39 Hamilton Street, Belfast, County Antrim, BT2 8LP

39 Hamilton Street is a mid-terrace three-storey brick townhouse built around 1830–1835, situated on the north side of Hamilton Street at its junction with Joy Street in central Belfast. It forms one of only two surviving houses from what was originally a late-Georgian terrace of six buildings running between Joy Street and Catherine Street North (nos 31–41 Hamilton Street). The building displays the proportions and detailing characteristic of the Georgian period and represents a rare surviving example of late-Georgian terraced housing in the centre of Belfast. It was listed in 1985 and sensitively restored in 1986 by W. D. R. & R. T. Taggart for the Housing Executive, with much of the original architectural fabric remaining intact.

The house is rectangular on plan, facing south, with a front railed area. The pitched roof is covered in natural slate with black clay ridge tiles, and there is a replacement red brick chimneystack with clay pots. Stepped brick eaves support replacement metal guttering and a metal downpipe. The walls are of brown brick laid in Flemish bond with cement pointing, with painted render rusticated quoins to the east end only and a painted render plinth course. Window openings are square-headed with rendered reveals, painted stone sills, and replacement double-glazed 6/6 timber sash windows.

The front elevation is two windows wide, with an off-centre round-headed door opening. The replacement doorcase comprises a painted moulded render door surround, a replacement timber panelled door flanked by timber pilasters, and a replacement decorative fanlight. The door opens onto a modern tiled step, flanked by replacement swept steel railing set on a low render plinth wall, enclosing a front tiled area to the street. The west side elevation is abutted by the adjoining house at No. 41. The rear elevation is two windows wide with painted rendered walling and replacement 6/6 timber sash windows. The east side elevation is abutted by an adjoining modern red brick house.

The terrace was under construction by 1832–33, when the First Edition Ordnance Survey map shows that nos 31–35 had been built; nos 37–41 were likely completed very soon afterwards. Hamilton Street was laid out in the 1830s on reclaimed land to the south-east of Belfast's town centre, created by the construction of a paper mill dam along the Blackstaff River at the junction of Ormeau Avenue and Cromac Street. The street took its name from the family name of the Dukes of Abercorn, who resided at No. 3 Hamilton Street from 1818 (now demolished). The street originally attracted high-ranking merchant-class residents, including many employed in the newspaper and printing trade. By the 1850s, as businessmen moved to grander houses in the Belfast suburbs, the area had become more distinctly working class. A number of the larger houses on Joy Street and Hamilton Street were subsequently converted into lodging and boarding houses to accommodate students from Queen's College, established in 1849, as well as musical performers and actors attending nearby music halls.

The Belfast Street Directories record that the terrace was numbered differently in 1843, when No. 39 (then numbered No. 35) was occupied by a Mrs. Colville. By 1852 the house had passed to a Mr. James M. Conville, employed as a clerk. By 1859, Griffith's Valuation recorded the property as valued at £16 10s. and occupied by a Mr. David Clements, also a clerk. At that time the entire terrace was let by a Mr. Ebenezer Crawford. The Annual Revisions indicate that David Clements continued to reside at No. 39 until around 1905, though the Belfast Street Directories record a Ms. Hanna Clements, a dressmaker, and a Mr. M. W. Griffiths at the address in 1877 and 1880 respectively. The value of the house was reduced slightly to £15 in 1884 and further to £13 in 1900.

Ownership of the terrace passed from Ebenezer Crawford to a Mrs. Charlotte Harding around 1905. That year, following the separate revaluation of Cromac Ward, the house was revalued to £15. Charlotte Harding let the property to James Rice, a salesman, who resided there until his death in 1924. The 1911 Census records Rice as a Roman Catholic clothing salesman living at No. 39 with his wife and three children; the Census Building Return described the house as a first-class private dwelling consisting of nine rooms with no out offices. Rice's widow, Mary Rice, took possession following his death (recorded in the PRONI Wills Catalogue, 30 March 1924) and continued to be recorded as occupant until at least 1935, when the first general revaluation of property in Northern Ireland increased the value of the house to £18 10s. Ownership of the terrace had by then passed to a Mr. Joseph Tyney. From around 1940, a shop assistant named Daniel Gilmartin took possession, and his family continued to occupy the address until the 1970s.

During the Second World War, Hamilton Street was badly damaged in the Belfast Blitz when the Luftwaffe targeted the nearby shipyard industries, and many houses along the street were lost. A post-war revaluation set the house's value at £18, by which time the entire terrace had come into the possession of a Mr. J. R. McKee. Daniel Gilmartin continued to reside at No. 39 until the late 1970s, when a Ms. Theresa Moran came into possession, living there until 1986 when the restoration was carried out.

Many of the original houses on Hamilton Street, including nos 31–37, were demolished in the mid-1980s. As part of the 1986 restoration, three sympathetic red brick houses were constructed on the site of the demolished nos 31–37, linking them to the two surviving buildings of the original terrace. According to Patton, nos 33–37 were built for the Housing Executive, respecting the scale of the older buildings but spoilt by the use of pivot windows and brick surrounds to the doors. Today, only nos 36–46 on the south side and nos 39–41 on the north side survive from the original street. In 1971, Brett described the houses on Hamilton and Joy Street as "the best example left in the city of late-Georgian Belfast."

No. 39 adds significant value to the group as a whole, retaining the style and proportions of the original terrace and ensuring the continued survival of this rare example of late-Georgian terraced housing in central Belfast. The property lies within a conservation area and is currently in use as a house, in the ownership of a housing association.