40 St. Johns Park, BELFAST, BT7 3JG

40 St. John's Park is a three-storey semi-detached house dating from 1908, built in the Arts and Crafts style and attached to its mirror-image neighbour at No. 12 St. John's Avenue. The two houses together form the oldest surviving pair in the St. John's area and occupy a prominent corner site at the junction of St. John's Avenue and St. John's Park, near the Ormeau Road approximately 3 kilometres from Belfast city centre. The house is square on plan with a double-pitched roof, a side entrance porch, and a rectangular single-storey flat-roofed extension to the rear. Despite some modernisation at ground floor level, the upper floors remain largely intact, and most of the original external features are preserved. The listing covers the house, its gate, and gate piers.

EXTERNAL APPEARANCE

The walls are finished in smooth red-clay brick laid in Flemish bond at ground floor level, with slap-dash render painted off-white to the upper floors. Roofing throughout is double-pitched with replacement red concrete tiles and ridge tiles. Rainwater goods are painted cast iron, and there are deep overhanging eaves with exposed painted timber rafter ends, moulded fascia boards, and boarded timber soffits.

FRONT ELEVATION (EAST)

The east-facing front elevation features a three-storey projecting gabled bay to the left and a projecting bay at ground level to the right, flush with the left gable. At ground floor level, the left-hand projecting gable has a canted bay with three windows, plain brick piers, and a high parapet roof with scallop detail and slim concrete copings. The projecting bay to the right has a pair of windows and a mono-pitch roof with red concrete tiles. All window openings at this level are square-headed with plain painted concrete lintels and concrete cills.

At first floor level, two segmental-arch headed Wyatt-style windows are centrally located above each bay. Each consists of a central 6-over-1 sash window flanked by two 2-over-1 side lights, with red-brick surrounds and reveals detailed in the manner of quoins. On the left projecting gable at second floor level, there is a centrally placed oval window opening with a red-brick surround, fitted with a painted timber oval window that opens on a central pivot. Above the right-hand projecting bay is a single square flat-roofed dormer with lead covering and a painted timber square window. There is a slim red-brick chimney to the right with a slim moulded concrete cap and red-clay pots.

REAR ELEVATION (WEST)

The west-facing rear elevation has a three-storey projecting gabled bay to the right. To the left at ground level is a small outhouse with a painted boarded timber door and flat roof. At ground floor level there is a 1-over-1 sliding sash window, and at first floor a 6-over-1 sliding sash window; both openings have flat segmental arched heads. To the right at ground level, a single-storey flat-roofed kitchen extension is attached.

The right-hand projecting gable at first floor level has three square-headed stairwell windows with stained glass, possibly replacing earlier sliding sash windows. At second floor level, to the left there is a round-headed arched window opening with an arched overlight and a 4-over-1 sliding sash window, the lower section of which is in stained glass. To the right is a segmental-arch headed opening with a 6-over-2 sliding sash window. Walls to the left are red-brick in Flemish bond; those to the right are slap-dash render painted off-white. Cills are painted concrete. On the apex of the gable is a tall moulded ventilation pipe. A red-brick chimney with slim moulded concrete cap and red-clay pots stands to the left.

SOUTH SIDE ELEVATION

The south side elevation has a slightly projecting porch positioned almost centrally, a pair of narrow windows to the left, and a large replacement window opening to the right. The pair of windows have flat segmental arched heads, concrete cills, and 1-over-1 single-glazed sliding sash windows with obscure glass. The replacement window to the right is square-headed with a slim concrete bowed lintel and bowed concrete cill, and is fitted with a painted timber frame with plain leaded glass.

The projecting porch has a door to the left and a window to the right, sheltered by a painted timber canopy supported on carved painted timber brackets with a painted timber boarded soffit. The openings have segmental arch heads with a painted concrete tympanum incorporating a circular indent. Painted concrete courses run at impost and cill level, with an ogee moulding in the doorway at cill level. The door is a replacement varnished timber door with three glazed panels; the window is replacement painted timber with plain leaded glass. Walls at this level are smooth red-clay brick in Flemish bond.

At first floor level on this elevation there are two modern square-headed window openings to the left, fitted with uPVC casement frames, set within slap-dash render painted off-white. Where the main roof gable intersects the ridge there is a gablet with a slatted painted timber inset. To the west of this elevation is the single-storey flat-roofed kitchen extension, which is of no special interest. A slim red-brick chimney with moulded concrete cap and red-clay pots stands centrally on the roof. The north side elevation abuts No. 12 St. John's Avenue.

SETTING AND GROUNDS

To the front is a small garden with concrete paviors and shrub beds bounded by hedgerow to St. John's Park. An original small gateway to the left features a cast-iron gate with a nameplate reading 'Evermore', mounted on plain square red-brick piers with concrete caps. A small concrete path leads from this gateway to the entrance porch on the south façade. A large lawned garden extends to the south and west, bounded by mature trees to the south and a modern single-storey garage to the west. A modern brick wall adjoins the rear single-storey extension on the north boundary. The surrounding residential area consists mainly of early-to-mid 20th century semi-detached red-brick housing with double canted bay fronts.

HISTORY

No. 40 St. John's Park and its attached neighbour at No. 12 St. John's Avenue first appear in the valuation books in 1908, indicating they were completed in that year or the one immediately preceding. At the time of construction, St. John's Avenue extended only as far as the newly built houses, Rosetta Parade was just being laid out, and the land to the south — for much of the 19th century part of the grounds of either Annadale or Annadale Cottage, two of the small country villas that characterised the Ormeau and Ravenhill area — remained undeveloped.

The authorship of the houses is not certain, but the name W.G. or W.J. Gilliland appears as the immediate lessor in the valuation book. If this is W.J. Gilliland, it is highly probable that the designer was William John Gilliland (1855–1929), the Belfast architect known to have worked on buildings in this vicinity, including houses and shops along Ormeau Road in 1896, an extension to Ormeau Bakery in 1906, and a bakery for the United Co-operative Baking Society in Ravenhill in 1911.

In the 1911 census only one of the properties is recorded — occupied by Patrick McGlade, his wife Eleanor, eight of their children, and a domestic servant, with the building noted as a first-class dwelling with 12 rooms. McGlade was a Belfast publican who came to own bars in Donegall Street and Castle Street, a café in Queen's Arcade, several hotels including the Grand Metropole Hotel in Donegall/York Streets, a petrol station, and shops on nearby Ormeau Road. Although the census places the family at what is now No. 12 St. John's Avenue, family history and later valuation returns suggest their home was in fact No. 40 St. John's Park, originally known as 'Evermore'. McGlade also owned the large holding to the south, much of which — by at least 1927 — he was renting to several local tennis clubs, with a small section immediately south of Evermore used for garages. Most of this land was sold off for the development of St. John's Park in the mid-1930s, and the garages remained until the construction of St. John's Court around 1990.

The northern property, apparently named 'Kingslea', seems to have remained vacant for several years after completion, but around 1916 it was leased to a J. or Harold Tomlinson, who remained there until around 1930. After this, both houses were occupied by members of the McGlade family — Mr and Mrs McGlade had 28 children in total — until the late 1960s, when No. 12 was acquired by or leased to T.A. Norrie, described as a company director, followed in the later 1970s by an R. Lewis and by Henry H. McConkey by 1986.