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

No. 9 Lower Crescent is a relatively large, three-storey rendered town house forming part of a Regency-style terrace of eleven similar, though not identical, properties built in 1852. The terrace — known as Lower Crescent — is set to the east of University Road and faces, across a small public park, Upper Crescent: a similarly styled development of 1846 which, unlike its counterpart, is actually arranged in a true crescent form. The property now houses offices and is partly integrated with the neighbouring properties on either side (nos. 8 and 10).

EXTERIOR

The front elevation is asymmetrical and faces roughly south. To the right on the ground floor is the entrance, consisting of a four-panel timber door with a rectangular fanlight above; the upper panels of the door have semicircular heads. To the left of the doorway are two tall, plain sash windows. The first floor has two larger windows set on a sill course, with sash frames glazed in Regency-style horizontally orientated panes (4 over 8). The second floor has two much smaller windows with Georgian panes; these appear to be side-hung casements. The second-floor windows rest on a more pronounced, cornice-like sill course with dentillations. The entire front façade is finished in plain render. A broad plain course runs above first-floor window height and below the second-floor sill course. Above the second-floor windows there is a further plain course, above which sits a parapet with plain stone coping.

The rear elevation appears to be wholly rendered. To the left-hand (east) side is a two-storey gabled return. On the first floor of the gable of this return is a Georgian-paned sash window (8 over 8); the ground floor has three small, modern-looking windows. To the right, the return merges with a two-storey projection with a monopitched roof. On the rear (north) face of this projection there is a sash window with Georgian panes (6 over 6) to the first floor, and a plain sheeted door at ground-floor level. It was not possible to observe the inner (west) face of the return or the inner (south) face of the projection. From internal evidence it appears there is one window to the first floor of the inner face of the return, matching that on the return gable. On the rear façade of the main house there is a sash window with Georgian panes (6 over 6) to the right on the first floor, and another (6 over 6) to the right on the second floor. To the left, between the first and second floors, is a half-landing window of the same type, though covered with security bars. The gabled roof is slated and has a small skylight to the rear. The chimneystack, which would have been to the west, has been removed. Rainwater goods are a mixture of cast iron and PVC.

HISTORICAL CONTEXT

The broader development of this part of Belfast was shaped by 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. The lands to the south, along the Malone Ridge, were particularly attractive to developers and led to the building 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 grand new terraces were occupied by Belfast's professional and business classes, who vacated their older residences in the town centre, which were gradually converted to shops and offices.

Upper Crescent was perhaps the grandest terrace development undertaken to the south of the town: an elegantly curving row of three-storey dwellings in a late Regency style, built in 1846 by timber and shipping merchant Robert Corry. Its authorship is uncertain, though Dr Paul Larmour has suggested that 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, where a church and small park now stand, there was a large lawn which Corry held as a garden. Shortly after this garden was laid out, however, Corry had it ploughed up and used for the cultivation of 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 — and to the east lay some smaller gardens belonging to other occupants of the Crescent. 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, 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, along the line of the old watercourse. In 1873 a large sandstone building — originally the Ladies Collegiate, later Victoria College — was added to the west end of the terrace. By the close of that decade, two further houses had been added to the east end; the most easterly of these, Rivoli House, designed by William Hastings, originally contained a dance academy run by a 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, with two large properties designed by William Hastings erected to the west end in 1869, one of which — Crescent House, the present Bank of Ireland — also fronted onto University Road. In 1878–79 two further houses were added between those of 1869. Between 1885 and 1887 a large Presbyterian church — the present Crescent Church — was erected to designs by Glasgow architect John Bennie Wilson on the west side of Robert Corry's former garden, and 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, and the former Rivoli House — later known as Dreenagh House — became the Regency Hotel. This trend continued and by the beginning of the 21st century none were occupied as private dwellings. 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.

NO. 9 LOWER CRESCENT

This property is one of the eleven houses making up the original section of Lower Crescent. In 1858 it was occupied by one Samuel Delacherois, described simply as 'Gentleman' — he was probably related to the Delacherois landlords of Donaghadee. By 1860 it was occupied by a John K. McCausland, who appears to have remained there until at least 1882, followed by a Miss Vance and then a Mrs Jackson from around 1915. In the 1940s the property came into the possession of the nearby Victoria College girls' school and in the following decade became, together with the neighbouring no. 8, the school's canteen; many of the internal changes may date from this period. After Victoria College's departure from Lower Crescent in the late 1970s, the property was converted to offices.