45 Old Holywood Road, Belfast

45 Old Holywood Road (formerly 45 and 47 combined), Belfast

This is a small but well-proportioned pair of late-Victorian semi-detached houses, built in 1881 and now converted into a single dwelling. The houses sit in the townland of Ballymaghan, front onto Old Holywood Road and face Belvoir Park. They form a group of four with numbers 49 and 51 Old Holywood Road, and were originally known as Pilgrim's Cottages. All four were built as dwellings for the gardeners of Glenmachan House, the nearby estate of Sir William Ewart.

William Ewart (1817–1889) was born in Sydenham and became one of Belfast's most prominent citizens and linen manufacturers. His father and grandfather had established William Ewart and Son in 1814; Ewart became a partner in 1843 and by his death had transformed the family firm into one of the largest linen manufactories in the world. Among the firm's properties was the warehouse at 17 Bedford Street in central Belfast, which remains a landmark building. Active in public life, Ewart was elected Mayor of Belfast in 1859–60 and served as Member of Parliament for Belfast from 1878 to 1889. Glenmachan House itself was built in 1879 to designs by Thomas Jackson and Son, and the four gardeners' cottages on Old Holywood Road followed in 1881, possibly also to designs by Thomas Jackson and Son, though this cannot be confirmed. The third edition Ordnance Survey map of 1902 records that the mansion possessed extensive grounds. In character, the four houses are reminiscent of the cottage dwellings built for workers at garden villages such as Bournville and Port Sunlight, grouped in pairs and set well back from the road with good front and rear gardens.

The Ewart family retained ownership of Glenmachan House and numbers 45 to 51 Old Holywood Road until at least the 1970s. The 1901 census records that number 45, the southernmost house, was occupied by Charles Halliday, a garden labourer working the Glenmachan estate, while the adjoining number 47 was inhabited by David Graham, the estate's chauffeur. The 1911 census building return described each house as a second-class dwelling consisting of five rooms. The pair were originally valued at four pounds and ten shillings each, though occupants were not recorded in the valuation sources until the early 20th century. By the end of the Second Revaluation of Property in Northern Ireland (1956–72), the value of each had risen to eight pounds and ten shillings. Numbers 45 to 51 Old Holywood Road were listed in 1976.

Number 45 underwent extensive renovation in 1988–89, when its roof timbers were replaced and a conservatory was added to the rear. Number 47 was renovated in 1980, with repairs to its roof, replacement of rainwater goods and reconstruction of its original dormers and sliding sash windows; its roof timbers were then completely replaced in 1988 following a serious outbreak of rot. The two houses were converted into a single property in approximately 1990. A timber conservatory to the rear was installed in 1997, and in 1999 further remedial work was carried out, including repair of the central chimney stack and repointing of brickwork.

Architecturally, the building is one-and-a-half storeys — that is, single storey with attic — in red brick laid to Flemish bond, on a rectangular plan with a single-storey return and a conservatory to the rear. The half-hipped roof is covered in plain red clay tiles with bonnet hip tiles, decorative bands of club and fishtail tiling, crested ridge tiles and terracotta ball finials. Moulded timber barge boards are present, and the projecting eaves have exposed rafter ends supporting ogee cast-iron guttering discharging to rectangular-section downpipes. To the rear, half-round cast-iron guttering discharges to circular downpipes. Modern rooflights have been added to the rear slope. Rectangular-section red-brick chimney stacks have corbelled coping and red-clay chimney pots. The attic storey is faced with vertically hung red clay tiles incorporating club and fishtail bands. A dentilled string course runs at impost level, with buff and black brick banding at cill level and a projecting black brick plinth course.

The principal elevation faces west and is symmetrical across four bays. Window openings are square-headed with flat-arch lintels and painted cills, and are fitted with margin-paned double-hung timber sash windows with a diamond pattern to the upper sash. A square-headed door opening to each of the two end bays has a timber panelled door with fanlight. The door to the south bay has been blocked on the inside, though both the fanlight and the door remain in place externally, so the infill is not visible from outside. A canopy over the door openings is supported on decorative timber brackets and is slated in plain red clay tiles with fishtail banding. Gabled dormers to the attic each have a canted bay window with timber sashes, built off the front wall and supported on moulded timber brackets. The dormer cheeks are faced in vertical tiling laid in alternating courses of club and fishtail red clay tiles, with crested ridge tiles and ball finials matching the main roof.

The two-bay south elevation has two fixed windows at ground-floor level and a sliding sash window to the centre at first-floor level. It is abutted to the east by the modern conservatory. Windows on this elevation do not have the diamond pattern to the upper sashes, though the marginal panes are intact. The rear elevation faces east and features a single-storey polygonal timber-frame conservatory to the south-east, added later, and a single-storey flat-roofed return to the north-east, which has a large rooflight and a timber casement window. The north elevation comprises both the two-bay north face of the return at the east end and the north face of the main house. The return has a square-headed door opening with a modern panelled timber door with multi-pane glazing to its upper half, and a multi-pane timber casement window immediately to the west. The main north elevation has two windows at ground-floor level and one window at first-floor level; as with the south elevation, these windows do not have the diamond pattern to the upper sashes, though the marginal panes are intact.

The site is enclosed by dwarf red-brick walling topped by moulded stone coping and replacement railings with arrow rail heads. This walling runs between two sets of gate pillars, which are square on plan with a red-brick base, a dressed sandstone shaft that is moulded and canted at the corners, and an octagonal coping with a fluted base, indented roundels and a conical top. Replacement gates are supported on square hollow-section metal posts with metal ball finials, all painted black. The garden setting consists of a narrow paved pathway around the building, a lawned front garden and a tarmacked driveway to the front, and a timber deck with lawned garden to the rear.