20 Sunnyside St., Belfast

20 Sunnyside Street, Belfast is a two-storey red-brick terrace house built in 1903. It forms part of a row of 21 similar dwellings on the south side of Sunnyside Street, approximately 3 kilometres from Belfast city centre. The street itself connects the Ormeau Road with Annadale Embankment and represents an important phase of Belfast's southward expansion from the city centre along major thoroughfares during the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

The house is rectangular on plan with a two-storey rectangular-shaped return featuring a double-pitched roof. The walls are constructed of smooth red clay brick laid in English Garden Wall bond with clay ventilation bricks at each level and a projecting moulded brick course at eaves level. The natural slate roof is supported by cast metal ogee guttering to the front elevation and cast metal and uPVC guttering to the rear. A red-brick chimney stack with projecting brick courses and clay pots rises from the right-hand side of the roof.

The front elevation faces north and features a painted timber four-panel door with overlight (obscure glazing) positioned to the left, beneath a semi-circular head with moulded architrave. To the right is a uPVC top-hung double-glazed window with segmental head and moulded architrave. A smaller similar window is positioned almost centrally on the first floor.

The rear elevation faces south and contains a 1/1 painted timber sliding-sash single-glazed window on the first floor to the left-hand side. A two-storey extension has been added to the right, constructed of smooth red clay brick with a double-pitched roof covered in fibre-cement roof covering with clipped verges at the gable. The extension features painted timber top-hung casement windows on the west elevation, cast metal rainwater goods, and a uPVC soil stack. The south and east elevations of the extension are blank. uPVC rainwater goods serve the rear of the main house. A yard wall in replacement smooth red brick encloses the rear, featuring a square-headed doorway with painted timber boarded door.

The side elevations abut neighbouring properties: the east side adjoins 18 Sunnyside Street and the west side adjoins 22 Sunnyside Street. A small front garden finished in concrete block paviors is set behind a replacement red-brick boundary wall and gateway with painted metal railings and small painted metal arched gate. This boundary treatment, along with new front doors and windows, was installed around 1988 as part of an improvement scheme encompassing the entire terrace. The rear of the terrace is bounded to the south by a communal laneway shared with Whitehall Gardens.

Sunnyside Street first appeared on the Ordnance Survey town plan of 1871–73 as a lane stretching from the Ormeau Road to the current junction with Whitehall Parade, with only a six-house terrace on the north side marked as 'Sunnyside' (present numbers 43–53). By Marcus Ward's 1879 map of Belfast, it was designated Sunnyside Street, taking its name from the original terrace. The 1901–03 Ordnance Survey plan shows the present numbers 14–24, with the street extended as far as the junction with Walmer Street, and brick fields between this point and the River Lagan. The opening of King's Bridge in 1912 allowed the street to reach its current extent as a thoroughfare linking through to Ridgeway Street on the other side of the River Lagan.

The long terrace of 21 dwellings, though virtually identical, are of slightly different dates. Numbers 14–24 are shown on the 1903 Ordnance Survey map and recorded in the valuation book that year; numbers 26–42 were entered into the valuation book in 1904; and numbers 44–52 first appeared in the succeeding book in 1910. The developer of numbers 14–42 appears to have been Hugh Scott, listed as the lessor for all these properties in 1906, though the identity of the architect remains unknown. The first recorded occupant of number 20 was John Houston, noted in contemporary street directories as a carpenter. The 1911 census records the building as a second-class dwelling containing five rooms, occupied by Mr Houston, his wife Hanna Jane, and their two children, including William James Houston, recorded as a coach painter. Mr Houston remained the householder in 1945. By 1955, Mrs Ethel Collins (recorded variously as a chauffeur and later a fitter) was in residence and remained there until at least 1990. Leonard Patrick J Ward was named as resident in 1995. The property was listed in 1986.

The house retains strong external character including its original panelled timber front door with stucco surrounds and natural slate roof. Despite the replacement of original windows with uPVC and the addition of a new-build two-storey extension to the rear (added circa 1992–93), the building maintains significant group value as part of the terrace. It represents a good example of modest Edwardian urban terraced housing, built during the period when Belfast was expanding rapidly southwards along its main thoroughfares.