50 Windsor Avenue, Belfast, BT9 7DX

No. 50 Windsor Avenue is a substantial five-bay, two-storey Italianate-style semi-detached villa built around 1862–63, situated on a wedge-shaped corner plot at the junction of Windsor Avenue and Windsor Avenue North, just off the Malone Road in South Belfast. It forms a pair with No. 1 Windsor Avenue North to its north side, and together they represent an early and prestigious phase of suburban expansion southwards from the city in mid-19th century Belfast, providing high-quality housing for wealthy mercantile families. The style is consistent with the work of Belfast architect Thomas Jackson, though his authorship has not been definitively confirmed. The house was originally named 'Sunnyside'.

ARCHITECTURAL DESCRIPTION

The building has a shallow hipped roof clad in natural slate with black clay ridge tiles. The deep overhanging eaves are carried on paired corbel brackets, and rainwater goods are profiled uPVC. The chimneystacks are stucco-panelled with corniced caps, also set on paired brackets. The external walls are stucco over a projecting plinth, with projecting quoins; the ground floor is band-rusticated, with a platband separating the two storeys and a string course running beneath the eaves. Single-storey projecting bays have dentilled cornices and flat roofs.

Window openings are round-headed at ground floor level and segmental at first floor level, all with moulded stucco architraves incorporating pilasters, impost mouldings, keyblocks, and painted projecting masonry cills. Ground floor windows have panelled aprons beneath. Bay window openings are grouped in threes. The windows are mostly original one-over-one timber sliding sash with single glazing.

The principal elevation faces south and is asymmetrically arranged, reading as a primary three-bay composition to the left, with two further bays to the right under a slightly lower roofline — the division emphasised by a downpipe and chimneystack over the party wall. First floor openings are arranged in pairs across most of the elevation, except at the second and fifth positions from the left. At ground floor level, from left to right, there is a canted bay, the principal entrance, a large square projection fronted by a canted bay, a shallow box bay with later patio doors inserted, and a single window.

The principal entrance is set within a round-headed opening with a moulded stucco surround. The door is a timber four-panelled example with the top two panels glazed and an overlight above, though it is currently boarded over with plywood with the door visible behind. A roofless cast-iron porch frame is attached to the entrance, with embellished squinches and side panels; original decorative tiles survive within the entrance porch. A set-back return abuts to the east, of diminished proportions and with flush eaves. The south elevation of this return has two openings to each floor, with uPVC replacement windows, a replacement hardwood door, and a through-entry at ground floor level. The east elevation of the return is abutted at ground floor level by the neighbouring No. 52 Windsor Avenue, with a single window opening at first floor. The north elevation of the return is largely blank, with a first floor fire escape door.

The west elevation features a two-storey canted bay with the same detailing as the bays on the south elevation, under a hipped roof. This bay was added by Frederick William Hoey and is recorded in valuation books from 1897, when it raised the rateable value of the house by £5. The north elevation is abutted by the south side of No. 1 Windsor Avenue North.

A two-storey extension with a separate entrance doorway was added to the side and rear of the house between its construction in 1862–63 and its depiction on the large-scale Ordnance Survey map of 1873. This extension has survived, with window surrounds that harmonise with those on the main house, though with simpler and subordinate detailing. The recently constructed neighbouring house, No. 52, which incorporates a former stable belonging to the nearby property 'Bertha', has adopted the detailing of this extension.

The building retains a high proportion of original Victorian external detailing drawn from the Italianate repertoire: rusticated stucco, string courses, cornicing, varied projections and bays, and variations in window profile. The cast-iron decorative portico is a later addition that enhances the architectural interest. Original decorative historic detailing also survives internally.

Materials: natural slate roof; stucco walling; a mix of uPVC and cast-iron rainwater goods; mostly original timber sliding sash windows with single glazing, with some uPVC replacements, particularly to the east return.

SETTING

The semi-detached pair occupies a wedge-shaped corner plot in a suburban setting. The boundary between the two properties to the west is marked by a hedge, which also bounds the properties from the road. No. 50 retains its lawned garden plot, with a tarmac drive to the east.

