143 Malone Road, Belfast BT9 6SX

143 Malone Road, Belfast — Former Villa, now Offices (Built 1897)

This substantial two-storey Italianate stuccoed former villa was built in 1897 for Frank Kerr, a solicitor, to designs by the Belfast architect William John Moore. It now serves as offices for the Construction Employers Federation. The building occupies a generous corner site at the junction of Malone Road and Myrtlefield Park in South Belfast, sitting back from the main road behind an original painted, lined and ruled rendered boundary wall with square piers and replacement metal railings. A lawn to the front and mature landscaping surround the building, which sits immediately to the south-west of St John's Church of Ireland. The former lawn to the rear has been converted to hard-surfaced car parking. The listing covers the former villa together with its boundary wall and piers, but excludes the railings and gates. The building lies within a conservation area.

Architectural Overview

The building is composed of an advanced main front block with a lower two-storey wing to the north-east, which is abutted to the rear by a pitched-roof one-and-a-half-storey extension on the north-west side with single-storey returns. This later extension sits adjacent to the hall on the north-west side of the neighbouring St John's Church. The main block has painted, lined and ruled rendered walls, a natural slate hipped roof with lead ridges and a central flat section. Two rendered chimneys rise from the front pitch and one from the rear. The north-east return also has a hipped roof with a central flat section and no chimneys. The style has been described by architectural historian Paul Larmour as "rather sober and conservative, unaffected by any of the emerging decorative trends of the nineties" — perhaps fitting for the conservative profession of its original owner.

Exterior Details

With the exception of three replacement uPVC windows to the rear façade of the side return, all windows to the former villa are original one-over-one timber sliding sash with single glazing. Painted moulded stone surrounds are used throughout, except at the bay windows. Other external details include a painted plinth, stone sills and string courses, raised toothed painted stone quoins, and corbelled dentilled eaves beneath moulded cast iron guttering. Rainwater goods comprise painted cast iron gutters, painted cast iron downpipes and some painted PVC downpipes.

Front Elevation (South-East)

The advanced, symmetrical front block sits to the left, with the lower two-storey return wing to the right. The front block features a central open porch flanked by single-storey canted bays with flat parapet lead roofs and square-headed window openings. The open porch is carried on four painted stone columns with Corinthian capitals — square pillars to the outer corners and circular columns to the centre. The original front door is a bolection-moulded six-panelled timber door with a decorative carved timber surround. Above, at first floor level, there are three pairs of window openings with arched heads. The side return has two ground-floor window openings (one on each side) and four openings at first-floor level.

Side Elevation (South-West)

The main block occupies the right-hand side of this elevation. At ground-floor level there is a canted bay window (matching those on the front elevation) to the left, with two further window openings to its right. The first floor has two pairs of window openings. A raised patio area is positioned to the left side of the main block. The south-west façade of the rear return, which faces onto this raised patio, has a shallow square bay with three ground-floor window openings, three aligned window openings above with painted stone surrounds, and a single window opening on the right side at both levels.

Rear Elevation (North-West)

The main block has varied fenestration at the rear, including a large stained glass window with an arched head at approximately half-landing level, a canted bay window to the left, and other individual window openings. A rear door in the left corner has a panelled timber door with an upper glazed panel set within a painted, moulded stone surround. Painted render chimney stacks are present on both the left and right sides. The rear of the return has three square uPVC replacement windows at ground-floor level and three window openings at first-floor level. Abutting the north-west side of the return is the one-and-a-half-storey extension, which has painted lined and ruled rendered walls, a pitched natural slate roof with black clay ridge tiles, varied fenestration comprising a mixture of replacement uPVC and timber windows, and rooflight windows at eaves level with window openings below. A tall plain chimney rises from the rear gable. This extension is itself abutted by single-storey returns on the south-west and north-east sides with monopitch roofs.

Side Elevation (North-East)

At ground-floor level this elevation is abutted by a flat-roofed single-storey extension or return. Three window openings are present at first-floor level.

