19 Wellington Park, Belfast, BT9 6DJ

19 Wellington Park, Belfast

A two-storey double-fronted brick Victorian villa in domestic gothic revival style, constructed in 1889/90 as one of a pair with number 21 Wellington Park by builder Andrew Dempster Gibson, architect unknown. The building is located on the north-east side of Wellington Park, a wide avenue running from the Lisburn Road to the Malone Road, within the Malone Conservation Area.

The building is T-shaped on plan with a three-storey rear return. The roof is natural slate with clay ridge tiles. Plain brick chimney stacks to the north-west and south-east sides (shared with number 21) have a plain corbelled course capped with clay circular chimney pots.

The symmetrical front elevation is built in red brick stretcher bond. The central feature is a shallow-arched doorway with an original bolection moulded timber door and original ironmongery. The doorway is flanked by painted circular stone columns with square plinths and Corinthian-style capitals. An elliptical arched toplight with polychrome charcoal and red soldier voussoirs sits above. The doorway is approached via two plain concrete steps framed by a dwarf concrete plinth.

On either side of the doorway are two-storey canted bays topped with pyramidal natural slate edged with lead flashings and capped with ornamental metal finials. The canted bays contain historic 1/1 painted timber sliding sash windows with side lights separated by brick piers. All windows have polychrome charcoal and red soldier canted voussoirs and painted window cills linked across the elevation with a single course of horizontal charcoal brick banding. A horizontal projecting corbelled band divides the floor levels. Metal guttering with circular downpipes sits above projecting brick eaves with a dog tooth course below. A contrasting dark-coloured brick plinth runs across the entire front.

The south-east elevation is blank with no openings except a chimney on the gable apex.

The left side of the main block has two vertically stacked windows: a 6/6 on the ground floor and a 2/2 with horizontal transom on the first floor. The right side has two vertically stacked 2/2 windows with horizontal transoms.

The rear elevation has roof finishes, eaves detailing and guttering as described for the front. The main block is abutted by a three-storey return. The south-east face has an asymmetric arrangement: two windows on the ground floor to the right of a back door, three on the first floor, and a single opening on the second floor. All are 2/2 windows with horizontal transoms, except the ground floor extreme right window which is 1/1. The north-east gable of the central projection is blank. A single-storey outhouse with pitched roof abuts it; the south-east face has a painted vertically sheeted door and a small 2/2 painted sliding sash window on the right. The north-west side of the rear return has two window openings per floor with 2/2 timber sliding sash windows with horizontal transoms. Ground floor level to the rear has masonry paint finish.

The setting is enhanced by mature trees defining the front boundary with the public footpath, and a mature hedgerow that soften the setting and conceal contemporary paving providing off-street parking behind. The rear of the property is defined by a high alley boundary wall with a pedestrian access door giving access to a narrow U-shaped paved patio and yard area.

Materials comprise natural slate roof with clay ridge tiles, red brick walls with blue and charcoal brick detailing (painted at ground level to the rear), original 2/2 timber sliding sash windows with horizontal transoms and some replacement 1/1 timber sliding sash windows all with single glazing, and cast iron and cast aluminium rainwater goods. Some PVC waste pipes and soil pipes serve the rear.