1 Lower Crescent, Belfast, Co Antrim, BT7 1NR

1 Lower Crescent is a relatively large, three-storey rendered town house forming the western end of Lower Crescent, a terrace of eleven broadly similar — though not identical — properties built in 1852 in the Regency style. The terrace sits to the east of University Road and faces southward over a small public park towards Upper Crescent, a comparable development of 1846 which, unlike Lower Crescent, is arranged in a true crescent form. The property has most recently been used as a store and artist's studio, and currently serves as offices.

EXTERIOR

The front elevation is asymmetrical and faces roughly south. At ground floor level, to the left, is the entrance: a timber-sheeted door set within panelled pilaster jambs and topped by a rectangular fanlight. To the right of the doorway are two tall sash windows with Georgian panes — six over six to the right and six over one to the left. The ground floor is finished in rusticated render, with moulded voussoirs to the left window.

At first floor level, three larger windows sit on a continuous cill course. These have moulded surrounds and sash frames with Regency-style panes arranged two over four. Above the first floor windows, and below the second floor cill course, runs a broad plain render band. The upper floors are in plain render throughout.

At second floor level, three squarish windows sit on a more pronounced, cornice-like cill course with dentillations. These windows have mid-20th century metal frames, and their openings have been enlarged. Above the second floor windows is a plain course, above which rises a parapet with a plain stone coping.

The rear elevation is almost entirely in brick. To the right-hand side is a two-storey gabled return whose gable contains no openings; the upper portion of this gable has been rebuilt in concrete brick. The return merges to the right with a two-storey projection having a monopitched roof. On the north-facing rear face of this projection there is a large window similar in character to those on the second floor front; at ground floor level there is a plain timber-sheeted door. On the inner south-facing face of the projection there is a small roundel opening, now boarded up, at first floor level, with two large flat-arched openings at ground floor level. On the inner east-facing face of the return there is a doorway to the left and a square metal-framed window to the right; at first floor level there are two sash windows with Georgian panes, six over six.

On the rear façade of the main house, there is a sash window to the left at ground floor level with vertical glazing bars in a two over two arrangement. At first floor level there is a sash window to the left with Georgian panes, six over six, and two windows at second floor level matching those on the second floor front — the second floor window being smaller than the others. Between the first and second floors on the right-hand side is a half-landing window, matching the first floor window in style but with a boarded cover applied from the inside.

The roof is gabled and slated. There is a tall rendered chimneystack with a projecting coping and uniform pots. Rainwater goods are a mixture of cast iron and PVC.

HISTORICAL CONTEXT

The development of this part of Belfast follows from the selling off of much of Lord Donegall's Belfast estate in the early to mid 19th century, which opened up large areas of land around the town for development. The lands to the south, along the Malone Ridge, were particularly attractive to developers, leading to the construction of many fine late Georgian-style terraces from the mid 1830s onwards — a trend accelerated by the establishment of the prestigious Queen's College in the area in the later 1840s. These new grand terraces were occupied by Belfast's professional and business classes, who vacated their older residences in the town centre, which were in turn gradually converted to shops and offices.

Upper Crescent was perhaps the grandest of these southern terrace developments: an elegantly curving row of three-storey dwellings in a late Regency style, built in 1846 by timber and shipping merchant Robert Corry. The authorship of the design is uncertain, though Dr Paul Larmour has suggested the hand of Charles Lanyon may have been involved. Corry himself undertook the building work and took up residence in the house at the east end; for the first few years of its existence the row was known as Corry's Crescent. To the immediate south of the crescent, on the site where the church and small park now stand, Corry held a large lawn as a garden. Shortly after it was laid out, however, he had it ploughed up and used for growing vegetables for the relief of local workers suffering as a result of the Great Famine. To the north of the garden ran an old watercourse flowing northwards into the Basin, a reservoir east of the Dublin Road; to the east were smaller gardens belonging to other occupants of the crescent; and further to the east and north-east ran Albion Lane, a narrow semi-rural laneway stretching from the north end of Bradbury Place to the east end of the present University Terrace.

In 1852 Corry built a further terrace to the north of his garden and just south of the old watercourse. This new development — the erroneously named Lower Crescent — was much in the same style as that to the south and was occupied by a similar mix of professionals and businessmen, though by as early as 1860 the ground floors of some properties were in use as offices. In the later 1860s a railway line was cut immediately to the north of Lower Crescent, following the line of the old watercourse. In 1873 the large sandstone building originally known as the Ladies Collegiate — later Victoria College — was added to the west end of the terrace. By the end of the decade two further houses had been added to the east end, the most easterly of which, Rivoli House, was designed by William Hastings and originally contained a dance academy run by one Frederick Brouneau. The new railway line cut across Albion Lane and presaged the laying out of a new, broader thoroughfare, Botanic Avenue.

Upper Crescent also saw further building in the 1860s and 1870s. Two large properties designed by William Hastings were erected at the west end in 1869, one of which — Crescent House, now the Bank of Ireland — also fronted onto University Road. In 1878–79 two further houses were added on the ground between those of 1869. In 1885–87 the large Presbyterian church, now the Crescent Church, was erected to plans by Glasgow architect John Bennie Wilson on the west side of Robert Corry's former garden. In 1898 a two-storey terrace, the present Crescent Gardens, was built on the site of smaller garden plots at the east end.

During the first half of the 20th century most properties in Upper and Lower Crescent, as well as Crescent Gardens, remained private dwellings, but by 1960 many had been given over to business use or divided into flats. The former Rivoli House, later known as Dreenagh House, became the Regency Hotel. By the beginning of the 21st century none remained in private residential occupation. In the mid 1990s three of the 1860s–70s houses at the west end of Upper Crescent were demolished and replaced by a modern office block. In 2000 the railway cutting to the south of Lower Crescent was built over in preparation for a new development.

THE PROPERTY'S INDIVIDUAL HISTORY

No. 1 Lower Crescent is one of the eleven houses forming the original section of the terrace. In 1858 it was occupied by a Frederick Gee, described as a commission merchant, who appears to have remained there until at least 1882, though a Charles McDouall (also recorded as McDowell) is listed in the Belfast and Province of Ulster Directory for 1877. By 1899 the property had passed into the hands of the neighbouring Victoria College. When the Victoria College building changed hands to become the Crescent Arts Centre in 1978, this property remained associated with it, operating as the Octagon Gallery, and has largely been used as a store by the Arts Centre since.