who may have been a lawyer. A succession of relatively short-term residents followed: Mrs. William H. Ferguson (1877–80), Miss Carse (1880–84), Robert Moorehead (1884/85–90), and a Mrs. Olley (1890–97). Between 1899 and around 1920 the house was rented by a Mr. George Moore, who was followed by a Thomas McMaster and then a Thomas Montgomery. After the University's acquisition of the terrace in 1932, the house served as a residence for members of staff — firstly a J. A. Price, then a Mrs. M. Kidney, and from the late 1940s a Mrs. Emily McIlroy. The property ceased to function as a dwelling at some point in the early 1960s; by 1965 it was occupied by the QUB Photographic Society and the Department of Psychology, and by the mid-1970s by the Department of Extra Mural Studies. By 1986 it had, along with Nos. 4 and 6, been given over to the Institute of Irish Studies, and in the same year internal alterations linked it to the rest of the terrace.