6 College Green, Belfast

6 College Green is a mid-terrace, double-fronted red brick house of two storeys with an attic, built in 1866 and facing south on College Green, to the north-east of the main quadrangle at Queen's University, Belfast. It is now used as offices for the University's School of Education. The house forms a pair with its immediate neighbour, No. 8 College Green, and together they are the earliest surviving properties within a longer Victorian terrace running from No. 2 to No. 26 inclusive. Toothed quoins at the outer edges of the front elevation indicate that the two houses were originally built as a stand-alone pair. The terrace overlooks the Theological College of the Presbyterian Church within the Queen's Conservation Area, and the overall composition of College Green is considered one of the most striking terraces in that area. The street runs east–west between Botanic Avenue and Rugby Road.

The roofline is a natural slate duo-pitched form with black clay ridge tiles and two rectangular red brick chimneys centred on the ridge, both with corbelled brick copings and octagonal yellow clay pots. One chimney has been rebuilt — it abuts the chimney of No. 4 — and carries five pots; the other is shared with No. 8 and has ten pots. Two barrel dormers face the front (south) pitch, fitted with replacement timber-framed double-glazed sliding sash windows. Two flat-roofed dormers face the rear, with timber-framed casement windows fitted with slim-profile double glazing units. A two-storey gabled return has been built at half-landing level to the rear, set centrally and running parallel to the rear elevation; this return is also finished in natural slate. Lead cladding covers the dormers. Rainwater goods to the south are aluminium ogee guttering with replacement circular-section aluminium rainwater pipes; uPVC is used to the north.

The principal façade faces south and is laid in red clay brick in Flemish bond with painted masonry dressings. It is symmetrically arranged with a central entrance door flanked by two single-storey projecting bay windows at ground floor level: the bay to the left is square on plan with two windows, and the bay to the right is canted. At first floor, three equal-sized windows are aligned above the bays and entrance door, each with 2/2 panes, and a moulded string course forms the sill line. Toothed quoins appear at the far left (west) side. A deep continuous base plinth runs along the full width with sub-floor ventilation grilles and a moulded top edge. Heavy eaves are supported on scrolled brackets above a deep plain frieze and moulded string course, all painted. The bay windows and doorcase have painted surrounds — likely a combination of stucco and dressed stone beneath the paint. The bay window heads and jambs have stop-chamfered detailing, with the jambs extending down to the plinth and deep bull-nosed stone cills recessed between. Above the bays are decorative round and diamond-shaped incisions featuring abstract motifs. The entrance door is square-headed, timber-framed and four-panelled with a plain glass fanlight set within a round-arched opening with roll-edge detailing; this is all contained within a projecting surround with a moulded cornice hood and incised roundels, similar in treatment to the bays. The first-floor windows have moulded surrounds with a plain frieze and a projecting cornice hood with diamond-head moulded edge over a row of dentils.

The rear (north) elevation faces College Green Mews, a shared alley. It is largely symmetrical in composition but more plainly detailed, with red brick soldier-coursed headers, thick projecting stone cills, and rendered and painted reveals to all openings. The brickwork here is brownish-red variegated brick laid in English Garden Wall bond above painted render at ground floor level. The two-storey gabled return is centrally placed and flanked by sliding sash windows with 6/6 panes at first floor and flat-roofed dormers at attic level. The return itself contains a large round-arched sliding sash window, offset to the left at first floor, comprising 2/1 panes with stained and etched margin panes; two rows of brick headers form the arch above. At attic level, above the return, a single window with 3/6 panes lights the half-landing. All walling is rendered smooth and painted up to first-floor level, and sub-floor vents indicate suspended ground floor construction. To the left side of the return, a flush timber stained door with sidelight and overlight opens onto precast concrete paved steps with a tubular metal handrail and a grey brick retaining wall; a small timber-framed casement window sits adjacent to this door. Galvanised steel bars are fitted across the external reveals of all ground and first floor windows. The east face of the return has clipped eaves, a small casement window, and an indent marking a former doorway at ground floor; the walling above is blank. Ghost markings of former outbuildings or lean-to structures are visible above the render line. The west face of the return has two timber-framed casement windows with top-hung night vents at ground floor and a single-glazed sliding sash window with 3/6 panes at first floor, likely original. Windows throughout the south elevation are single-glazed timber-framed double-hung sliding sash with 1/1 panes; to the north they are multi-paned, unless otherwise noted.

The original outbuildings and yard walling to the rear have been removed to make way for off-street parking accessed from College Green Mews. Although some casement windows to the rear have also been lost, the house retains a good deal of authentic character. Despite being in office use, the interior layout and detailing remain domestic in scale with some noteworthy features. The building is now internally linked with No. 8.

The street boundary to the south is formed by dwarf rendered walling with a canted top and modern metal railings, enclosing a small front garden laid with concrete paving slabs, including a ramp and entrance steps with a tubular metal handrail painted to match the railings.

College Green was laid out in 1866 on what was then the semi-rural "Plains" of Malone, on land to the east of the recently established Queen's College (completed 1849) and around the Union Theological College (completed 1853). The foundation of Queen's College prompted several decades of development in the vicinity, with regularly planned streets filled with mainly High Victorian terraced housing for the professional and merchant classes moving southward from an increasingly commercial and industrial Belfast city centre. Nos. 6 and 8 were the first properties to be built along the new thoroughfare in 1866, followed by Nos. 2–4 (College Green House, originally "Culfeightrin House", rebuilt around 1882) and Nos. 24–26 in 1870–71, then Nos. 10–12 and 20–22 in 1876, and Nos. 14–18 in 1878. The street was originally conceived as part of Fitzroy Avenue and was treated as such for the first few decades of its existence; the name "College Green" was applied only to Culfeightrin House and Nos. 2–8 on the 1871–73 Ordnance Survey map.

Nos. 6 and 8 were built by timber merchant Robert Corry, the man also responsible for the development of Upper and Lower Crescent in the 1840s and 1850s. The identity of the architect is uncertain. The lease of both properties was taken by Mrs. Abigail Blackwood, who was the original occupant of No. 6, remaining there until around 1893 when William Rutherford became resident. In the 1901 census, Mr. Rutherford — recorded as a "retired commercial traveller" — is listed as living there with his Scots-born wife Lily, their three sons, and two domestic servants; the house itself was noted as a "first class" dwelling with 13 rooms in use. The Rutherfords remained until sometime between 1908 and 1911, when the property passed back into Blackwood family hands, with a [?]Meta Blackwood recorded there with a domestic servant in the 1911 census. She appears to have retained the house until at least 1951, with a Mrs. Jean Edwards there by 1960. By 1964 the building had been acquired by Queen's University for use as offices by the Faculty of Law, and around 1990 it transferred to its present role as offices for the University's Department — later School — of Education, at which point it was probably linked internally with No. 8. An outhouse attached to the rear of the property was demolished around the 1960s. The building was listed in 1979 and, together with No. 8, underwent a major refurbishment scheme around 2014.