32 Sunnyside St., Belfast

32 Sunnyside Street is a two-storey red-brick terraced house built in 1904, located on Sunnyside Street approximately 3 kilometres from Belfast city centre. The building is one of a row of 21 identical or near-identical terraced houses set on the south side of Sunnyside Street, built as the city expanded rapidly southwards along the Ormeau, Lisburn and Malone Roads at the turn of the twentieth century.

The house is rectangular on plan with a single-storey L-shaped return at the rear featuring a mono-pitched roof. It is constructed in smooth red clay brick laid in English Garden Wall bond, with clay ventilation bricks at each level. The roof is finished in natural slate with a red-brick chimney stack on the right-hand side, topped with clay pots. A blue-brick course and projecting moulded brick course marks the eaves level, supporting cast metal ogee guttering.

The front elevation faces north and contains a painted timber four-panel door with overlight (plain glazing) to the left and a painted timber 2/2 sliding-sash single-glazed window to the right. Both the door and window have semi-circular and segmental heads respectively, each with moulded architraves. A smaller similar window is positioned almost centrally on the first floor. All elements are painted timber. The rear elevation features painted timber top-hung windows at first-floor level (including a smaller staircase window) and at ground floor. A single-storey L-shaped extension with mono-pitched roof extends from the rear, constructed in red brick with fibre-cement roof covering and painted timber board to the verge. This extension contains windows with top-hung uPVC frames and concrete lintels. Cast metal and uPVC rainwater goods serve the building. The side elevations abut the neighbouring properties at numbers 30 and 34 Sunnyside Street.

The front boundary has been replaced with a red-brick wall and gateway with painted metal railings and small painted metal arched gate, installed around 1988 as part of an improvement scheme affecting the entire terrace. The front garden is finished in concrete block paviours. The rear of the property is bounded to the south by a communal laneway shared with Whitehall Gardens. An original section of the yard wall, which is canted at the corner and partially cement-rendered, survives abutted to the extension and contains a square-headed doorway with painted timber boarded door and canted brick coping.

According to the 1911 census, the building was recorded as a second-class dwelling with five rooms. The developer of numbers 14-42 (which includes number 32) appears to have been Hugh Scott, listed as lessor in 1906. Numbers 26-42 were entered into the valuation book in 1904, with the house first appearing on the Ordnance Survey map of 1901-03. The identity of any architect involved is unknown. The first recorded occupant was Stewart Gilkinson, followed by Adam Hawthorn (a gardener) around 1907 and Mrs. Agnes Smyth around 1910. The 1911 census recorded Mrs. Smyth, a widowed dressmaker, living there with her seven daughters aged between 2 and 12 years old. Subsequent occupants included William Holland (a joiner), Mrs. Sarah Dorman, and other family members through to at least 1995. The property was listed in 1986.

The house retains significant external character, including its panelled timber door, sliding-sash windows, stucco surrounds, and slate roof, and possesses considerable group value as part of the larger uniform terrace of 21 houses. Despite alterations and the replacement front boundary, it remains a good example of modest Edwardian urban terraced housing.