96 Malone Road ('Montpellier'), Belfast, Co Antrim, BT9 5HP

Montpellier, 96 Malone Road, is a substantial two-storey suburban house built in 1875–76 in a mildly Italianate style. It sits on a slight rise on the east side of Malone Road, with further properties immediately to its rear. The house has a stucco façade, a relatively steeply pitched hipped roof with a bracketed overhang, and is slated throughout.

The front (west) elevation is symmetrical. At its centre is the main entrance, which features an original-looking timber panelled door with glazed semicircular-headed upper panels — the left upper panel has stained glass, the right plain glazing. Flanking the door are sidelights with panelled aprons, and above is a three-light fanlight; the left-hand sidelight and fanlight are stained glass while the right-hand equivalents are clear glazed. The doorway is framed by plain pilaster jambs with decorative curved brackets supporting a shallow cornice hood. To either side of the entrance is a single-storey canted bay, each with a plain sash window to each face, a cill course, and above a string course a parapet and blocking course. At first-floor level there are three segmental-headed sash windows with simple keeled surrounds and a cill course. The lower half of the front elevation (excluding the bays) is finished in painted rusticated render; the upper half is in plain painted render. The bays are in plain render and the base has a bevelled plinth.

The north and south elevations are finished in a similar manner; the rear elevation is in red brick. The north elevation is longer than the front because it incorporates the north face of a full-height rear return that merges completely into the main façade. At ground-floor level on the left there is a small sash window, with two much larger sash windows to the right. At first-floor level there are three windows matching those on the front. To the far left, the façade merges into a high rendered wall containing a large segmental-arched carriage entrance with panelled pilaster jambs, a moulded archivolt with a decorative keystone — which resembles one of the water gods from the Custom House in Dublin — and a timber-sheeted double door.

The south elevation is shorter than the north. On the ground floor to the left is a large but shallow single-storey square bay with a large tripartite sash window whose mullions have moulded half-column pilasters. Above this window is a narrow string course with cornice and blocking course above. To the right of the bay is a plain sash window. At first-floor level are two windows matching those on the front, resting on a cill course. Set at an intermediate level to the far right is a small plain sash window. To the far right the façade merges into a high rendered wall with a broad segmental-headed open carriage arch.

On the rear (east) elevation, to the left side projects a full-height bay. At ground-floor level this contains two small windows with modern frames; to the right the bay merges into a small single-storey section that leans against the main body of the house, this lean-to having a plain sash window to its east face with security bars. At first-floor level in the main bay is a plain sash window, and directly above the lean-to — to the right of the bay — is a large semicircular-headed stairwell window with a sash frame and margin panes. To the right side of the rear elevation projects a full-height three-level gabled return. On the south face of this return at ground-floor level is a relatively large kitchen window with a steel frame, which has probably been enlarged at some point. At first-floor level to the left is a narrow sash window with Georgian-style panes (four over four), and to the right of the east-facing gable of the return is another matching sash window. At second-floor level in the gable are two small four-pane windows. Between the return and the lean-to, at ground-floor level on the main section of the house, is a partly glazed door. The rear elevation brickwork is painted at ground-floor level. A large section of brick to the upper floors of the gable of the return is noticeably lighter in tone than the surrounding brickwork, suggesting it may have been replaced at some stage; this is supported by the fact that the small second-floor windows in this area have concrete lintels, as though their openings were reconstructed.

There are two centrally positioned tall rendered chimneystacks on the main roof, each with a string course, cornice course, and four octagonal pots. The rear return gable has a narrow brick chimneystack with one cylindrical pot. Rainwater goods are cast iron.

To the front of the house is a small garden, with a much larger garden to the south. There is a shared driveway to the north. To the rear is a relatively large enclosed yard with a large two-storey former outbuilding; only part of the ground floor of this outbuilding belongs to number 96, with the remainder divided into apartments forming number 98.

The house was built in 1875–76 on land that had previously formed part of the grounds of the property immediately to the east, also called Montpellier (now number 100), which had been erected around 1840 by Belfast merchant Thomas Gilmore on land he acquired from the Reverend George MacCartney-Black in 1836. Following Gilmore's death in 1870, the lot was sold to Samuel Gibson, a Belfast druggist and grocer, who developed it in 1875–76 by constructing this house — which also took the name Montpellier — along with Carlton House to the north (now numbers 92 and 94), and in 1878 a large villa to the south where he himself resided (since demolished). The earliest recorded resident of number 96 appears to have been an R. C. Grubb (possibly Gribb), noted in a revaluation notebook of 1876, though his stay was short-lived. By 1877 a pawnbroker and auctioneer named William Hunter was listed as resident in the Belfast and Province of Ulster Directory; he remained until around 1885 and was followed by a William Ferris, and then around 1898 by a Robert O. Cunningham MD, Professor of Natural History at Queen's College. The property remains a private dwelling.

The outbuilding complex to the rear appears originally to have been shared between this property, number 100 to the east, and number 102 to the south (now demolished), and appears to have contained living quarters associated with number 100 at least by the 1890s. In 1912 an additional storey was added to the complex, creating a larger property named The Nook. In 1968 The Nook was divided into two separate properties, one to each floor.