41 Malone Road, Belfast

41 Malone Road is a mid-terrace, four-storey, two-bay red brick late Victorian town house, built in 1886–87 to designs by William Eaton, an architect then based on Botanic Avenue, Belfast. It forms part of a terrace of nine similar houses — Nos. 37, 39, and 43–53 Malone Road — running between Malone Avenue and Eglantine Avenue on the north end of the Malone Road. Originally named Windsor Gardens, the terrace was built for James Johnston, possibly the insurance agent of that name recorded in contemporary directories as operating from Waring Street. The whole group appears to have been completed by mid-1888 and was fully occupied by 1890. Together the nine houses form one of the most impressive terraces within the Malone Road Conservation Area. The terrace is set back from the tree-lined street by paved front gardens bounded by low walling with replacement railings, and sits directly opposite Fisherwick Presbyterian Church; viewed from the corner of Chlorine Gardens, the group makes a particularly strong impression. The site previously formed part of the grounds of Eglantine Hill, a house predating 1832 that was bounded by the Malone and Lisburn Roads to the east and west, and by what are now Malone and Eglantine Avenues to the north and south.

The building is rectangular on plan, aligned on a north–south axis with ends gabled. A three-storey gabled return is built at half-landing level to the rear (west side), on the right. This return is abutted by a single-storey duo-pitched brick building that extends almost the full length of the rear yard, with a later red brick boiler house at the gable end. An external fire-escape stair connects the rear yard to exit doors from both the main building and the three-storey return. The property has been converted to ground-floor office use with self-contained residential apartments above, though its domestic scale remains legible and some fine historic detailing survives internally.

ROOFS AND RAINWATER GOODS

The main roof and the single-storey appendage are covered in natural slate with black clay ridge tiles. The bowed bay has bands of fish-scale slates, red terracotta ridge tiles, and a finial. The three-storey return is covered in interlocking concrete tiles. A large red brick chimney, centred on the main ridge, has simple corbelled brick coursing to the cap and eight circular yellow clay pots, shared with No. 39. Cast iron ogee-profile guttering is carried on scrolled terracotta brackets at the front, with a projecting eaves course; the bowed bay rises above the main eaves line and is highlighted by a cornice of classical ornamentation in stuccowork below the gutter. Rainwater pipes at the front and south elevation are circular cast iron; some square-section cast aluminium is present; uPVC is used elsewhere.

WALLS

The main walls are red brick laid in Flemish bond with painted stone and stucco dressings. The return is built in English Garden Wall bond.

WINDOWS

The front (east) and south elevations retain single-glazed double-hung sliding sash windows with 1-over-1 panes. One single-glazed sliding sash with 2-over-2 panes survives at third-floor level on the return. Elsewhere — to the west and north elevations — windows are replacement timber or uPVC casements. The three-storey return's north and south elevations have informal fenestration with soldier-coursed brick window heads (some with concrete lintels inserted below), projecting brick header eaves courses, and Georgian-wired glass throughout. The south elevation of the return has single-glazed 1-over-1 sliding sash windows with margin panes at both first and second floor half-landings, though the lower sash at second floor level lacks margin panes.

FRONT (EAST) ELEVATION

The front elevation faces east and is two bays wide, with the bowed bay offset to the right and the entrance to the left. Projecting moulded cill and string courses, and a painted stucco plat band, run across all floors. The bowed bay is also finished in painted stucco, except for brick header courses between floor levels. Bay windows and the segmental-arched door have incised decoration in stuccowork above their openings, with an edge roll moulding. A painted hood mould and carved stone label stops sit above a painted stucco plat band, which rests on pink marble colonnettes with carved stone capitals (painted). There is a plain glass overlight above a square-headed five-panelled replacement timber door, with toothed stone quoins below the plat band and a decorative terracotta panel above the door head — all painted. The colonnettes and terracotta panel are repeated at first and second floor level above the door, each featuring varied floral and foliated carved detail.

REAR (WEST) ELEVATION

The west elevation faces a shared alley. The three-storey gabled return to the right (south) has clipped eaves and two uPVC windows at each of the first and second floors, with imitation horns applied to the top-hung opening casements; the ground floor of the return is abutted by the single-storey building. To the left of the return, the main building has fire exit doors — replacing windows — at each level, opening onto an external galvanised steel escape stair. Above the return, one sliding sash window with 2-over-2 panes is present. Fire exit doors are timber with concrete lintels; each has a plain glass overlight at ground, first, and second floor, and timber-framed sidelights with top-hung opening casements at all levels. Walls are painted white up to the top of the second floor. A projecting brick header course runs to the eaves.

NORTH ELEVATION

No. 39 Malone Road abuts the north face of the main building. The north elevation of the three-storey return has informal fenestration and simple detailing. At second floor there are two timber-framed single-glazed windows with top-hung casements; at first floor there is one similar casement offset to the far left alongside twin uPVC-framed windows; at ground floor there are timber-framed single-glazed windows with top-hung casements either side of a centred timber-framed glazed fire door. At first and second floor the same fire door type is offset to the far right. All windows and fire doors are fitted with Georgian-wired glass. A projecting brick header eaves course supports a half-round gutter discharging to a uPVC downpipe.

SINGLE-STOREY REAR BUILDING

This structure has a natural slated roof with black clay ridge tiles, a projecting brick header eaves course, uPVC gutter, and uPVC rainwater pipe. There are four timber-framed single-glazed windows with top-hung night vents, the rightmost being smaller than the others. Window openings have soldier-coursed brick heads and painted concrete cills. External walling is painted white with a black-painted plinth of four to five courses. Surface-mounted pipework and gas meter boxes are fixed to the external faces of the yard elevations.

SETTING AND GROUNDS

The building is set back from the tree-lined Malone Road behind a front garden paved with concrete slabs, reached by a poured concrete path and two slate-clad entrance steps. The front garden is bounded by low walling with replacement railings on the west side of the road. The rear yard is bounded by red brick walling painted white, with a curved terracotta coping cap; access to the rear alley is through a ledged and braced sheeted timber gate. The yard has concrete hard-standing throughout.

HISTORICAL OCCUPANCY

The first recorded occupant of No. 41 was H. K. Matthews, a tea merchant. By 1892 the house was occupied by James K. Black, and by 1895 by John Mooney. Mooney appears to have died before 1899; the 1901 census records the house as occupied by his widow Susan Mooney, a boarder, and a domestic servant, with the building described as a first-class dwelling containing fifteen rooms. Mrs Mooney remained there until at least 1915. By 1918 a Mrs Mary R. Kerr was in residence, and by 1925 the property was in use as the Sans Souci Nursing Home, managed by Misses Lockhart and Anderson. Later renamed the Ruthin Nursing Home, it closed in the early 1940s. By 1945 the building had become offices for Canada Life Assurance, who from at least 1951 shared the building with an architects' firm and an engineer. By the mid-1980s it had been divided into four offices, largely occupied by dental practices by 1990. The building was recorded as untenanted in 1996. It was listed in November 1991 and was vacant and undergoing renovation at the time of the listing record (January 2017).