272 Antrim Road, Belfast, Co. Antrim, BT15 5AA

272 Antrim Road is a well-proportioned end-of-terrace house built in 1844, forming the northernmost of a small terrace of three early Victorian red-brick dwellings in the townland of Skegoneill on the west side of the Antrim Road. The terrace, originally known as Richmond Terrace, was constructed on land leased by James McCaldin, a hat and cap manufacturer with premises on Waring Street, and this house was known individually as Richmond House. The listing covers the house itself together with the front walling, gate piers, yard walling and shed.

The building sits on an L-shaped plan, rising two storeys to an attic, with a projecting gabled bay to the east and a two-storey rear return to the west. The roof is pitched natural slate with clay ridge tiles and overhanging eaves carried on paired timber brackets with scrolled ends and a timber-sheeted soffit. Ogee-moulded uPVC gutters discharge to circular downpipes. The red brick chimneys have a rendered band and moulded coping with round terracotta chimney pots; the chimney to the south is shared with the adjoining property.

The front elevation faces east and is three bays wide. The brickwork is laid in Flemish bond with a painted raised stone plinth and a raised render band at first-floor string course level. The projecting north-east bay rises two and a half storeys and is finished with a broken pediment gable; its quoins are smooth ashlar. The ground and first-floor windows of this projecting bay sit within smooth rendered surrounds, each with scrolled brackets supporting a moulded sill and cornice header. At the apex of the gable there is a square-headed opening with rendered reveals containing a timber casement window. Throughout the front elevation, windows are square-headed with rendered reveals and painted stone sills, fitted with paired two-over-two horizontally divided timber sliding sash windows, single-glazed.

The central entrance is reached by a flight of concrete steps and a brick path leading to two nosed steps at the doorway. The six-panelled painted timber door has a fanlight over and is set within a rendered surround with scrolled brackets on pilasters supporting a painted cornice canopy. A single two-over-two timber sliding sash window sits above the entrance door. The north side elevation is two bays wide with a blind opening to the east side at first-floor level.

The rear return is three bays wide and two storeys high with a pitched roof, uPVC half-round gutters and a circular downpipe, red brick walling, and square-headed openings with uPVC windows. A single-storey flat-roofed building is attached to the west. The rear elevation has a semi-circular opening to the apex of the gable, a pair of gabled rear returns, and a single-storey flat-roofed extension. Its square-headed openings have painted rendered stone surrounds and timber casement windows. The south side elevation is attached to No. 270 Antrim Road; its rear return is three bays wide and two storeys high with a single-storey outbuilding extending to the west.

In the rear yard to the south there is a lean-to shed built against the south yard wall. It is constructed of painted boarded timber with a corrugated tin roof, and has a single boarded timber door with a tripartite glazed panel, a clerestory timber window of six panes, and a replacement gutter.

The site boundary to the east, at the junction with Antrim Road, is a rock-faced coursed basalt wall. The gateway is formed by a pair of square-plan piers with moulded pyramidal copings. To the north there is a rendered wall with metal fencing, to the west a rendered wall, and to the south a mature hedge. The rear yard to the west is enclosed to the south by an original rendered brick wall. Gardens and a driveway lie to the east of the front elevation.

The house has group value with the other two listed houses in the terrace, Nos. 268 and 270 Antrim Road, and its position adjacent to the north entrance of the Waterworks, formerly known as Queen Mary's Gardens, means it makes a significant contribution to the character of this stretch of the Antrim Road.

Richmond House first appears on the second edition Ordnance Survey map of 1858, laid out in its current form with gardens in front. When the area was surveyed for the first edition Ordnance Survey in 1832–33, the Antrim Road — originally laid out in 1830 — had not yet reached this point and the land remained entirely rural. The original deeds recorded in the listing file confirm the 1844 construction date. Griffith's Valuation of 1859 set the value of No. 272 at £55, rising to £60 under the First General Revaluation of 1936–57 and remaining at £60 by the end of the Second Revaluation of 1956–72.

The first recorded occupant was Major James Kenneth Mackenzie, who lived here until 1866. He was followed by George Wilson Kyle, a hosiery and glove merchant with premises on Bridge Street, who remained until his death in 1868, after which his widow Catherine Kyle stayed on. By the time of the 1901 Census of Ireland the house was described as a first-class building containing thirteen rooms, and Mrs Kyle was still in residence. After her death around 1910 the house passed briefly to James Pyper, principal of the Belfast Mercantile College, and by 1918 it was occupied by the Reverend James Knowles of Castleton Presbyterian Church, who died in 1927. A Ms Emily Laverty then resided there until the 1950s, after which ownership passed to Marion Allworthy. Around 1956 the building was acquired by the Trustees of Carlisle Memorial Methodist Church as a manse for the Reverend A. W. Gamble. The terrace was listed in 1986.