607 Antrim Road, Belfast

607 Antrim Road is a well-proportioned and finely detailed two-storey High Victorian semi-detached red-brick house, built between 1874 and 1875 together with the adjoining No. 605 in the style of John Lanyon of Belfast, an accomplished architect of his day. The pair were constructed on land owned by Victor C. Taylor, a machinist and millwright who owned the Atlas Foundry on Townsend Street and resided at Fortwilliam Terrace in the 1870s. The houses were initially valued at £62 each and were known as 'Ardeen'. They sit within the Somerton Road Conservation Area, which was designated in 2000 in recognition of the very high standard of townscape character found in this suburban Victorian and Edwardian setting.

John Lanyon (1839–1900), the son of Sir Charles Lanyon, began his career in partnership with his father and W. H. Lynn, forming the firm Lanyon, Lynn & Lanyon in 1860. Following the dissolution of that firm in 1872 and his father's retirement, John Lanyon established an independent practice in Belfast. His association with the Fortwilliam and Somerton Road area began in 1870 when he occupied Lisbreen House nearby. He is known to have carried out work to a mansion on Fortwilliam Park in 1889 and was very likely also the architect of No. 71 Somerton Road, which neighboured his own home. Following Taylor's death in 1896, ownership of Nos. 605–607 passed to his children. The houses were listed in 1986.

As a pair, Nos. 605 and 607 are symmetrical and form a rectangular plan facing south, with projecting gabled blocks to east and west, each abutted by a single-storey gabled porch to the south, and a single prominent chimney to the centre ridge dividing the two houses. Both houses have narrowly projecting gables with two-storey semi-circular bays to the south and rear returns to the north.

The roof is hipped and gabled, covered in natural slate with black clay roll-top ridge tiles and three prominent red-brick chimneys — one shared with No. 605 — each with battered brick capping set above a dentilated brick course and fitted with a mixture of buff clay and replacement red clay pots. The double eaves course has a dentilated red-brick cornice below a bevelled edge course. Rainwater goods are mainly cast iron ogee guttering to the front (south) elevation, with replacement semi-circular section metal and some uPVC to the east and north, discharging to cast iron polygonal hoppers and circular-section cast iron downpipes.

The walling throughout is in Flemish bond red brick with horizontal bands of blue brick, a stringcourse of raised red brick above a header course, and stepped brick kneelers to the gables. Detailing includes smooth dressed red sandstone cills, sandstone coping to gables covered in lead, and hexagonal blocks to each gable apex. Windows are generally square-headed double-hung single-glazed sashes with horns, set in segmental-arch bevelled-edge red-brick surrounds with blue-brick segmental-arch drip moulds supported on single nail-head buff-brick corbels, unless otherwise noted.

SOUTH (PRINCIPAL) ELEVATION

The front south elevation mirrors that of No. 605, with the central prominent chimney shared between both houses. No. 607 has two bays to the south-west and a two-storey semi-circular bay with a half-cone slated roof, projecting from a narrowly projecting gabled block to the south. This semi-circular bay has three square-headed windows with continuous red sandstone cills and moulded sandstone heads to both floors. At each floor level the bay has two pairs of painted cast iron colonettes with High Victorian foliated capitals dividing the windows, those at first-floor level being of reduced height. The sashes within the semi-circular bay have straight frames and glazing.

The gabled two-storey block with attic level to the south-east is set back from the main façade and has a two-storey hipped-roof rectangular bay narrowly projecting to the east, and a single-storey gabled porch to the south housing a six-panelled painted timber door with replacement furniture. At first-floor level there are three blue-brick bands to window level; at ground-floor level there are four, with a double course near ground-floor window head level.

EAST ELEVATION

The east elevation has a projecting two-storey gabled block with one central bay in the gable at attic level containing a square-headed 2/2 sash window, surmounted by a narrowly recessed blind semi-circular arch with a buff-brick cross to the centre. The block has a narrowly projecting two-storey rectangular bay window with a hipped natural slate roof; the first floor has a double window without drip mould, and the ground floor has a double window with a continuous drip mould and cill. The single-storey extension to the northern end of the house is narrowly set back and has Flemish bond red-brick walling with two continuous blue-brick bands and a hipped natural slate roof with a half-cone section to the semi-circular north end. This extension has a paired square-headed window to the east with double-hung timber sashes and a continuous stone cill and head, and a similar but curved false-sash top-opening casement to the north-east; there are no drip moulds to the extension windows. The two-storey projecting gabled block has a gabled projecting porch attached to the south, with two small square-headed windows at first-floor level above either side of the porch roof apex and no other windows to the main façade. There is a rectangular-section red-brick chimney to the south-east wall with two buff clay pots.

The porch has projecting eaves and an ornate moulded timber bargeboard with detailed timber fretwork panelling, supported on moulded timber brackets and stepped buff-brick corbels. The porch has a single window to the east with a central moulded timber colonette-style mullion dividing two fixed lights, with timber tracery lights above.

NORTH ELEVATION

The rear north elevation shows a distinct lack of decoration compared to the front and sides, with only a plain double-stepped eaves course and blue-brick bands to the single-storey curved-end extension. The fenestration pattern is irregular; square-headed window openings generally have double-hung sliding sashes divided by horizontal glazing bars, with no drip moulds to the heads. The prominent red-brick chimney shared with No. 605 is to the north-west. The main block to the north-west has glazed double doors and a square fanlight at ground-floor level, and one half-dormer window above a paired window to the narrowly projecting block at the north-east. This narrowly projecting block has a prominent rectangular-section chimney to the ridge with four buff clay pots and is attached to the single-storey extensions to the north. The semi-circular end extension, which houses the kitchen internally, has curved timber glazed double doors flanked by false-sash timber top-opening casements. The mono-pitch block attached to the west of the kitchen block has a louvred square-headed timber door and a square-headed side-opening casement window.

WEST ELEVATION

The building is attached on the west to No. 605, the two houses together being largely symmetrical with a prominent chimney to the centre of the roof.

No. 607 has a single-storey rectangular rear return with a semi-circular northern end, abutted on the west by a single-storey mono-pitch utility block; both were built in 1999 to replace an earlier kitchen block. Many original external features have been retained, including sash windows and the ornate joinery to the porch. The original gate screen and piers to the Antrim Road have been replaced by modern alternatives — replacement timber gates set on square-section replacement red-brick piers.

SETTING

The house is located on the east side of the Antrim Road within a mature garden set back from the road. Both Nos. 605 and 607 share a single entrance, from which a private lane leads to grounds shared by both houses; each house has its own individual drive from the lane and a separate garden to the rear, divided by mature hedging. The houses are not clearly visible from the public footpath. Overall, No. 607 is a good example of its type, with its quality detailing and group value with No. 605 adding to its interest.