10 College Square North, Belfast, Co Antrim, BT1 6AS

10 College Square North is a four-storey, three-bay rendered terraced townhouse, built around 1830 as part of a terrace of five similar houses along the north side of College Square North, Belfast. It is rectangular on plan, faces south, and is widely regarded as the best surviving example of an 1830s terrace in Belfast. Despite the loss of much original fabric, the plain Georgian character of the group survives intact, and the terrace holds significant historic interest as a rare remnant of Georgian Belfast, comparable to the houses at 7–11 Wellington Place.

The terrace was not yet built when George Benn's 1822 map was published, but had been completed by the time of the first Ordnance Survey map of 1832–33. It was developed for John McCammond, who held the lease for numbers 1–12, while the remainder of the terrace was erected for Zachariah Leaf Orrett, as recorded in C. E. B. Brett's Georgian Belfast: 1750–1850.

The pitched roof is not visible from the street and sits behind a parapet wall with a moulded eaves cornice. A profiled rendered chimneystack with clay pots rises from the west party wall. The walling to the front is painted in a ruled-and-lined rendered finish with a moulded plinth course. The rear elevation is of red brick laid in stretcher bond, partially rebuilt, with gauged brick window heads, two round-headed window openings to the half-landings, cast-iron guttering on iron brackets, and cast-iron downpipes.

The south front elevation is three windows wide, with an entrance to the right and a railed front area. Window openings are square-headed with sandstone sills and replacement timber sash windows without horns. The square-headed door opening contains a replacement flat-panelled timber door with a lugged architrave surround and a rectangular overlight with interlacing glazing bars. The door surround is flanked by slender panelled pilasters and foliate console brackets that support a dentilled cornice and a shallow pediment with acroteria and a wreath to the tympanum. The door opens onto a replacement paved platform reached by five replacement nosed stone steps enclosed by replacement iron railings, which return to enclose the front area. The north rear elevation is two windows wide. A single-storey lean-to extension abuts the rear, with a small enclosed yard. The west side elevation abuts the adjoining No. 11 and the east side abuts the adjoining No. 9.

The building sits within a terrace of five similar houses facing the former Municipal Technical Institute. A common parking area to the rear is enclosed by rendered walls and opens onto College Place.

The townhouse was first recorded in the Townland Valuations of around 1830, when it was valued at £52 and occupied by a Mr George Sloan. Sloan remained through the 1830s, and by 1843 his widow, Mrs George Sloan, was recorded in the Belfast Street Directories as occupant. She continued to be listed until at least 1852. By the time of Griffith's Valuation in 1860, the occupant had changed to Dr William McGee, one of several medical professionals drawn to the fashionable College Square. The valuation noted that the property was owned outright by the McGee family and that its value had risen to £60. McGee was both a medical surgeon and a Justice of the Peace, and he remained at No. 10 until his death in 1874. Despite his death, McGee continued to be recorded as tenant until around 1900; however, the Belfast Street Directories note that the townhouse was occupied by Dr John W. Browne from 1877. The 1900 Belfast Revaluation increased the property's value to £66, recorded it as containing 10 rooms — including sitting rooms and bedrooms but excluding kitchens — and noted that it had both gas and electrical lighting. The 1901 Census records that Browne (aged 55, Presbyterian) lived there with his wife Matilda (aged 49) and a number of domestic servants. The building was described as a first-class dwelling of 10 rooms with a coach house to the rear as its sole outbuilding.

By 1910, No. 10 was no longer used as a private residence. Following the construction of Belfast Technical College between 1900 and 1907 — which blocked the pleasant view of the Royal Belfast Academical Institution's lawns — College Square lost much of its appeal as a residential district, and many professionals relocated to areas such as University Square near Queen's University. Browne moved to Windsor Avenue and converted No. 10 into a medical surgery; by 1918 he was the sole practitioner, and he died in 1923 at the age of 78.

After Browne's death, the property was purchased by Mr John Bristow, a solicitor who administered the estate of the Earl of Shaftesbury. The First General Revaluation of property in Northern Ireland recorded its value at £199. The building served as the Estate Office for Anthony Ashley-Cooper, the 9th Earl of Shaftesbury, who held the title between 1886 and 1961. The 1943 Belfast Street Directory noted that No. 10 also housed the County Antrim Sheriff's Office and the Belfast Lieutenancy Office, all administered by Bristow. The building survived the heavy bombardment of Belfast's city centre during the 1941 Blitz. By the time of the Earl's death in 1961, No. 10 had passed into the ownership of Johnston Umbrellas Ltd, who leased it to the Pensions Appeal Tribunal for use as their main office in Northern Ireland. The building was exempt from taxation and its value stood at £188 by the end of the second revaluation in 1972.

The terrace was listed in 1979. During the 1970s, College Square and the surrounding Smithfield area suffered frequent bomb and vandalism attacks. In 1977 the adjoining No. 8 was demolished by a bomb, and over the following decades most of the remaining terrace lay vacant and fell into a serious state of disrepair, with only No. 12 continuing to be occupied. Nos 9–11 were restored by Hearth Housing Association in 1998–99 and converted into modern flats, restoring the terrace's original character. A replica building at No. 8, also built by Hearth, closes the gap left by the bomb damage.