555 Ormeau Road, Belfast

555 Ormeau Road is a Grade B2 listed terraced house built in 1887 on the upper Ormeau Road in Belfast, approximately 4 kilometres from the city centre. It forms part of a terrace of nine houses (numbers 547 to 563), originally known as Rosetta Terrace. The house was developed by H. Scott, a pawnbroker, who occupied the adjacent property and appears to have been responsible for developing other properties in south-eastern Belfast in the early 1900s. The architect remains unidentified.

The house is two storeys with an attic, set on a rectangular plan with a two-storey return wing and small front garden with enclosed L-shaped rear yard. The ground floor is rendered and painted, while the first floor is constructed of red clay brick laid in Flemish bond. The roof is finished with natural Bangor Blue slates and features a clay brick chimney stack on the ridge.

The front elevation displays considerable Victorian architectural detail. The ground floor has smooth painted render with a replacement panelled and glazed door to the right, set beneath an ornate bracketed hood with rectangular glazed overlight. To the left is a canted bay with 1/1 top-hung uPVC windows. A plaster string course separates the ground and first floors. The first floor contains two 1/1 windows matching the bay below. A pitched roof dormer with painted timber 1/1 sliding sash window with semi-circular head sits on the wall head, flanked by Velux-type roof-lights. The decorative detailing includes blue brick laid in two rows beneath a brick cornice.

The rear elevation is rendered and comprises a lower two-storey return wing to the left. The main block has a 2/2 painted timber sliding sash window to the first floor with a Velux-type window above in the roof slope. The return features a double-pitched roof, rendered on the gable. The yard wall is painted render to ground floor and red brick to first, containing two 1/1 uPVC windows to the first floor. A single-storey structure with red brick gable and corrugated iron roof is attached to the return gable. The concrete-finished rear yard is separated from the communal lane by a modern timber fence. The small front garden has a gravelled surface separated from the pavement by a vertical timber fence on rebuilt brick pillars, with an original quarry tile path in chequerboard pattern leading to the front door.

Windows include 1/1 top-hung uPVC to the front elevation except for the dormer which retains painted timber sliding sash. The rear elevation of the main block has a 2/2 painted timber window to the first floor, while the return and other rear openings are 1/1 uPVC. All rainwater goods are uPVC.

Contemporary advertising from 1886 described the four southernmost properties in the terrace as 'large houses' with three reception rooms, five bedrooms, hot and cold water and modern improvements. The 1887 advertisements for the remaining five dwellings referred to 'well finished' houses with two reception rooms on the ground floor and six bedrooms.

The property's occupancy history is well documented through directories and census records. Early residents included Mrs Fitzpatrick (circa 1888-97), William Wills, a retired prison governor (circa 1898-1902), and Mrs E. Wilson (circa 1902-07). Mrs Charlotte S. Thompson occupied the house from circa 1907-15; the 1911 census records it as a first-class dwelling containing twelve rooms with Mrs Thompson, her daughter Eva Barkley, two granddaughters, a Lady Attender Elizabeth Jameson and a domestic servant. Subsequent occupants included Robert Jamison, secretary (occupation dates unclear), John Rusk, a fancy linen manufacturer (1910-20, recorded in 1911 census with his wife Elizabeth in a second-class nine-room dwelling), James C. May, a warehouseman (1920-24), C. Macauley again (1925-30), J. Rusk again (1933-40), Dr. John W. Nesbitt (1942-44 and 1948-63), Wing Commander Culmer (1963-72), Mrs Mary Killen (1973-90) and Kathleen B. Wallace from circa 1991.

The building demonstrates considerable architectural interest through its proportions, Victorian ornamentation, decorative brickwork and detailing. It retains strong group value with the other listed properties in the terrace. The house was listed in 1986. Various alterations, particularly the replacement of original windows with uPVC and the modern rear fence, have detracted from the building's original appearance, though the interior retains quality features of Victorian domestic planning.