HISTORICAL CONTEXT

The house was built on land within the 'Windsor' area of Malone Lower — shown on the second edition Ordnance Survey map of 1859 — which had been acquired by Hugh Wardlow, a merchant, and was being parcelled off for villa construction for the mercantile classes. After 1799, the Marquis of Donegall had extended longer leases to tenants in the townland of Malone Lower, encouraging building and the gradual southward suburban spread of Belfast. The most prominent house in the area at the time was 'Bertha' (71 Malone Road, demolished in the 1990s though its gate lodge survives), built in 1853 for Scots-born David Taylor and designed by Thomas Jackson. Taylor was a prominent Belfast merchant, a partner in John Arnott & Co (wholesale and retail woollen drapers, silk mercers, and general warehousemen), chairman of the Board of Guardians, and three times mayor of Belfast (1867, 1883, and 1884). He was knighted in 1884 at the ceremonial laying of the foundation stone for Belfast City Library. He was a founding member of the Benevolent Society of St Andrew and was active in numerous charitable societies, including as president of the YMCA, a committee member of Forster Green Hospital, and a board member of the Royal Victoria Hospital, the Ulster Institute for the Deaf and Dumb and Blind, and the Ophthalmic Hospital. Taylor also commissioned Thomas Jackson to design Arnott's warehouse in Bridge Street (1866, destroyed 1941, rebuilt, closed 1974) and the gate lodge at 'Bertha' (1877). The current semi-detached pair was most probably built by Taylor on lands to the rear of his own residence, first entering valuation records as 'unfinished' in November 1862 and recorded as complete and occupied by November 1863, valued at £49 each. The original accommodation was described as a parlour, dining room, kitchen, and three small apartments on the ground floor; five bedrooms, a water closet, and bathroom on the second storey; and two small attic rooms in the return.

Paul Larmour has noted that this house was positioned at the transition from terrace to largely detached house development along the Malone Road, establishing what he describes as 'the essentially Victorian character of Malone'.

NOTABLE FORMER RESIDENTS

The first recorded occupant of No. 50 was Edmund Thomas Chipp (1823–1886), a celebrated English organist and composer who had received a laudatory testimonial from Mendelssohn following a performance of Mendelssohn's organ sonatas in 1847. Chipp was recruited by the Ulster Hall Company to serve as organist for their new multi-purpose hall — part of an effort to place Belfast on a cultural footing with cities such as Birmingham, Liverpool, and Bradford. He came from England, where he had been organist of Trinity Church, Paddington and the Royal Panopticon, and 'opened' the Mulholland organ at the Ulster Hall on 17th December 1862. He was also appointed organist and choirmaster at St George's Church and conductor of the Classical Harmonists and the Anacreontic Society, Belfast's two main musical societies. The Illustrated London News described him as having 'gained a name of European fame among the organists and composers of the day.' The Dictionary of Irish Biography considers that Chipp made 'an impressive impact' on the Belfast musical scene, demonstrating 'the power and versatility of the big secular organ', and founding a Vocal Union which later evolved, along with other groups, into the Belfast Philharmonic Society. Chipp left Belfast in 1866 following disagreements with the Ulster Hall Company to become organist of Ely Cathedral, having lived at No. 50 for much of his time in the city.

From around 1877 to 1884, the house was occupied by John Arnott Taylor, son of Sir David Taylor and a director of Arnott & Co. His middle name was taken from his mother, Jessie née Arnott, the sister of David Taylor's business partner John Arnott. John Arnott Taylor was also a member of Belfast Corporation and a magistrate for the borough of Belfast.

From 1887 until his death in 1927, the house was occupied by Frederick William Hoey, a Dublin-born distiller and Justice of the Peace for County Antrim. At the time of the 1911 census he lived at the house with his English wife, his mother-in-law, and two servants. He ran his own company, Frederick Hoey & Co, in Victoria Street, described in street directories as a wholesale wine and spirit merchant, and by the time of his death was Managing Director of the Old Bushmills Distillery Co Ltd.

From 1930 to 1965, the house was occupied by Martin Gore Ellison, barrister-at-law (called to the bar in 1897), who became King's Counsel in 1936 and a deputy County Court Judge for County Down. At the time of the 1934 revaluation, the accommodation was recorded as follows — ground floor: porch, entrance hall, two reception rooms, lobby, water closet and cloakroom; first floor: reception room, small study, four bedrooms, bathroom and water closet; second floor: attic bedroom and boxroom. Outside there was a covered yard with two coal houses and a water closet. Ellison constructed a detached garage to the south of the plot in 1954, though this has since been removed.

From 1969 until recent years, the house was occupied by property developer Carlisle Greer and his wife Evelyn Esther Greer MBE, OBE and JP (died 2021). Evelyn Greer was awarded an MBE in 1979 and an OBE in 2004 for her services to the 2003 Special Olympic World Games (part of which was held in Belfast) and to sport more broadly. She was a founder President and former Chairperson of Special Olympics NI, helped found Ireland Special Olympics, served as Chairperson of NI SENSE and as Chief Executive of the charity MENCAP, and helped establish nursery units, after-school clubs, and residential homes for children and adults with special needs.