261A Belmont Rd, Belfast, Co. Antrim, BT4 2AJ

261A Belmont Road is a two-storey, three-bay, flat-roofed Modernist house built in 1937 to designs by local architect Anthony Frederick Lucy. It is a now rare surviving example of Modernist domestic architecture in Northern Ireland, and one of a small number of similar houses Lucy designed in suburban Belfast during this period. The house sits on the south side of Belmont Road within an area of suburban development to the south of the road and west of Pirrie Road, approached from the northwest by a short tarmacked driveway. Access to the site is through a set of iron sunburst gates hung on iron posts, with a tarmacked path leading east to the main entrance. The modest garden is laid out as lawn with mature shrubs to the north of the front door, with a garden to the rear; the site is enclosed by square-cut hedging.

The house is rectangular in plan, facing north, with a full-height return to the southwest. A single-storey flat-roofed extension in a similar style abuts the southeast, and a single-storey single-bay block — which may originally have been a garage — is attached to the west. The single-storey rear extension is not original and was added after 1954, as it does not appear on the Ordnance Survey map of that year.

The walls are finished in roughcast cement render, painted white, with raised smooth render bands to the parapet, window surrounds, and chimneys. The flat roof sits behind a raised parapet. Rainwater is discharged through polygonal cast iron hoppers into circular-section cast iron downpipes. There are rectangular-section chimneys to the east and west, with two terracotta pots on the east chimney and one on the west.

Principal (north) elevation

The front elevation is dominated by a main two-storey, three-bay section. The ground floor projects forward with curved ends, its raised parapet forming a balcony at first-floor level. A single-storey, one-bay section extends to the west. The central entrance bay projects slightly beyond the flanking curved bay windows, and has a square-headed door opening surmounted by a blank round-arch panel in smooth render. The timber entrance door has horizontal panels to the lower half and Art Deco leaded geometrical stained glass to the upper half, with replacement brass furniture. The two flanking bays are stream-form curved bay windows — a feature characteristic of the era — with original metal-framed single glazing, including curved sections divided by thin horizontal glazing bars. The small top opening windows of these ground-floor curved bays retain their original Art Deco chevron detailing. Horizontal tubular metal railings run along the flat roof of the projecting curved bays.

At first-floor level, the central bay projects slightly and contains replacement uPVC double-leaf glazed doors with coloured glass, topped by Art Deco stepped detailing and a projecting keystone. The upper-floor corner windows and the windows to the single-storey western section have been replaced with uPVC units in a similar style. The window of the single-storey western section has a flat, pediment-like contrasting raised band to its surround. All windows have concrete cills.

East elevation

Partially obscured by the site boundary and neighbouring housing to the east. The three-bay main section of the house has replacement uPVC corner windows at first-floor level and a smaller rectangular uPVC window to the centre. A partly engaged chimney breast, stepped to the north at first-floor cill level, rises to roof level, where a smaller rectangular chimney section projects above the parapet. The two-storey return also has replacement uPVC corner windows at first-floor level. A single-storey flat-roofed extension extends to the south.

South elevation

Not fully accessible, but visible from the public footpath to the southeast. The two-storey return has central double-leaf uPVC doors at first-floor level with Art Deco stepped detailing above and horizontal tubular metal balconette railings. Replacement uPVC corner windows are present on the eastern side of the return and the main building.

West elevation

Obscured by the site boundary. There is a square-headed window to the centre of the single-storey section and a similar window to the two-storey section. Staggered iron irons provide access from the roof of the single-storey section to the main flat roof. The rectangular-section chimney to the main two-storey block has no external chimney breast.

Historical background

The suburbs to the south and east of Belfast saw tentative development in the early decades of the 20th century, but it was not until the 1950s and the post-war decline of the city's industries that suburban housing construction in this area gained real pace. No. 261A Belmont Road was part of the earlier pre-war phase of this development. The Irish Builder records that Lucy designed a house on Belmont Road in 1937, which is understood to refer to this property. Lucy worked almost exclusively in the Belfast area, chiefly designing large numbers of houses for private housing developments in the city and suburbs. He also designed a house in Shandon Park and No. 9A Ascot Gardens, both of which are remarkably similar in style to this building.

The house was first recorded in the First General Revaluation of Property in Northern Ireland (1936–57), which noted it was owned by a Mr N. J. Luke and leased to a J. F. Mason, with an initial valuation of £44. During the Second General Revaluation (1956–72), the house was leased to a Mr George Jenkins, a director of a local company, and its value was increased to £53. In 1991, the Northern Ireland Historic Buildings Council recommended the statutory listing of No. 9A Ascot Gardens on the basis that the loss in recent years of other Modernist houses in the area made it a rare example of its type. No. 261A Belmont Road is an equally rare surviving example of Lucy's Modernist domestic design.