8 Upper Crescent, Belfast, Co Antrim, BT7 1NT

8 Upper Crescent is a relatively large, three-storey rendered town house built in 1846, forming part of Upper Crescent — an elegantly curving row of ten similar, though not identical, late Regency-style properties in the south Belfast university district. The building is now in use as offices and flats.

Upper Crescent sits to the east of University Road and faces southward over a small public park towards Lower Crescent, a similar development of 1852 arranged as a straight terrace rather than a crescent. Number 8 is positioned close to the western end of the row and is one of the plainer buildings in the group.

The front elevation is asymmetrical and faces roughly south. On the ground floor, the entrance is positioned to the right and consists of a four-panel timber door with a rectangular fanlight; 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 featuring Regency-style horizontally orientated panes to the top sash in a 4/2 arrangement. At second-floor level are two much smaller windows with plain modern frames made to resemble plain sash windows; these rest on a more pronounced, cornice-like sill course. The ground floor is finished in rusticated render, while the upper floors are in plain render. A broad, plain course runs above first-floor window height and below the second-floor sill course, and on this broad course sits a thin moulded string course. Above second-floor window height is a plain course, above which is a parapet with plain — possibly stone — coping.

The rear elevation could not be seen in its entirety. To the left-hand, western side is a two-storey gabled return. The ground floor of the gable has a plain sheeted door with a roller shutter above, and to its right a largish modern window also fitted with a roller shutter. A smaller window at first-floor level appears to have a plain sash frame. To the right, the return merges with a further two-storey projection, which probably has a mono-pitched roof, and which has windows at both ground and first floor corresponding to those on the gable of the return. Both the gable and the south face of this projection are finished in painted render. The inner, east face of the return appears to have three windows at first-floor level, though the inner face of the projection could not be seen. On the main rear façade there is a window to the right at first and second-floor levels, and between the first and second floors to the left is a tall sash window lighting the stairwell. These have Georgian panes in 6/6 and 3/6 configurations. A ground-floor window to the right is likely, though this was not confirmed. The rear façade is finished in plain painted render. The gabled roof is slated. There is a tall rendered chimneystack with a projecting coping and uniform pots to the east. Rainwater goods are cast iron.

Historical background

The development of Upper Crescent arose from the sale 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 for development. The lands to the south, along the Malone Ridge, were particularly attractive to developers, leading 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 new grand terraces were occupied by Belfast's professional and business classes, who left their older residences in the town centre, which were gradually converted into shops and offices.

Upper Crescent was perhaps the grandest terrace development undertaken to the south of the town. It was built in 1846 by timber and shipping merchant Robert Corry, and for the first few years of its existence was known as Corry's Crescent. The authorship of the design is uncertain, though Dr Paul Larmour has suggested that the hand of architect Charles Lanyon may have been involved. Corry himself undertook the building work and took up residence in the house at the east end of the row.

To the immediate south of the Crescent, where a church and small park now stand, Corry held a large lawn as a garden. Shortly after it was laid out, however, he had it ploughed up and used for cultivating vegetables to provide relief for local workers suffering as a result of the Great Famine. To the north of this garden ran an old watercourse flowing northward into the Basin, a reservoir east of the Dublin Road. To the east lay smaller gardens belonging to other occupants of the Crescent, 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 and just south of the old watercourse. This new development — the erroneously named Lower Crescent — was much in the same style as Upper Crescent and was occupied by the same 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 to the immediate north of Lower Crescent, following the line of the old watercourse. In 1873, a large sandstone building — originally the Ladies Collegiate, later Victoria College for girls — was added to the west end of the terrace, with two further houses added to the east end by the close of that decade. The most easterly of these, Rivoli House, was designed by William Hastings and 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 development in the 1860s and 1870s. Two large properties designed by William Hastings were erected at the western 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, on the intervening ground. In 1885–87 the 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. In 1898 a two-storey terrace, the present Crescent Gardens, was built on the site of the 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, with the former Rivoli House — later named Dreenagh House — becoming the Regency Hotel. This trend continued and by the beginning of the 21st century none remained in private residential use. In the mid 1990s three of the 1860s–1870s 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 new development.

Occupancy history of No. 8

In 1849 the property was occupied by a merchant named Edward Tucker. He was followed in the early 1850s by the Reverend William Patterson, described as Professor of Mathematics at Queen's College. In the later 1850s the occupant was a Peter Keegan — or possibly Reegan — a wine and spirit merchant. From around 1860 to 1877 the property was occupied by a James Glass, followed by a Mrs Shillington. The 1899 directory lists a Robert Workman Junior as occupant, followed by a William Harper in 1910, and a Joseph Walsh from around 1915 to the 1940s. Subsequent occupants recorded include H. M. Hamilton and Herbert Kearney. In the 1970s the property was converted to office use.