9 Sandown Park, Belfast, Co. Antrim, BT5 6GU

9 Sandown Park is a Tudor Revival semi-detached house built in 1897, located in the townland of Ballycloghan and overlooking Sandown Park, now a private road. It is thought to have been designed by Vincent Craig (1869–1925), a Belfast architect and brother of James Craig, Northern Ireland's first Prime Minister. Craig established his independent practice in 1891 and became the most prominent advocate of the Arts and Crafts and Art Nouveau movements in Ulster. The Tudoresque character of the building led the first heritage survey of 1984 to suggest his authorship, though this has not been confirmed with certainty.

The house was built on land owned by Sir Robert E. Ward, a prominent local magistrate and landlord who resided at Bangor Castle and who also leased the adjoining Sandown House at 84 Sandown Road. The pair of semi-detached houses — this building and 82 Sandown Road next door — were originally known as Victoria Villas. Upon completion, 9 Sandown Park was valued at £53 and first occupied by John Cahoon, a local jeweller. The 1901 census recorded it as a first-class dwelling of ten rooms.

By 1918 the house was occupied by William Gilbert, described in the Ulster Town Directories as a merchant. Ownership had passed to a Mrs. McFerran by the time of the First General Revaluation of Property in Northern Ireland (1936–57), at which point the rateable value had risen to £67. Between the 1930s and 1950s the house was occupied as a private dwelling by Samuel Berkley. By 1956 it had been divided into apartments occupied by different tenants, and by the end of the Second Revaluation (1956–72) the total rateable value had increased further to £114. Both 82 Sandown Road and 9 Sandown Park were listed in 1987. By at least the 1990s both buildings had been converted into a nursing home, which vacated the site in 1995, leaving the buildings vacant. Around 2001 the former dwellings were converted into self-contained apartments and modern three-storey extensions were added to the rear of both properties, replacing the original rear returns that had been present since construction.

The building is of historic and social interest partly because of its association with leading merchants who, at the turn of the 20th century, moved out to the Belfast suburbs.

Architecturally, the building is a semi-detached, asymmetrical structure on an L-shaped plan, two bays wide and two storeys high with an attic. There is a three-storey entrance bay with a projecting canted gable to the south-east and a projecting ground floor to the south. The roof is pitched slate with terracotta ridge tiles, overhanging eaves with exposed rafter ends, and ogee-moulded metal guttering with circular downpipes. The entrance bay has a pyramidal hipped roof with a weather vane finial. The projecting gable has a painted bargeboard. South and west dormers have hipped slate roofs with leaded ridges. There is a projecting two-stage chamfered brick central chimney stack shared with the adjoining 82 Sandown Road, with corbelled eaves to a flat coping and octagonal terracotta chimney pots. A separate decorative fluted and chamfered chimney stack sits to the east.

Windows throughout are generally segment-headed or square-headed, with one-over-one timber sliding sash windows unless otherwise noted.

On the south elevation, the ground floor is red brick set on a rock-faced squared and snecked sandstone plinth, with a smooth rendered first floor having red brick quoins. There is a projecting smooth sandstone sill course at ground floor level and a red brick course at first floor. The first floor string course has an ovolo brick mould with dentils. The second floor of the projecting gable features painted timber boarding with a smooth rendered inset. There is a niche at ground floor level. Ground and second floor windows have smooth sandstone lintels, while first and second floor window openings are segment-headed. Casement windows appear at the dormer and at the second floor of the projecting gable. The ground floor bay has a mono-pitch roof with a dentil brick eaves course. Carved stonework appears above the entrance door, and there is half-timbered work to the projecting gable.

On the east elevation there is a single bay with projecting chimney breasts at ground floor level, rising to a single red-brick stepped stack terminating in the wide fluted chimney described above, and a decorative terracotta panel to a round-arched niche. The west elevation is attached to 82 Sandown Road.

The later rear extension to the north has roughcast rendered walls on a cement plinth course, with brick ovolo moulding, brick quoins and a string course at first floor level. Openings are square-headed with brick headers and concrete sills, fitted with timber casement windows.

The building now forms part of an apartment complex called Sandown Court together with 82 Sandown Road. It sits within its own grounds with tarmac parking to the south and west, and pathways and lawn to the north and east with a boundary fence. The southern boundary along the private road to Sandown Park and the western boundary to Sandown Road are tree-lined and hedged. The entrance is marked by square brick pillars with metal gates. Roofing is slate; rainwater goods are painted metal; walls are red brick and render; windows to the rear are replacement double-glazed timber sliding sash and timber casements.