18 College Gardens, Belfast

18 College Gardens, Belfast

End of terrace, three-storey with attic red brick late Victorian town house, built in 1877 by an unknown architect. It forms part of a block of four properties (including Nos 15, 16 and 17 College Gardens), with the block largely symmetrical to its front elevation. No.15 mirrors No.18, both positioned at gable ends with the narrower properties Nos 16 and 17 between them. The house sits midway along College Gardens, a tree-lined street of similarly scaled townhouses running from Malone Road to Lisburn Road and within the Queens Conservation Area. The building faces south and overlooks the grounds of Methodist College.

The property comprises a three-storey gabled return built at half-landing level to the rear (north), with a detached hipped roof garage and lean-to outhouse at the rear boundary. The roof is natural slate with black clay ridge tiles and a wide flat roofed dormer to the front pitch, clad in PVC membrane. Two red brick chimneys have been replaced in modern red brick with several circular clay pots: one shared with No.17 and one centred on the gable end.

The front elevation is asymmetrical with a projecting moulded eaves on curved moulded brackets alternating with pitched square motifs at the deep frieze, all on a projecting string course with a continuous band of dentils below; this detail is returned at the south-west corner to the gable end. The rear eaves are simpler, comprising two courses of projecting brick, though the decorative eaves and frieze are repeated at the north-west corner, forming the base to a simple rendered verge band and projecting moulded timber barge board.

Materials include natural slate roofing with PVC membrane to the dormer and projecting bay at front. Gutters and downpipes are of ogee profile cast metal with square section pipes to the main roof and front, cast iron to the bay, and cast metal at the rear. Walls are red brick in Flemish bond with stucco dressings to the south and east elevations, and English Garden Wall bond to the north.

Windows are timber framed double glazed replacement sliding sash with 1/1 panes throughout. On the front elevation (south), the design is asymmetrical with the entrance to the right (east) at ground floor and a projecting square rendered bay with two windows to the left (west) at ground floor, repeated at first floor but slightly shallower in red brick with a separate window aligned over the entrance. Three equally spaced windows occupy the second floor, and a flat roofed dormer sits centrally above the eaves cornice at attic level. All windows are segmental headed and diminish in height from ground to second floor level.

The ground floor features a painted render base plinth with moulded top and vermiculated toothed quoins to the south-west corner. The stuccoed bay has a stop-chamfered head and jamb to the ground floor bay windows, with heavy bull-nosed cills set within the reveal. A decorative string course runs above the windows with a projecting moulded cornice on block modillions. A moulded cornice is repeated at first floor projecting bay on a band of dentils.

The square headed timber framed entrance door comprises two full-height arched panels with raised fields and bolection moulding, with a plain glass segmental arched over-light on a deep moulded transom. The elaborate stucco surround features a roll-edged reveal, foliated scrolled console brackets and moulded edge to the hood; a floral stone roundel sits between the console brackets with plain spandrels, all painted. The window at first floor above the entrance door has a similar hood with smaller scrolled brackets. Predominantly red brick walls at first and second floor level feature projecting moulded stucco surrounds and cills at the windows, painted. Decorative flower carving is framed within the surround at window heads to the first floor at the square bay, and foliated detail appears above the surrounds to second floor windows.

The rear elevation (north) is surveyed from Elmwood Mews. A three-storey gabled return built at half-landing level projects to the left (east) side, with one window each to the ground, first and second floors to the right. Red brick walling is detailed more simply than the front elevation with a projecting brick eaves course, soldier coursed brick headers and square-edged painted cills. The north elevation of the return has one window at second floor, offset to the right (west), and two at first floor, offset to the left. Remnants of flashing on the brick wall suggest evidence of a former gabled single storey return, now removed.

The east elevation is abutted by No.17 College Gardens. The east face of the return is detailed as the rear of the main building and largely blank, except for a single window at first floor overlooking the yard to No.17; the wall is rendered smooth and painted below first floor cill height.

The west elevation comprises the gable end to the original building and the west face of the return. The gable features red brick in Flemish bond with toothed quoins returned from the main façade and decorative eaves returned at north and south ends. Two segmental headed windows with moulded stucco surrounds are centred at ground floor, and two small round arched windows sit near the eaves at attic level, with painted rendered reveals. The return elevation has two windows each at first and second floor, informally arranged and not aligned. The ground floor is not visible.

The property is set back from the tree-lined street by low red brick walling with stone coping and hedging on the south side of College Gardens. A painted metal gate, not original, opens onto a concrete paved path with lawn and planted areas, with a semi-mature beech tree at the south-west corner. A painted metal railing divides the front garden of No.18 from that of No.17. The front door opens onto two replacement steps, flanked by painted dwarf walls with an open balustrade between square end piers, all having painted cambered caps.

The rear boundary is marked by a variegated brownish red brick wall with a curved terracotta cap, which steps down to a newer red brick wall containing a modern steel lintel over a polyester powder coated metal roller shutter that opens to a hipped roofed garage on the reverse side. A flush timer door with a precast concrete lintel opens from the yard to Elmwood Mews.