30 Derryvolgie Ave, Belfast, BT9 6FP

30 Derryvolgie Avenue is a semi-detached two-storey late-Victorian red brick villa built around 1870, located on the north side of Derryvolgie Avenue in south Belfast. The architect is unknown, though the quirky aspects of the design suggest it may have been an amateur or builder-led project rather than the work of a professional. It forms one of a pair with No.28 next door, and together the two houses are among the best surviving examples of their type within the Derryvolgie and Windsor Conservation Area.

SITING AND SETTING

Derryvolgie Avenue runs east to west between the Malone and Lisburn Roads, two main arterial routes running due south of Belfast city centre. The two houses are arranged in an unusual way: rather than sitting side by side in the conventional sense, they are split parallel to the street so that No.28 presents itself as a largely symmetrical detached dwelling facing onto Derryvolgie Avenue, while No.30 sits tucked behind it, reached by a long driveway. Metal gates on modern brick piers mark the entrance to No.30 from roughly halfway along the shared driveway, which sweeps around to the front of the house with lawns and mature planting on either side. The pair are screened from the street by a row of mature trees and hedging, and extensive gardens to the east and north significantly enhance their setting. A large, symmetrical formal garden lies to the east of No.30, with a timber pergola flanked by copper beech hedging enclosing various water features, paved areas and planted beds.

EXTERIOR

The two houses share a strong group value, with matching sliding sash windows, projecting eaves and decorative carved brackets to the canted bays. Each house is roughly L-shaped on plan, with a gabled main section abutted by a two-storey return to the east; the two returns attach to each other, forming a U-shaped plan overall. Both have later single-storey additions.

The roof is covered in natural slate (Bangor Blue) with black clay ridge tiles. The eaves project and have exposed carved timber rafter ends, with the same carved detail applied to the timbers at the overhanging gable. There are three red brick chimneys: one centred on the main roof ridge, offset to the left (west), with canted and soldier-coursed bricks to the corbelled cap, one octagonal yellow clay pot and two smaller black clay pots; a second centred on the return ridge with the same cap detail and three octagonal yellow clay pots; and a third set along the dividing wall between the two properties, this last being plainly detailed with six circular clay pots and partially replaced.

Rainwater goods are cast iron with an ogee profile to the north and east elevations, and a cast iron rainwater pipe at the west gable; elsewhere uPVC has been used. The walls are red brick: Flemish bond to the north and east elevations, and English Garden Wall bond to the south and west. Windows are single-glazed double-hung sliding sashes with 2/2 panes (horizontally split) unless otherwise noted.

NORTH (FRONT) ELEVATION

The front elevation faces north and is symmetrically arranged with formal fenestration: five equally spaced windows at first-floor level, and at ground floor a central entrance portico flanked by two windows aligned with those above. There is a continuous brick plinth with a chamfered brick cap, soldier-coursed brick to the window heads, and projecting stone sills painted throughout.

The window to the far right (west) at first-floor level and part of the window immediately below it are sheeted over with timber panels, as is the second window from the left at first-floor level. Combined with the attic windows in the west gable end, this suggests an internal arrangement that does not correspond straightforwardly to the external fenestration — a few windows are effectively mock openings.

The entrance portico appears on earlier Ordnance Survey maps from 1873 to 1931, but is absent from the 1959–85 maps. The current owner raised the existing stone plinth, column base and collar by the height of three steps and constructed the remainder of the porch in concrete and timber. The steps have replacement slate risers and treads. Doric columns in circular hollow-section concrete, with corresponding pilasters, support an entablature comprising a plain frieze and projecting moulded cornice, with a lead-lined flat roof above. The timber-framed front door has two moulded panels below the mid-rail, plain glass panels above it, and two further panes below the top rail with stop-chamfered edge detail; the same detail is applied to the plain glass over-light, side-lights and the diagonally sheeted base panels. There is a brass door knocker that is probably original.

EAST ELEVATION

The east elevation comprises the gable end of the main building and the east face of the return. The gable has a projecting timber bargeboard and carved timber supports arranged in threes. At attic level there is a stone roundel centred on the ridge, with a blind shield to the centre, a hood mould and foliated label stops. Two windows at first-floor level match those on the front elevation. At ground floor there is a canted bay with a mono-pitched roof covered in fish-scale slates, cantilevered on decorative carved timber brackets with an elliptical corner pendant and similar carved detail to the base of the brackets. There is an exposed deep eaves beam, with carved rafter ends and verge timbers, all with stop-chamfered edges. Historic glass (probably cylinder glass) survives in the north elevation windows, though the glass in the east-facing windows was replaced around 2001 following damage caused by an incident at a nearby church.

The return has two windows each to ground and first floor, formally arranged with aligned openings that diminish in height. The base plinth, window heads and sills match those on the front elevation.