Interior

Both the interior and exterior of the main front block retain a great deal of original historic fabric and detailing. There is a fine decorative timber staircase, extensive original joinery, and particularly fine plaster detailing to ceilings and friezes. By 1934, valuation records described the interior in some detail. The ground floor comprised a hall with mahogany dado-panelled walls (which appears to have survived), four reception rooms — the dining room having a parquet floor — a cloakroom with hot and cold water and WC, two pantries, a kitchen and scullery. The first floor contained three double bedrooms (one with a dressing room off), a modern bathroom with hot and cold water and a tiled floor, a dressing room, a storeroom that had formerly served as a billiard room, and a maid's double bedroom. The main landing and staircase also had dado panelling, and there were two bedrooms on the attic floor. A 1952 sale advertisement described a spacious hall with fireplace and wide branching staircase, a drawing room with bay, morning room with bay, dining room, study, two cloakrooms, six first-floor bedrooms and a dressing room, two bathrooms, a linen press and two attic bedrooms.

Historical Context

The site chosen for the house lay between St John's Church (built 1893–4) and an old farmhouse called Myrtlefield, which dated from around 1780–1801 and was demolished around 1900, though it gave its name to the nearby Myrtlefield Park. The house was initially named 'Altfort'. Frank Kerr entered it into valuation records in 1897 at a valuation of £140; the gate lodge was valued at £4. Valuers estimated the cost of construction at £2,500–£3,000, describing the house as built of brick and slate. The 1897 valuation plan showed a stable courtyard attached to the north corner of the house, and additional stables were added to the courtyard in 1911. The 1901 census records Frank Kerr living at Altfort with his wife Isabella and four children aged between 5 and 15. The household employed two servants — a cook from Maghera, County Derry, and an English housemaid. Outbuildings at that time included three stables, a coach house, a harness room, a cow house, and a hay house. The gardener, Arthur Toner, lived in the gate lodge.

Frank Kerr lived at Altfort until around 1910, when he moved to another nearby house in Myrtlefield Park, which he also named Altfort. Born in Dromore and apprenticed to a police court solicitor, he qualified as a solicitor in 1887 and rapidly built a lucrative practice, serving as solicitor to the Tramways Committee of Belfast Corporation for thirty years. He was described at his death in 1933 as an "outstanding man" with "broad views and sympathies" and "kindness of heart", a prominent Catholic known for a genial disposition and a wide circle of friends. He was a keen huntsman, a member of the County Down Staghounds Hunt Club and of Royal County Down Golf Club, though a subsequent accident curtailed some of these activities. Two of his sons were killed in the First World War: Private John (Jack) Kerr, who was resident in Canada and fighting with the Australian Infantry (21st Infantry Battalion), was killed in action on 20th March 1917 during the German retreat to the Hindenburg Line and is buried in the Villers-Bretonneux military cemetery near the Australian National Memorial; Lieutenant James Kerr of the Royal Irish Rifles, who had won an award for gallant conduct and constant devotion to duty in the field, was killed in action on 21st March 1918 at the start of the German spring offensive and is buried at Pozières, approximately 30 kilometres from his brother. Two other sons entered the priesthood: Very Reverend Hugh Kerr became parish priest in Gweedore, and his brother Reverend Frank Kerr CC of St Malachy's Church, Belfast, subsequently became Parish Priest at St Matthew's.

The architect, William John Moore of Belfast, had a varied practice encompassing commercial and industrial premises and housing, but is perhaps best known for his churches, including St Mary's, Cushendall; St Mary Star of the Sea, Portstewart; and St Patrick and St Brigid, Glenariff. Moore was also prominent in the public life of Belfast, serving as a Nationalist Councillor for the Falls ward from 1907, and as an alderman and vice-chair of the Improvement Committee — the body responsible for granting planning permission — of Belfast Corporation until 1919. He was a director of the Irish News and of the Celtic Football Club, and was described on his death as an "eminent Catholic citizen", his funeral being "one of the most remarkable witnessed in the city for a long time", attended by large numbers from "every section of the community".

