44 Florenceville Avenue, Belfast

44 Florenceville Avenue, Belfast

No. 44 is a very fine High Victorian house built around 1872. It is a two-storey semi-detached house constructed in sandstone and red brick, forming part of a terrace of three similar but not identical houses. Together with its neighbours at Nos. 42 and 42A Florenceville Avenue, it is set back from the original Victorian building line and was designed as an important group with a palace front composition. The houses are among the earliest and most significant historic properties in Florenceville Avenue and in this part of South Belfast.

The house is situated on the south side of Florenceville Avenue, which connects to the Ormeau Road approximately 2.5 miles south of Belfast's centre. It has a small mainly grassed front garden bounded by a twentieth-century red brick wall with vertical boarding above and a vertical boarded gate. A concrete path leads up two short flights of steps to the front door. A paved side and rear yard, enclosed to the south by shrubbery, connects to the property.

The front elevation faces north and displays high-quality external detailing. The ground floor is constructed of random coursed sandstone ashlar with a semi-rock face finish, whilst the first floor is built from red clay brick laid in Flemish Bond. A painted smooth string course separates these two levels. The original painted four-panel door sits at the left of the ground floor, accompanied to the right by a painted single-glazed 1/1 sliding sash window. Two similar 2/2 sliding sash windows occupy the first floor. The door features a painted architrave with very ornate foliate detailing, possibly in sandstone. The windows are fitted with raised decorative architraves incorporating flower motifs; the ground floor sill is supported on ornate brackets. The roof is hipped at the side and carries two red brick corbelled chimney stacks, one topped with octagonal clay pots. The eaves project and are supported on painted timber brackets. The roof is finished with fibre cement slates.

The west elevation features a 1/1 painted timber window on the right of the ground floor and two 2/2 similar windows on the first floor, all positioned close to the corners. The first floor windows have raised architraves matching the front elevation detail; the ground floor window features alternating painted quoins. A flat-roofed and rendered canted bay with three 1/1 windows, detailed as before, projects from the ground floor towards the front of this elevation. The ground floor displays semi-rock faced walling whilst the first floor is finished in smooth painted render.

The south (rear) elevation of the main house is rendered on both floors. Beyond the main house is a red brick two-storey return, originally a stable block but now integral to the house, connected to the main body by a flat-roofed section. The west elevation of this return, facing an enclosed paved yard, includes a short modern timber-clad section with a tall window on the ground floor and a 2/2 sliding sash window above. The remainder of the ground floor is fully glazed with an almost frameless appearance and a slightly projecting lead roof. The first floor has a modern painted fully glazed door screened by a shallow glass balcony. The end gable (south) displays two painted timber sliding sash windows at first floor level with ornate brickwork at the verges and short eaves returns. Below is a timber-clad flat-roofed extension fitted with two roof lights.

Rainwater goods are of cast iron. Windows are a mixture of 1/1 and 2/2 painted timber sliding sashes.

The three houses at Florenceville Avenue are first recorded in the valuation book in 1872 and appear on the Ordnance Survey town plan of 1871-73. They were built on land that previously formed part of the garden of Locust Lodge, a house of probable pre-1833 construction and one of several small semi-rural gentleman's residences that characterised the Ormeau and Ravenhill areas before late Victorian and Edwardian suburban expansion. The terrace was developed by William Fitzpatrick, a Belfast builder who acquired Locust Lodge in 1865 and undertook various building projects in the vicinity. Fitzpatrick also donated land for and contributed to the building costs of the nearby St. Jude's Church, constructed 1871-73. The architect responsible for Florenceville is not known.

For two decades following construction, Florenceville Avenue served merely as a drive connecting the three houses to the Ormeau Road, then known as the Old Ballynafeigh Road. The entire south side was developed in the mid-1890s, whilst the north side buildings are largely products of the 1920s.

The original occupant of No. 44 appears to have been John McConnell, described in street directories as a clerk. John Forsythe, a soap manufacturer, became the leaseholder around 1882, followed by Adam Alexander Laughlin, a master mariner (later described as a manager), around 1886. Mr. Laughlin died around 1893; his widow was recorded in the 1901 census as living there with her young niece and a domestic servant. The 1901 census records the house as a second-class dwelling with seven to nine rooms, of which four were occupied by the family. John McDowell, a commercial traveller, had taken residence by 1908 and is noted in the 1911 census as occupying the house with his wife Martha and their two sons. The McDowells remained until at least 1932. By 1943, Thomas Burrows is listed as the householder, remaining until the mid-1950s, after which the property was subdivided into flats, continuing in this use into the 1980s.