5-6 Lower Crescent, Belfast, Co Antrim, BT7 1NR

5–6 Lower Crescent, Belfast

Nos. 5 and 6 Lower Crescent form a relatively large pair of three-storey rendered town houses, built in 1852 as part of a terrace of eleven similar, though not identical, properties in the Regency style. The two houses were originally separate dwellings but have since been combined and converted into a public house. The terrace known as Lower Crescent sits to the east of University Road and faces, across a small public park, Upper Crescent — a similarly styled development of 1846 that, unlike Lower Crescent, is arranged in a true crescent form. The buildings sit within a conservation area.

Exterior

The front elevation is symmetrical, as it is composed of two formerly separate but identical properties, and faces roughly south. At ground floor level the finish is rusticated render; the upper floors are in plain render.

On the left-hand unit at ground floor level, the entrance consists of a panelled timber double door with an acid-etched rectangular fanlight. To the left of this doorway are two tall sash windows with Georgian panes in a six-over-six arrangement. A recently added cheval de frise has been fitted to these windows. On the right-hand side of the elevation, a single panelled timber door — more deeply recessed than the one on the left — repeats the arrangement; its upper panels have semicircular heads.

At first floor level, two larger windows are set on a sill course. These have moulded surrounds and sash frames with Regency-style horizontally orientated panes in a four-over-eight arrangement. Above first floor window height there is a broad plain course, on which sits a thin moulded string course. At second floor level are two much smaller windows, similar to those at ground floor, set on a more pronounced, cornice-like sill course ornamented with dentillations. Above the second floor windows is a plain course, above which runs a parapet with a plain stone (or stone-effect) coping. A series of recently added uplights is positioned above ground and first floor window levels.

To the rear of the building the elevation is occupied entirely by a large four-storey extension added around 1999, partly gabled and partly flat-roofed, with a façade in brick and render. The gabled roof of the original section is slated. There are three tall rendered chimneystacks — two of which are shared — each with projecting coping and uniform pots. Rainwater goods are metal.

Historical Context

The origins of both Lower and Upper Crescent lie in the break-up and sale of Lord Donegall's Belfast estate in the early to mid 19th century, which released large areas of land around the town for development. The lands to the south, along the Malone Ridge, were particularly attractive to developers and saw the construction of many fine late Georgian-style terraces from the mid-1830s onwards. This trend was accelerated by the establishment of the prestigious Queen's College in the area in the later 1840s. The new grand terraces were occupied by Belfast's professional and business classes, who left their older residences in the town centre, which were in turn gradually converted into 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 the architect Charles Lanyon may have been involved. Corry himself undertook the building work and took up residence at the east end of the row; for its first few years it was known as Corry's Crescent. To the immediate south of the crescent, where a church and small park now stand, Corry laid out a large lawn as a garden. Shortly after, however, he had the ground ploughed up and used for vegetable cultivation to provide relief for local workers suffering during 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 lay smaller gardens belonging to other Crescent residents; and further 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, as it is not arranged in a true crescent form — was built in much the same Regency style as Upper Crescent 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 Ladies Collegiate and later as Victoria College was added to the west end of the terrace. By the close of the decade two further houses had been added to the east end, the most easterly of which — Rivoli House, designed by William Hastings — originally contained a dance academy run by a Frederick Brouneau. The railway cutting across Albion Lane led to the laying out of the new and broader 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 between those of 1869. In 1885–87 the large Presbyterian church now known as Crescent Church was erected on the west side of Corry's former garden, to designs by Glasgow architect John Bennie Wilson. 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. By 1960, however, many had been given over to business use or divided into flats, and the former Rivoli House — later known as Dreenagh House — had become the Regency Hotel. This trend continued, and by the early 21st century none of the properties were occupied as private dwellings. In the mid-1990s three of the houses from the 1860s–70s 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.

History of Nos. 5 and 6

Nos. 5 and 6 are two of the original eleven houses of the Lower Crescent terrace of 1852. In 1858 no. 5 was occupied by a Mrs Andrews, and no. 6 by a commission merchant named Henry Dickson. By 1860 no. 5 had passed to an Aylward O'Connor, with its ground floor recorded as being used as offices and open on the inside. O'Connor appears to have remained there until the later 1870s, when the property became home to a Colonel Audain. No. 6 passed to a Mrs Charnock in 1870, and both she and the Audain family occupied the two houses until at least 1910. Both properties appear to have remained private dwellings until the 1970s, though by 1980 no. 6 was in office use. In the late 1980s no. 5 was converted into a public house and restaurant called The Fly. In the late 1990s The Fly was substantially expanded when its owners acquired no. 6 and added the large extension to the rear of the newly combined property.

Although the buildings are much altered, they continue to contribute to the group value of Lower and Upper Crescent.