519 Antrim Road, Belfast, Co.Antrim, BT15 3BS

519 Antrim Road is a three-storey with attic mid-terrace house in the Georgian Revival style, built in 1878 in the townland of Skegoneill, Belfast. It was constructed by local builder and contractor John Smith and is attributed, though not with certainty, to Belfast-based engineer and architect Redfern Kelly (1845–1928). The building forms part of a terrace of nine houses on the east side of Antrim Road, between Glandore Gardens and Glandore Avenue. Five of these — numbers 519 to 527, originally known as Castleton Terrace — were built simultaneously as the first phase of what became a three-phase development. Number 519 was originally the end-terrace dwelling until number 517 was added in 1883.

The attribution to Redfern Kelly rests on the close resemblance of this terrace to numbers 416–428 on the opposite side of Antrim Road — also a three-storey, two-bay terrace with ground-floor bay windows and entablatured doorways supported by Ionic columns with a fanlight above — which Kelly is known to have built in the year following the erection of numbers 519–527. Kelly was primarily an engineer who carried out major contracts for the Belfast Harbour Commissioners, including the deepening of the Victoria Channel, the reconstruction of the Alexandra Graving Dock following its collapse in 1905, and the construction of the Thompson Graving Dock.

The terrace was developed on the former grounds of Ashfield House, the home of solicitor Thomas McClelland, which was demolished at the turn of the 20th century. The Antrim Road itself was originally laid out in 1830, and the second edition Ordnance Survey map of 1858 records that the land to the north of the Belfast Waterworks and the Limestone Road was still predominantly rural in character at that time. By the mid-19th century, however, the growth of Belfast's shipbuilding, rope-making and textiles industries had driven rapid residential development in Skegoneill, which swiftly became one of the most affluent areas of the city. The grounds of Ashfield House were largely built over during the 1870s and 1880s, and the third edition Ordnance Survey map of 1901–02 shows the entire area developed with terraced streets.

The house was originally occupied by W. O. Sherrard, a commercial traveller, and was valued at £36. By the time of the 1911 Census of Ireland, it was occupied by John McFerran, a local draper. The census building return for that year describes it as a first-class dwelling comprising 13 rooms with a coal house as its sole outbuilding. Ownership of the terrace remained with the Smith family until around 1950. Under the First General Revaluation of Property in Northern Ireland (1936–57), the value of the property was slightly increased to £38. In 1961, the building was purchased by a Mr Charles Bell and converted into self-contained apartments; by the end of the Second General Revaluation (1956–72), these were valued at £79 and 10 shillings. At some point the ground floor was converted to offices, but by 2006 the entire building was again in use as apartments.

Architecturally, the building is rectilinear on plan with a three-storey gabled return to the rear. The roof is finished in natural slate with angled black clay ridge tiles, projecting eaves on block modillions, a painted moulded cornice and plain frieze, and half-round metal guttering discharging to circular downpipes. The rebuilt rectangular-section red-brick chimney stack has a corbelled coping and clay chimney pots. A dormer window features projecting eaves, moulded timber bargeboards on corbels, and slated cheeks.

The two-bay principal elevation faces west. The ground floor walls are smooth rendered, while the upper floors are red brick laid to English bond. Window openings are square-headed throughout, fitted with double-hung timber sash windows with 1-over-1 panes and ogee horns. The window openings on the upper floors have painted and moulded architraves, and the first-floor windows have flat-headed moulded hoods. A painted moulded string course runs at second-floor cill level. The ground-floor entrance is set in the north bay beneath an entablature supported on columns with Ionic capitals; above the panelled timber door is an elliptical fanlight, and the door opens onto three tiled steps. Also at ground floor level is a three-sided canted bay window with a raised parapet and moulded cornice, with square-headed window openings. A uPVC hopper discharges to a circular downpipe.

The north and south elevations are attached to the neighbouring properties at numbers 521 and 517 Antrim Road respectively. The rear elevation is red brick, with a three-storey pitched-roof return having a tall rectangular-section chimney stack to the east end and a further single-storey mono-pitched outhouse attached at ground-floor level. An external steel fire escape spans the yard.

The front of the property is paved with concrete slabs and enclosed by a dwarf painted red-brick wall with plain painted metal railings and a plain metal gate supported on metal standards. To the rear, red-brick walling with a canted brick coping is returned on both sides to form an enclosed yard paved with precast concrete slabs; a square-headed door opening sits within a segmental relieving arch. Steps at the far end of the yard lead down to this door, which opens onto an alley accessible from Glandore Gardens. Windows in the gabled rear return are uPVC rather than the original timber sashes found on the principal elevation.

The building has been converted into flats and is largely modernised internally. However, the principal elevation, the less formal gabled rear return, the original brick walls enclosing the yard, and the majority of external features survive in good order. The building holds group value with the other listed buildings in the terrace, and is notable for its well-proportioned facade, stuccoed detailing to the ground floor, fine entablatured entrance, and original timber sash windows.