8 College Gardens, Belfast

8 College Gardens, Belfast

A mid-terrace three-storey two-bay red brick town house built in 1877 to designs by architect William Batt. The building forms part of a symmetrical block of four properties (numbers 7, 9 and 10 College Gardens), with number 8 mirrored by number 9, while the wider end properties number 7 and 10 occupy the gable ends. The house is located at the east end of College Gardens, a tree-lined street of similarly scaled townhouses running from Malone Road to Lisburn Road within the Queens Conservation Area. The building faces south and overlooks the grounds of Methodist College.

The property is constructed in red brick laid in Flemish bond with blue brick string courses and alternating soldier courses. A three-storey return extends to the rear at half-landing level, adjoined to number 9 to form a wide gable. The natural slate roof is covered in Bangor Blue slates with black clay ridge tiles. A large red brick chimney is centred on the ridge with a corbelled cap in brick specials and sixteen circular red clay pots shared with number 7. The eaves are projecting stone with corbelled brick specials featuring roll-edged dentils on cogging and stretcher courses. Two modern skylights have been added to the rear north roof slope.

The south-facing front elevation is asymmetrical, with the entrance positioned to the left and a two-storey canted bay with a lead roof to the right. A projecting rubble-stone base plinth has a chamfered blue brick top. Dressed sandstone cills and lintels are continued as two string courses of blue brick with a red course between, with stop-chamfered reveals. The central entrance is formed in alternating red and blue soldier courses in threes, with a dressed sandstone hood mould and label stops (the left label stop is shared with number 9). Above the entrance is a plain fanlight over square-headed panelled timber double doors, flanked by grey marble colonnettes with dressed sandstone capitals, collar and base on toothed quoins. Carved foliage detail appears on the label stops, base and capitals. The same alternating blue and red brick soldier course is repeated as a segmental relieving arch to the window above the door, with an angled blue brick hood above. Windows are single-glazed double-hung sliding sashes with 1/1 panes to the main building and 2/2 panes to the return, unless otherwise described.

The north-facing rear elevation overlooks Elmwood Mews and is asymmetrical with the three-storey return to the left and one window per floor to the right (2/2 panes at first floor). The detailing here is plainer than the front, with shallower stone cills and red brick soldier courses above the windows. A row of projecting brick headers runs to the eaves. The return features clipped eaves and a single window offset to the right on each floor, diminishing in height, with the remainder of the elevation left blank. The east elevation is abutted by number 7, with the east face of the return detailed plainly as the north elevation. Fenestration is informal with single windows to the north and south ends at all levels and additional openings between: a tripartite window (1/1 panes) and flush modern door at ground floor; twin 1/1 sliding sashes offset to the left with translucent glass at first floor; and a single window with translucent glass at second floor. The west elevation is abutted by number 9, including the return.

The building is set back from the tree-lined street by a front lawn and mature hedging, sitting mid-terrace within a block of similar townhouses, rectangular on plan and aligned east-west parallel to the road. A gate opens to College Gardens with a tarmac-surfaced path to the house. The rear overlooks Elmwood Mews, a shared alley running the full length of College Gardens and connected to Elmwood Avenue. Red brick walling in English Garden Wall bond with a rounded terracotta cap (missing in part) divides the yard from numbers 7 and 9 and along the south boundary. Concrete steps descend to a basement below the north end of the yard, containing a bin store and exiting to Elmwood Mews via a sheeted timber ledged and braced door.

The building is currently in use as student accommodation. Rainwater goods are cast iron on the south side and uPVC on the north and return. The east and west elevations are abutted by neighbouring properties.