After Frank Kerr vacated the house around 1910, it passed to Adam Clarke Capper (1861–1945), a linen and cotton yarn merchant who had worked in the yarn business of his father, also named Adam Clarke Capper (1828–1894). The 1911 census records A C Capper living in the house with his English wife Rebecca and four children, the eldest son being an apprentice in the yarn business. The household again employed a cook and a housemaid. Capper renamed the house 'Malvern' — after the spa town in Worcestershire — a name it retained through several changes of ownership until the 1970s. By 1911, the 1901 census's gardener had been replaced by an English chauffeur, Frederick Sheppard, who lived in the gate lodge with his Scottish wife; the 1911 census return lists a motor house among the outbuildings. At that time only 5,058 cars were licensed in the whole of Ireland, with the wealthy merchant classes of Belfast being relatively rapid adopters of the new means of transport. Adam Clarke Capper's son, also named Adam Clarke Capper (1894–1916), who had been educated at the Royal Belfast Academical Institution and Queen's University before becoming an apprentice in the yarn business, was commissioned as an officer in November 1914 and was killed in the Battle of the Somme during the capture of the village of Ginchy on 9th September 1916, aged 23.

In 1935 the house was noted as "old but compact, well planned and in good repair". Rebecca Capper died in 1944 and her husband shortly afterwards in 1945. In addition to his role as governing director of A C Capper and Sons, Adam Clarke Capper had been a member of the Belfast Philharmonic Society for fifty years and a member of the Ulster Reform Club for thirty-five years. Following his death, the contents of the house were sold by auction in July 1945. The inventory, published in the Belfast Newsletter of 24th July 1945, included large quantities of valuable antique furniture — pieces by Sheraton, Chippendale, Hepplewhite, Adam, and Louis XV and XVI French furniture — together with watercolours and oils by notable Victorian artists including Myles Birket Foster, Samuel Bough, John Brett and William Callow, as well as work by the Irish artist William Conor.

In 1946 the house was purchased for £3,650 by Hugh Armstrong, a building contractor with premises in Lower Windsor Avenue. Armstrong was a prominent member of the business community and Belfast's public life, serving as a member of Belfast Corporation for many years and as a Harbour Commissioner. The gate lodge, comprising three rooms — a living room, bedroom and small pantry with sink — together with a yard and outdoor WC, was renovated by Armstrong and extended into the yard with the addition of an indoor bathroom. It was then occupied by Thomas Stringer, the gardener. Armstrong died in January 1949 and his widow in January 1952. The house was advertised for sale in 1952, described in the Belfast Newsletter as a "superior" and "attractively designed" residence. It was subsequently purchased by the Cromie family. Enoch Garfield Cromie, a wholesale meats and livestock contractor based at Belfast Abattoir in Stewart Street, supplied butchers across Belfast and beyond, and Frederick John Cromie — probably Enoch's brother — worked as a director of the business. Enoch was resident until at least 1962 and Frederick John Cromie remained in the house until his death in 1969. F J Cromie had been associated with the cattle trade across the island of Ireland for forty years; a native of Moy, County Down, he had begun working for his father in the butchery trade at the age of seventeen, eventually becoming, with his brother, a cattle exporter and owner of a chain of butcher's shops. Frederick's widow, Mrs Greta Cromie, the Northern Ireland representative of the Women's Section of the British Legion, continued to live in the house for several years after her husband's death.

Alterations

In the 1970s the house was taken over by the Federation of Building and Civil Engineering Contractors NI Ltd, now known as the Construction Employers Federation, and converted to offices between 1974 and 1975. Paul Larmour noted in 1991 that the Federation deserved congratulations "for keeping the whole property, both house and gardens, in such immaculate condition, and for having converted the house to offices in such a discreet manner." The north-east wing has been extended and remodelled internally (planning consent 2008), though the historic elevations have been largely retained. A raised patio has been constructed to the rear, and the former gardens to the rear have been surfaced in tarmac for car parking (planning consents 1991 and 1998). The current gates and railings are replacements (planning consent 1998). The original single-storey rendered gatelodge at the south corner of the site has been refurbished, with replacement windows and an artificial slate roof. While the north-east return has been modernised and extended to the rear, and other alterations have taken place over the years, the main front block retains its original style, much of its original plan form, and a high degree of its ornamental detailing, making this a building of special architectural and historic interest.