24 College Gardens, Belfast

24 College Gardens, Belfast

A mid-terrace three-storey townhouse over basement with attic, built in 1882 in red brick. The building forms part of a symmetrical block of four (Nos 23, 25 and 26), with No. 24 mirrored by No. 25, while Nos 23 and 26 terminate the block with gabled ends. Located towards the west end of College Gardens, a tree-lined street of similarly scaled Victorian townhouses running from Malone Road to Lisburn Road, the building lies within the Queens Conservation Area and faces south, overlooking the grounds of Methodist College.

The front elevation displays Italianate styling with classical proportions. The ground floor is finished in painted stucco, while red brick walling with moulded stucco dressings rises above, including continuous projecting cills at first and second floors. An asymmetrical composition features an aedicule at the entrance to the left and a single-storey squared bay with three windows and openwork parapet to the right. Three segmental arched windows occupy each upper floor, diminishing in height. First-floor windows have plain stucco surrounds with projecting hoods—pedimented to the middle window and shallow pitched to the side windows. Second-floor windows display moulded stucco surrounds with corresponding brackets below the cill course. The entrance door is timber-framed with four panels and a bolection moulding, flanked by Corinthian-style pilasters and topped by a deep moulded pediment with foliated tympanum bearing the date '1882'. The inner face of the fanlight has applied gold digits '24'.

The roof consists of natural slate with black clay ridge tiles. A large red brick chimney is centred on the ridge and shared with No. 23, with a reconstituted stone corbelled cap and several circular pots (partially replaced). A modern flat-roofed dormer sits on the front pitch; the rear pitch has a duo-pitched dormer and two roof-lights, one modern and one conservation-style. Projecting moulded stucco eaves with fluted corbel brackets appear on the front; alternating angled brick headers mark the projecting eaves to the rear. The main roof retains a cast iron ogee profile gutter with square section aluminium rainwater pipes to the south; the north elevation has uPVC guttering and rainwater pipes.

To the rear (north), a full-height projection rises at half-landing level, abutted by a double return comprising a three-storey hipped-roofed section and a two-storey flat-roofed section, both offset to the west. The rear elevation is plainly detailed by comparison to the front, with asymmetrical fenestration. The main building's north face contains single windows at each floor: an attic level sliding sash in a duo-pitched dormer clad with artificial slate; original 2/2 sliding sashes at second and first floors; a 1/1 sliding sash at ground floor; and a fixed timber-framed replacement window at basement level. All north-facing windows to the double return are timber-framed replacement sliding sashes with 1/1 double-glazed panes and concrete cills. The hipped-roof return has a single window centred on the ridge at second floor, otherwise blank. The flat-roofed return has informally arranged fenestration, including a large window offset to the right (reduced in height with modern red brick infill below the cill) and a smaller one to the left at first floor; a centrally placed window and modern sheeted timber door occupy the ground floor to the right, with no remaining openings at basement, though evidence of a former segmental arched door and adjacent window survive as salvaged brick infill.

The east elevation, shared with No. 23 College Gardens, features windows at half-landing levels: a replacement timber-framed 2/2 sliding sash at ground floor; original 1/1 sliding sashes with coloured margins at first and second floors; and a replacement 1/1 sliding sash at attic. The double return's east face contains two original 2/2 sliding sashes at first floor and two 1/1 replacements at ground floor, flanking a modern zinc-clad bridge spanning the yard to connect with No. 23. A sheeted timber replacement door appears at basement level.

The red brick walling is laid in Flemish bond to the front with painted moulded stucco dressings, and in English Garden Wall bond to the rear and return. Windows to the front elevation are single-glazed double-hung sliding sashes with 1/1 panes; the modern flat-roofed dormer has double-glazed timber-framed windows with double-glazed fixed lights to the cheeks.

The building is set back from the street on the south side of College Gardens, with mature hedging and modern metal railings at the boundary. A ramped entrance (in place of original steps) has buff-coloured precast concrete paving slabs with small pavers to the border. A gravel bed surrounds the square bay and a small section of dwarf brick wall at the College Gardens boundary, with a young tree planted in the gravel. The remainder of the front garden is tarmacked to provide off-street parking. The rear overlooks Elmwood Mews, a shared alley running the full length of College Gardens and connected to Elmwood Avenue. A curved terracotta-capped red brick wall with simple metal railings divides the yard from No. 25. A modern red brick wall with galvanised steel lintel and metal roller shutter forms a wide vehicular entrance to the rear parking area, shared with No. 23. Modern concrete steps retained by salvaged red brick walling and metal railings lead from a ground-floor exit door to a tarmacked yard at basement level.

The building is currently used as offices, combined with No. 23.