49 Old Holywood Road, Belfast

49 Old Holywood Road is a small but well-proportioned late-Victorian semi-detached house of one storey plus attic, built in 1881 in red brick, possibly to designs by Thomas Jackson & Son. It forms one half of a pair with No. 51 next door, and together the two properties share group value with the neighbouring pair at Nos. 45 and 47 Old Holywood Road. All four houses front onto Old Holywood Road and face Belvoir Park. They are located in the townland of Ballymaghan and are collectively known as Pilgrim's Cottages.

The four houses were built as gardeners' cottages for the estate of Glenmachan House, the residence of Sir William Ewart. Ewart (1817–1889) was born in Sydenham and became one of Belfast's most prominent citizens and linen manufacturers. His father and grandfather had established the firm William Ewart & Son in 1814; he became a partner in 1843 and by his death had transformed the business into one of the largest linen manufactories in the world. The firm's properties included the warehouse at 17 Bedford Street in central Belfast, which remains a landmark building. Ewart was elected Mayor of Belfast in 1859–60 and served as Member of Parliament for Belfast from 1878 to 1889. Glenmachan House itself was erected in 1879 to a design by Thomas Jackson & Son, and the four cottages on Old Holywood Road followed in 1881, possibly also by that practice, though this cannot be confirmed. In character, the group is reminiscent of worker housing at garden villages such as Bournville and Port Sunlight, arranged in pairs and set back from the road with generous front and back gardens.

No. 49 was initially valued at £4 10s. The occupants were not recorded in valuation sources until the early 20th century; in 1911 the house was occupied by James McKee, a gardener on the Glenmachan estate. The 1911 census building return described the cottage as a second-class dwelling of five rooms. The Ewart family retained ownership of Glenmachan House and Nos. 45–51 Old Holywood Road until at least the 1970s, and some occupants of the cottages continued to work at Glenmachan until the mid-20th century. In the 1950s No. 49 was the home of William McCartney, who maintained the Ewart gardens. By the end of the Second Revaluation of Property in Northern Ireland (1956–72) the rateable value had risen to £8 10s. The houses were listed in 1976. A flat-roof extension to the rear of No. 49 was added in 1978. In 1990, one of the first-floor bedrooms was subdivided into two rooms, one of which became a new bathroom. In 1993 the brickwork of Nos. 49 and 51 was repointed.

The house has a rectangular plan with the principal two-bay elevation facing west. The roof is half-hipped and clad in plain red clay tiles with decorative bands of club and fishtail tiling, bonnet hip tiles, crested ridge tiles, and terracotta ball finials. Moulded timber barge boards are fitted, and projecting eaves with exposed rafter ends support ogee-profile cast iron guttering discharging to rectangular-section downpipes. The attic storey is clad in vertically hung red clay tiles laid in alternating courses of club and fishtail pattern. Red brick walling is laid in Flemish bond. There is a dentilled string course at impost level, buff and black brick banding at sill level, and a projecting black brick plinth course. Rectangular chimney stacks are shared with the attached property, finished with corbelled coping and red clay chimney pots.

Window openings are square-headed with flat-arch brick lintels in soldier course and painted sills. The windows throughout are margin-paned double-hung timber sashes with a diamond pattern to the upper sash, except where otherwise noted. On the principal west elevation, the south bay has a square-headed door opening fitted with a timber panelled door and fanlight, sheltered by a canopy supported on decorative timber brackets and clad in plain red clay tiles with fishtail banding. Above, a gabled dormer at attic level contains a three-sided canted bay window with timber sashes, built off the front wall and supported on moulded timber brackets; the dormer cheeks are clad in alternating courses of club and fishtail red clay tiling, with crested ridge tiles and ball finials matching the main roof.

The south elevation has one window at ground floor and one at first floor. The east end of the building is occupied by a single-storey flat-roof extension fitted with a uPVC casement window. The rear east-facing elevation of the extension is two bays wide, with a modern uPVC double-leaf door to the south bay and a uPVC casement window to the north bay. The north elevation abuts No. 51 Old Holywood Road.

The building is listed inclusive of its gate pillars, boundary wall, and railings. The site is enclosed by a dwarf red brick wall topped with stone coping and iron railings with arrow-head rail tops. A plain wooden gate to the west is supported on rectangular-section sandstone piers with moulded coping. A narrow paved pathway runs around the building, with a lawned garden shared between the two properties to the front and a lawned garden to the rear.