4 College Park East, Belfast, BT7 1PS

4 College Park East, Belfast

This is a High Victorian, three-storey, red brick, mid-terrace, double-fronted former house, now used as university offices, built in 1864 to a design by Young & MacKenzie. It was the first of its terrace to be completed and sits at the junction of College Park East and University Avenue in the Queen's University area of South Belfast, immediately south of Union Theological College and east of the main Queen's University buildings. The front elevation faces west onto College Park East, with a university car park beyond.

No. 4 forms part of a mixed row of six properties, with Nos. 1–3 following in 1869, Nos. 5–6 also in 1869, and 'Hope House' — which directly abuts the rear of No. 6 — completed in 1873. No. 4 is abutted on its north side by No. 3 and on its south side by No. 5. The whole terrace, together with Hope House in College Park to the south-east, is now integrated internally and serves as offices for the Queen's University Belfast School of Sociology, Social Policy and Social Work.

Materials and Roof

The roof is natural Welsh slate with black clay ridge tiles. Walls are red brick laid in Flemish bond to the front. Rainwater goods are cast iron to the front (west) elevation and PVC to the rear (east). Windows throughout are timber sliding sash with horns, single-glazed.

Front Elevation (West)

The west-facing front elevation is double-fronted and symmetrical across three storeys, built in Flemish bond red brick, with a centrally located entrance at ground floor and a single-storey canted bay to either side. There are three window openings at both first and second floor levels, aligned with the bays below.

First floor openings are square with splayed brick soldier heads; second floor openings are segmental arched with brick voussoirs. A continuous painted stone cill course runs across the first floor windows, with a painted stone string course above the same window heads. A small painted rendered plinth runs along the base, and toothed quoins — also in painted render — mark the north and south edges.

The single-storey canted bays are painted rendered with flat roofs finished with a modern roof membrane over a projecting cornice. The entrance consists of a tall square-headed opening flanked by projecting painted stone pilasters with decorative moulded plaster console brackets of acanthus leaf design, supporting a projecting moulded flat entablature that forms the porch roof. These pilasters stand proud of a recessed door surround, which consists of painted plain pilasters below simple capitals and a plain entablature above. The door itself is painted panelled timber with a plain overlight and may be original. There is one square stone step to the entrance and a painted rendered dwarf wall to either side, with an original cast iron boot scraper on the left side.

All windows to the front are single-glazed timber sliding sash with horns and are possibly replacements. The windows to the left canted bay are 1/2 (horizontally split) to the central section and 2/2 (horizontally split) to the splays. The right bay is the same except the central window is 1/1. First floor windows are 1/1. Second floor windows are 2/1 on the left side and 2/2 (vertically split) to the centre and right.

Overhanging eaves sit on cast iron brackets below the natural slate pitched roof. Brick chimneys are centred on each gable, with terracotta pots visible to the right-side chimney. Both chimneys are abutted by the chimneys of the neighbouring houses. The small front garden is now paved with concrete paving stones. A painted plinth wall to the street is fitted with replacement painted metal railings.

Rear Elevation (East)

The rear elevation is a flat facade with multiple openings of various sizes. There is no original rear return to No. 4. A modern two-to-three-storey flat-roofed building has been constructed behind Nos. 4 and 5, connected internally with Nos. 5, 6 and Hope House, though an external alleyway separates the rear of No. 4 from this modern building. The alleyway connects on the north side to the external rear yard of No. 3 and on the south side with the now-internal former rear yard of Nos. 5 and 6.

Evidence of alteration is visible throughout the rear facade in patches of different brickwork. The top floor is built in an entirely different red brick to the floors below. The brickwork is mostly laid in English Garden Wall bond — three courses of stretchers between one course of headers — though in places there are four courses of stretchers between header rows.

At ground floor, a centrally located modern timber and glass door with glazed side panel is flanked on the left by two window openings (a 4/4 to the extreme left and a 6/6 to its right) and on the right by one large 10/10-pane window opening. At half-landing level, directly above the door, is a large segmental arched opening with a replacement double-glazed timber window; the surrounding brickwork, including the brick voussoirs, is also replacement. A small original rear return may have been demolished in this location.

At first floor, there are two windows to the left of the door (a 6/6 and a 4/4) and one 6/6 window to the right. At second floor half-landing level is a 6/6 window aligned with the one below. At second floor proper, there are two windows on the left side — both 2/2, with the right of the pair being narrower — and a single 2/2 window to the right.

All rear windows except the half-landing window have splayed brick heads, painted stone cills and painted rendered reveals. They are single-glazed timber sliding sash with horns and are likely to be original, with some panes retaining historic glass. Rainwater goods to the rear are plastic. The pitched rear roof is natural Welsh slate.

Interior

Much of the original interior layout remains intact, with the exception of some alteration at the rear of the ground floor and an internal connection into No. 5 on the upper floors. Original historic detailing survives, including the staircase and decorative plasterwork.

Historical Context

College Park East — originally known simply as 'College Park' — was laid out in or shortly before 1864 on what had until then been the edge of the semi-rural 'Plains' of Malone, just east and south of the recently established Queen's College (completed 1849) and Union Theological College (completed 1853). The foundation of Queen's in particular prompted several decades of development in the vicinity, with regularly planned streets filled largely with High Victorian terraced housing for the professional and merchant classes moving southwards out of a rapidly commercialising and industrialising Belfast city centre.

No. 4 appears to have been developed by Alexander Holmes; Nos. 1–3 by William Sherrie, a brush manufacturer with premises in North Street; and Nos. 5–6 and Hope House by Matthew Pattison/Patteson. A tender for making streets in College Park East was advertised by Young & MacKenzie in August 1870, and this firm was responsible for the design of the house and its neighbours.

Note on street numbering: The property at the north end of the terrace, present No. 1 College Park East, faces into College Park East but is accessed from University Avenue. This means that early references to the row in street directories and valuation records from the 1870s to early 1880s are inconsistent — some list the property as part of College Park East, others as part of University Avenue, with discrepancies in street numbering as a result. This makes it difficult to trace the earliest occupants of the terrace with accuracy, as it is not always certain which houses the various sources are referring to.

The earliest recorded occupant of No. 4 appears to have been Alfred Edgar, listed at number 4 in the valuation book commencing in 1865. By the time the first street directory entry for 'College Park East' appeared in 1877, linen merchant James Glass was listed as residing there, remaining until around 1882. He was followed before 1887 by another linen merchant, George Fiddes, relations of whom are recorded as occupying the house in the 1901 census. Mrs Margaret Christie Denham — apparently George Fiddes's sister — is named as householder, sharing the property with her father Alexander Fiddes and her nieces Mary and Jessie Fiddes. The building is noted in the census as a first-class dwelling with 13 rooms in use. Mrs Denham and her nieces were still at No. 4 at the time of the 1911 census, and Mrs Denham herself was still recorded there in 1935. By 1943 the property had been divided into four flats. At some point in the 1980s it was acquired by Queen's University and was in use by at least 1995 as the University's Scholastic Philosophy Department, before being integrated with the rest of the terrace for use as offices.

Setting and Group Value

The terrace as a whole has strong group value, adding significant character to the Queen's University area. No. 4 and its neighbours (listed together as a group) contribute to one of Belfast's best-preserved stretches of High Victorian professional housing, in a setting directly shaped by the establishment of Queen's College and Union Theological College in the mid-19th century.