22 Ashley Ave, Belfast, BT9 7BT

22 Ashley Avenue is a two-storey terraced house with an attic, built in 1870 and facing north onto Ashley Avenue in south Belfast. It may have been designed by Luke Livingstone Macassey, a Carrickfergus-born architect and engineer then practising from 71 High Street, Belfast, though this cannot be confirmed with certainty. The house forms a group with its immediate neighbours at numbers 24 and 26 Ashley Avenue, the three properties surviving as the left-hand portion of what was originally a terrace of five; numbers 28 and 30 were demolished between 1959 and 1970. Together, the three remaining houses stand within the Lisburn Road Area of Townscape Character as good examples of late Victorian terraced architecture, each rendered in a different colour and embellished with stucco detailing. The street itself was laid out between 1858 and 1860, its course running through one of the long-established strip farms that stretched from what is now University Road and Malone Road towards the Bog Meadows, rather than following a farm boundary as most neighbouring streets do. It was probably named in tribute to Anthony Ashley-Cooper, 8th Earl of Shaftesbury (1831–86), who in 1857 married Lady Harriet Chichester, heiress to the Marquis of Donegall. Numbers 22 and 24 were built in 1870, developed by Samuel Clotworthy, whose plans for two houses in Ashley Avenue were approved by Belfast Corporation's Town Improvement Committee in June of that year.

The front elevation is asymmetrical and faces north. The rendered walls are painted, with lines indented up to first-floor cill height to imitate rusticated stone, and the dressings are highlighted in a contrasting colour. To the left is a single-storey canted bay window with a parapet roof and railings; to the right is the entrance at ground floor; and two equal-sized windows sit at first-floor level. Toothed quoins mark the left (east) side. The bay has a continuous cill, a moulded string course, and a moulded head and cornice. The entrance is framed by an aedicule — a classical surround comprising panelled sides and a lintel, decorative scrolled console brackets, and a projecting hood with a moulded cornice and pediment above. A lever bell-pull, possibly original, is recessed within the aedicule. The timber-framed door is painted and features bolection moulding, raised and fielded panelling, and round-arched upper panels with carved spandrels; the original cast iron knocker, letterbox, and brass handle are all intact, along with a plain glass overlight. First-floor windows have moulded surrounds. A projecting course sits between the first-floor cills, a moulded string course runs at attic level, and a projecting eaves course on paired block modillions finishes the front elevation, all painted to match the main walling.

The roof is natural slate — Bangor Blue — with black clay ridge tiles, including over the rear return. There are two chimneys centred on the ridge of the main roof: both are rendered with corbelled caps and six octagonal yellow clay pots; one sits at the gable end and one is shared with number 24. A replacement red brick chimney sits midway along the return roof, centred on its ridge. To the front there is a gabled dormer with a segmental arched sliding sash timber window with one-over-one panes, painted timber boarded cheeks, and scrolled timber brackets supporting overhanging eaves and a fascia board. The rear dormer appears to be a recent addition. Cast iron ogee guttering and cast iron rainwater pipes serve the north elevation; the remainder of the rainwater goods are uPVC.

The rear elevation faces south and is two bays wide. A two-storey gabled return projects to the left (west), built at half-landing level. To the right side of the rear elevation there is a glazed hopper at basement level with metal bars to the external reveal, one window each at ground and first floor, and a wide duo-pitched attic dormer. The main building also has a single window above the return to the left side. Walls are smooth rendered and painted, with projecting cills and a projecting eaves course. The rear eaves have a simpler profile than the front and are fitted with uPVC half-round guttering.

The south elevation of the return has clipped eaves and a single opening at first floor, offset to the left, containing a six-paned fixed light with curved top and bottom edges. At ground floor there is a stained timber door with multi-paned timber-framed sidelights and a stained glass overlight.

The east face of the return contains, at ground floor from right to left: a large timber sliding sash window, single glazed with ten-over-ten panes, and two round-arched openings with plain fanlights and modern timber-framed glazed doors. At first floor there are three windows — two equal-sized and one smaller, the latter a timber sliding sash with one-over-one panes and margin panes.

Number 20 abuts the east elevation of the main building, leaving only a small part of the gable end exposed at the top. Number 24 abuts the west elevation of the main building. The west face of the return faces onto the yard at number 24 and has smooth rendered, painted white walls with a projecting eaves course and uPVC guttering matching the south elevation; a single window sits at first floor, offset to the far left (north) side.

A barrel-vaulted, steel-framed conservatory occupies most of the yard between the return and the boundary wall with number 20, projecting further south into the garden and supported at that point on a rendered plinth wall. It is steel-framed with single-glazed facetted panes and a highly ornate cast iron ridge and spike finial. On top sits a hipped glazed lantern with vents operated manually by a winding pole mechanism from inside. Beyond the conservatory is a small open yard next to the kitchen window. The yard is surfaced with square quarry tiles, possibly original, with steps up to a lawn and planted area to the south. The south and east boundaries are formed by red brick walling. A rendered boundary wall and an adjoining cast iron gate — which, according to the previous owner, was salvaged from a horse paddock around 1980 — separate the small patio area at number 24 from number 22, with hedging forming the remainder of the west boundary.

The property is set back from the pavement by a low plinth wall topped by railings with a matching gate; the same wall and railings run along the front boundary shared with numbers 24 and 20. According to the previous owner, these railings and gate were salvaged from a church on University Road around the 1980s. Hedging and shrubs grow behind. Historic maps indicate that each property in the terrace originally had its own yard, a communal passage, and individual gardens to the rear; the gates between yards survive, though the passage itself has gone.

The two-over-two paned sliding sash windows are single-glazed double-hung timber units throughout, unless otherwise noted. The gabled return to number 22 retains its original windows. Internally, the plan form is largely unaltered, with an array of historic joinery and plasterwork among other features of note.

The site is of additional archaeological significance. In 1975, during excavation of the cellar, archaeological remains reputedly from an early Christian occupation site (recorded as ANT 061:014) were discovered.

The earliest recorded occupant of the house was Alexander Fisher. Subsequent residents included Mrs Brown (or Browne) from around 1875 to 1882; John W. Edgar from around 1882 to 1885; Henry Macaulay, a draper, from around 1885 to 1890; William Wallace and R. P. Hunter from around 1890 to 1898; and Captain Robert Crosby, a retired Master Mariner, from around 1898 to 1899. The 1901 census records Crosby living there with his wife Martha, two boarders named Anna and Ellen Graves, and a visitor named Anne Bella Linus. A Mrs Meek is noted as occupant in 1907, followed by Albert Martin, a commission agent, the following year. By the time of the 1911 census, Martin occupied the house with his wife Annie Elizabeth, their eight children, and a domestic servant; the building was recorded as a first-class dwelling with seven rooms occupied. The Martin family remained until at least the late 1920s. Subsequent occupants included Mrs R. Brown in 1932, J. H. Patterson in 1943, and Peter Fitzell, a clerk, in 1951. Fitzell remained until around 1975, when Alun Evans acquired the property and carried out substantial refurbishment. Helen Armstrong is recorded as resident in the 1996 street directory.