WEST ELEVATION

The west elevation comprises the gable end of the main building and the west face of the return. The gable is informally arranged with a projecting timber bargeboard and carved timber supports arranged in pairs. Two small timber sliding sash windows with 1/1 panes sit at attic level, centred on the apex. At first-floor level there are two windows: the one to the left is larger and aligned with the attic window above; the one to the right is blocked up. At ground floor there is a modern timber-framed glazed door in what appears to be an original opening, with a small timber-framed casement window offset to the right. The gable is abutted by a full-height bay with a cat-slide roof and clipped eaves, containing a timber sliding sash window with 1/1 panes at first-floor level and a diminutive fixed pane at attic level. In the near valley where the cat-slide meets the return roof, there is a fixed triangular-shaped light between the two roof slopes, with a modern skylight adjacent. The ground-floor walling on this elevation is painted white and faces onto a small paved yard. The yard is partially enclosed by a butterfly glazed roof with a central valley gutter, which abuts the gable in part. The return on this side has a single window at first-floor level and a three-part timber-framed window with a side-hung opening casement at ground floor; the ground-floor walling here is rendered and painted white.

SOUTH (REAR) ELEVATION

No.28 abuts the south side of the return. The south elevation of the main building has a modern timber-framed glazed door at ground floor with a small timber-framed casement window offset to the right, and a single window at half-landing level above with reeded glass panes. The ground-floor walling here is rendered and painted white. A red brick wall abuts the west side of the front elevation, containing a ledged and braced sheeted timber gate leading to the yard. The original outbuildings were demolished by a previous owner and replaced with a single-storey rendered lean-to with a corrugated asbestos roof and a slide-back garage door.

INTERIOR

The rooms are well-proportioned, with an array of historic features and quirky details that contribute to the building's idiosyncratic character. The internal layout is slightly at odds with the external fenestration — including the mock windows noted above — which reinforces the suggestion that the design may have been produced by an amateur or builder rather than a professional architect. One of the ground-floor rooms was used as a surgery by Dr A. Gailey, a previous owner who ran his practice there.

HISTORICAL CONTEXT

The name Derryvolgie Avenue derives from Derrievolgie House, a large Italianate dwelling (now a crèche) at the south-eastern end of the street, built in 1856–58 to a design by Thomas Jackson for Cranston J. Gregg. It was one of a number of middle-sized gentrified houses built along the Malone ridge in the mid-19th century, largely by Belfast's merchant and professional classes seeking to escape the increasingly commercialised and industrialised town centre for the semi-rural surroundings to the south. These houses were sited on long strip farm plots, probably established in the early 17th century, which stretched westwards from the ridge down to the lower ground of the Bog Meadows. In the first half of the 19th century the integrity of these plots was compromised by the construction of the new Lisburn Road (1816–19) and the Ulster Railway (1837–39). These developments, combined with the willingness of the cash-strapped Donegall estate to sell off its assets, opened the area to development. Up to around 1860, this development largely took the form of relatively large single properties individually set within the bounds of the former plots, many complete with gate lodges along the Malone and Lisburn Roads. In the following decades, however, the exodus from the town centre intensified and these gardens were themselves carved up. By the end of the century much of the area had become suburbanised, with the boundary lines of the old farm plots laid out as streets lined with a mixture of detached and semi-detached housing, and terraces appearing later on streets closer to the northern end of the ridge.

Nos. 28–30 Derryvolgie Avenue were built in 1870, seemingly by John Woods (referred to in some sources as Michael Woods), an auctioneer with premises in Donegall Street. The previous year, Woods had advertised for let "several hundred feet of building ground, suitable for a pair of semi-detached villas", but he ultimately appears to have developed the site himself, as he is recorded as the immediate lessor in the valuation book. The identity of the architect remains uncertain. The bracket detailing to the roofs of the canted bays has led the architectural historian Paul Larmour to suggest William Batt as a possible designer, noting that Batt designed a house for himself a few doors down at No.20 (Sorrento) in 1884 — but no evidence has so far come to light to confirm his involvement or to identify anyone else.

It is difficult to trace the early occupants, as the valuers appear to have erroneously listed both No.28 and No.30 as vacant until at least the late 1890s, and the absence of house names and street numbers makes the directories hard to interpret. The 1877 directory records John F. Hodges (a medical professor at Queen's College), John Reid Jeffryes (general manager of the Northern Banking Company), Joseph H. Lytle and David B. Lytle as living in unnamed properties on this side of the avenue, with only Professor Hodges and a Reverend S.M. West recorded similarly in 1880. By 1900 No.30 was occupied by Reverend James Herron (or Heron), with the freehold having passed by that date to a Mr S. Kelly. The 1901 census records the house as a first-class dwelling containing between ten and twelve rooms, with Reverend Herron — described as "Professor of Church History" — living there with his wife Margaret and their four grown-up children. By 1903 the house was being leased to Joseph Richardson Turtle Mulholland, whom the 1911 census records as occupying the property with his sister Anna, his sister Mary Irvine, a house guest Mary St Clair Mulholland, and two domestic servants. Miss Anna Mulholland was still living there in 1918. By 1924 the house had passed to J.B. McGown, a linen merchant, with another linen merchant, D.V. Crossley, noted as resident in 1932; Mrs Crossley was still in residence in 1951. At some point later in the 1950s the property was acquired by Dr A. Gailey, who ran his surgery in what is now the studio room and replaced the outbuildings with the present structures. The current owner purchased No.30 in 1976 and has since made some changes to the internal layout and largely rebuilt the portico.

The house is of considerable local interest as an intact example of prestigious residential development in south Belfast at a time of rapid industrial expansion in the city, when semi-detached dwellings were generally considered socially inferior. Together with No.28 and their mature garden setting, the pair are among the finest surviving examples of their period within the Derryvolgie and Windsor Conservation Area.