32 The Mount, BELFAST, County Antrim, BT5 4ND

32 The Mount is a five-bay, two-storey over basement, Georgian-style end-of-terrace townhouse erected around 1860. It is located on the south-western portion of The Mount, off Castlereagh Street, to the east of Belfast city centre. The house is currently unoccupied and in a serious state of decay, having lost its roof entirely, along with much of its historic glazing and other detailing. Despite this, the overall proportions and architectural character of the building remain legible.

The building has a rectangular plan with a single-storey over basement return to the rear. The right gable abuts the neighbouring No. 34 The Mount. The former roof was hipped but has been completely removed. The chimneystacks are smooth rendered, with the pots also removed, and one chimneystack is centrally located on the north-west elevation. The external walls are finished in ruled-and-lined cement render with long-and-short quoins and a moulded masonry corbel course that runs continuously at eaves level. The rainwater goods are cast-iron with ogee moulding, though some uPVC replacements are present.

The windows are 6/6 timber sliding sash with no horns, set on masonry cills. The first-floor windows have moulded surrounds; those on the ground floor do not. Glazing has been largely removed and openings blocked up. The front door is boarded up but retains its moulded panelled surround, which rises to scrolled console brackets supporting an entablature canopy surmounted by a pediment.

The principal elevation faces south-west and is asymmetrically arranged, with the front door positioned slightly left of centre, two windows to either side, first-floor windows directly above, and basement windows below (their view currently obscured). The north-west elevation has a single window on the left side of the ground floor and a blocked-up entrance to the right-hand side of the basement. The rear elevation is asymmetrically arranged with various window sizes at ground and first floor level. The single-storey over basement return on the right side contains various window openings but has no roof remaining.

The site is currently bounded by corrugated sheet metal screening. The land immediately to the rear is vacant. The surrounding area consists largely of 19th and 20th century red-brick housing of two and three storeys. Some remains of wrought-iron railings survive to the front of the house.

The building shares group value with its immediate neighbours, Nos. 34 and 36 The Mount. Following the delisting and demolition of Nos. 16–26 The Mount — which were of a similar character and erected around the same time — Nos. 32, 34, and 36 are the only surviving early houses in this part of the area, and together represent the oldest examples of terraced housing in the townland of Ballymacarrett.

Historical background

An early valuation map indicates that Nos. 32 and 34 The Mount, along with the other houses surrounding The Mount Square (now demolished), had been constructed by around 1860. The adjoining No. 36 was still under construction at the time the map was drawn.

No. 32 was originally let by a Mr. William B. Ritchie, who owned the remaining buildings on The Mount and resided at The Grove on the Shore Road. The Annual Revisions initially valued the house at £25 and recorded the first occupant as Mr. William Hunter, a leather merchant, who lived there from around 1862 until 1894. The value was reduced to £20 in 1880 for unknown reasons. By 1894 the house was recorded as the property of Francis Ritchie & Sons, a felt company and manure works on the Mountpottinger Road, operated by William B. Ritchie.

When William Hunter vacated the property around 1894, a Mr. Thomas Anderson came into possession, and his family continued to reside there until around 1930. A revaluation of Belfast property in 1900 described No. 32 as a two-storey private dwelling measuring 40½ by 24 feet and 24 feet in height, with a basement measuring 26 by 15 feet. It was fitted with gas installations, contained nine rooms excluding the kitchen, and had a bathroom. By 1900 Thomas Anderson had left the address and his relative Jane Anderson — likely his widow — was recorded as occupant, paying annual rent of £42 to Francis Ritchie & Sons. The 1901 Census records Jane Anderson as a 70-year-old Anglican widow living at No. 32 with her six grown children, three of her sons employed as bankers.

In 1906, when Pottinger Ward was valued separately from the rest of central Belfast, the value of No. 32 was increased to £25. At that time the lessor of both No. 32 and the adjoining No. 34 was recorded as a Mr. James McQuoid, who resided at No. 36 and acted as agent for the Ritchie estate, then owned by Thomas Hay Ritchie. Jane Anderson continued to be recorded as occupant through to the end of the Annual Revisions in 1930, though the 1921–22 Belfast Street Directory noted that a Ms. Mary Murtagh was residing at the address at that time.

The first general revaluation of Northern Ireland property since partition, carried out in 1935, recorded that No. 32 had passed from the Ritchie family into the ownership of a Mr. William Philips, who also owned Nos. 34 and 36, and the house was revalued at £28. Belfast Street Directories indicate that a Mrs. Mary Whitaker occupied the house from 1930 until the 1940s. By the time of the Second General Revaluation in 1956, ownership had passed to a Miss Florence Whitaker, likely Mary's daughter, and there was no change in value or ownership through to the end of that revaluation period in 1972. The house was recorded as vacant in 1980, and by 1990 a Mr. Christopher Agee had come into possession.

The Mount Square was developed around 1860 on the site of Mount Pottinger, a former gentleman's residence belonging to the Pottinger family. The Pottingers purchased the entire townland of Ballymacarrett in 1672 and had built their first house on the site of The Mount by 1705. A later house on the site was still present on the first edition Ordnance Survey map of 1834, but by the second edition of 1858 it had been taken down and the site laid out in the form of the current square. One of the most prominent members of the Pottinger family was Sir Thomas Pottinger, the first Governor of Hong Kong, who is commemorated by an Ulster History Circle plaque close to No. 36 The Mount.

Writing of the area's significance, historian K. Haines noted that "virtually all the houses built after 1857 were still standing a century later. By the start of the twentieth century, the whole of inner East Belfast had submitted to the terrace, and only The Mount, the original focus of the district, even then starting to fade, reflected the more prosperous years of Ballymacarrett." Nos. 32–36 The Mount are the oldest surviving examples of terraced housing in the townland of Ballymacarrett, which came to be characterised by the red-brick terraces built from the mid to late 19th century onwards. No. 32 is now essentially a ruin, and is recorded as such on the Buildings at Risk register.