Parklands, Holywood Road, Belfast, Co.Antrim, BT4 2PS

Parklands is a six-bay, five-storey apartment block constructed in 1961–62 in the International Style, originally known as Knocknagoney Dale. Built by Belfast Corporation as the central block of a three-part apartment complex (with adjacent blocks HB26.12.054A and HB26.12.054C), it stands within mature parkland to the south of Knocknagoney Road, adjacent to Knocknagoney Linear Park.

The building is of rectangular plan with a flat roof, overhanging eaves with painted soffit, and a plant room to the roof fitted with three stainless steel flues. Painted metal downpipes run down the east and west elevations. A mono-pitch fibre cement slated canopy covers the ground floor door openings, supported on metal posts.

The front (west) elevation is constructed in rustic red brick with horizontal bands of curtain walling at first and third floor levels. These form shallow projecting galleries with plain vertical metal railings. Each bay features an original aluminium framed sliding door with side-lights. The second and fourth floors have pairs of square-headed windows with aluminium casements and painted clips to each bay. Ground floor openings are square-headed with smooth rendered raised bands; doors are timber sheeted with flanking side-lights and tiled steps. The stair tower to the south side projects above the main elevation, built in brown brick with a projecting flat-roofed canopy. Upper floors are rough-cast rendered. A glazed projection with monopitch roof rises from the canopy over the doorway to third floor level. The canopy extends over the pathway to the main entrance and is supported on four square-section brown brick piers with a metal clad fascia bearing the block lettering "PARKLANDS".

The east elevation has a recessed ground floor with square-headed window and door openings. Upper floors are supported on red brick piers. Strip windows at first and third floors have projecting rendered headers with blockwork infill panels below. Four-storey stairwell blocks stand to the east in rustic red brick, with square-headed openings to upper floors and a door opening at ground floor level beneath a monopitch slated canopy. The north and south elevations are constructed in red brick and are attached to the recessed stairwells.

Throughout the building, windows are square-headed with rendered painted sills. Most windows are replacement uPVC and metal casement frames, apart from the original aluminium-framed glazing noted above. The original open-deck access to apartments has been infilled with metal casement windows and is not considered of special interest.

The building sits within mature parkland with a tree boundary hedge to the north, west and south. A steep grass embankment lies to the east. Access is from Knocknagoney Road to the north, with bitumac parking and formal lawns to the west.

Historically, the building stands at the location of what had been the lower end of Richmond Lodge demesne in the nineteenth century. The district was largely developed in post-war years. The flats appear in the 1960 street directory as being in the process of construction at the municipal boundary on Holywood Road, and were first formally recorded in the 1961–62 Second General Revaluation Records, where ground floor flats were valued at £23 each and those on the remaining four floors at £25 each. The building has undergone several name changes: it was listed as vacant in the 1981 street directory, appeared as Parkside Apartments under Knocknagoney Dale in the 1986 directory, and was listed as Parklands in its own right from 1991 onwards. The reasons for these changes are not documented.