61 University Road, Belfast, Co Antrim, BT7 1NF

61 University Road is a relatively low-proportioned, three-storey late Georgian-style terraced house built in 1840–41, with a stucco façade and decorative doorcase. It forms one of a matching group of four houses, all now divided into flats with stairwell returns to the rear.

The terrace to which the property belongs — originally named Botanic View — stands on the west side of University Road, with Camden Street to the north and Fitzwilliam Street to the south. The terrace as a whole consists of this property and its two identical neighbours, four similar but taller three-storey houses of around 1840–43 (number 59 of which was rebuilt in the 1980s following bomb damage), and a short two-storey brick grouping of 1852 at the southern end, now used as flats and offices. Number 61 sits roughly in the middle of the terrace.

The front, east-facing façade is asymmetrical. To the left on the ground floor is the original entrance doorway, which is no longer used as the primary access — the flats are now reached from the rear stairwell return. The doorway consists of a traditional-style panelled and glazed surround that now functions as a window, with a plain rectangular fanlight above it. The whole ensemble is framed by plain pilasters with decorative console brackets supporting a cornice hood with a tympanum-like blocking course over. To the right of the doorway are two flat-arch windows with Georgian-paned sash frames, each with six panes over six (6/6). At first-floor level, and set slightly wider apart than the ground-floor windows, are two more windows of the same type but marginally larger in appearance. Two similar but shorter windows, with six panes over three (6/3), are positioned at second-floor level in line with those on the first floor. The front façade is finished in plain render with simple moulded surrounds to the windows. The render is painted, with the window surrounds and doorcase picked out in a darker shade than the remainder of the elevation.

To the right of the rear elevation is a full-height return. On its west face there is a Georgian-paned sash window with four panes over four (4/4) at the first half-landing, and another with two panes over four (2/4) at the second half-landing. To the ground floor of the rear façade of the main portion of the building — that is, to the left of the return — there is a modern-style timber panelled door to the right and a narrow sash window with four panes over two (4/2) to the left, with a shallow projecting hood above both. At first-floor level there is a larger Georgian-paned sash window (6/6), and at second-floor level a shorter one (6/3). The entire rear elevation is rendered and painted to match the front.

The main gabled roof is slated, with a slated lean-to roof to the return that merges with the main roof. There is a tall rendered chimney stack to the south with a string course and decorative matching chimney pots. Both front and rear have verge courses with what appears to be recent moulded guttering, and modern-style square downspouts. To the front, a small garden enclosed by low rendered walls is planted with shrubbery.

The artist Paul Henry was born at number 61 in 1871.

The broader historical context of the terrace is significant. Prior to the early 19th century, the present University Road was the main route south from Belfast towards Dublin, running along the Malone Ridge. The land to the west of this road consisted of long, narrow strip farms stretching down towards the Bog Meadows, many of which had been leased from the Donegall estate to Belfast merchants since the mid-18th century. The construction of the present Lisburn Road in 1819 and the cutting of the Ulster Railway through the lower fields by 1839 disrupted the unity of these farms. From 1823 onwards, the Donegall estate began granting perpetual leases of land to the south of Belfast, opening the area to residential development.

John Alexander was one such developer. His family had held a lease on 31 acres in the townland of Lower Malone since the early 18th century, acquiring it outright from Lord Donegall in 1823 for £480. It was on this land that Alexander built the three-storey portions of Botanic View — the present numbers 53 to 65 University Road — between 1840 and 1843. He also parcelled out adjacent portions of the holding to other developers, leading to the construction of Fitzwilliam Place (numbers 71 to 75) in 1846–48, dwellings along the newly laid out Fitzwilliam Street (numbers 2 to 8) in around 1849–50, and Camden Terrace along the newly laid out Camden Street in 1849–52. The two-storey southern portion of Botanic View was in place by 1852. These new dwellings, along with others nearby including Fountainville Terrace, Upper and Lower Crescent, Prospect and Claremont Terraces, and University Square to the east, marked the beginning of the suburbanisation of South Belfast and the movement of the town's professional and commercial classes away from the town centre. The earliest inhabitants of Botanic View reflected this social character, with late 1840s and early 1850s directories listing a surgeon, an engineer, a drawing master, and various businessmen among the residents.

The whole of Botanic View remained in the ownership of the Alexander family until 1881, when numbers 53 to 65 were sold to Robert Kelso Mathewson. In 1950 the properties came into the possession of Queen's University, with number 67 acquired by Queen's in 1963. In 1982 the University sold the entire grouping to the Malone Housing Association. Up until that point the properties had largely continued in use as private dwellings, some latterly occupied by University staff and students, though numbers 55 and 57–59 briefly served respectively as a temporary post office and a branch of the Ulster Bank in 1971–72. Number 59 sustained damage in a bomb blast and was demolished in 1979.

In the mid-1980s, the Malone Housing Association converted the entire group into flats. In the process, number 59 was rebuilt. Numbers 53, 55, 57, and 59 each provide three flats, while six flats are shared between numbers 61, 63, 65, and 67. All of the original rear returns were demolished to make way for new stairwell projections, with a single stairwell shared between each former house. In March 2000 the whole group was re-conveyed to Queen's University.