24 Sunnyside St., Belfast

24 Sunnyside Street is a two-storey red-brick terraced house built in 1903, situated on the south side of Sunnyside Street, approximately 3 kilometres from Belfast city centre. It forms part of a larger terrace of twenty-one similar dwellings constructed between 1903 and 1910.

The house is built of smooth red clay brick laid in English Garden Wall bond, with a natural slate roof and cast metal guttering to the front (replaced with uPVC to the rear). The main rectangular body has a two-storey rectangular return with a double-pitched roof.

The front elevation faces north and features a painted timber four-panel door with semi-circular head and moulded architrave, accompanied by an overlight with stained glazing, positioned to the left. To the right stands a painted timber 2/2 sliding-sash single-glazed window with segmental head and moulded architrave. A similar but smaller window is positioned almost centrally on the first floor. The brickwork includes clay ventilation bricks at each level and a projecting moulded brick course at eaves level. A red-brick chimney stack with projecting brick course and clay pots sits on the right-hand side.

The rear elevation has a rendered first-floor section with a painted timber 1/1 sliding-sash single-glazed window to the left. A two-storey extension was added circa 1995 to the right, built in rustic red-clay brick with a double-pitched roof of fibre-cement covering, painted timber boards to verges and eaves, and uPVC top-hung double-glazed windows and guttering. The extension extends to the original yard wall, which is cement rendered with concrete coping. A square-headed yard doorway with painted timber boarded door is positioned to the left-hand side of the rear elevation.

The small front garden is finished in concrete block paviors, set behind a replacement red-brick boundary wall and gateway with painted metal railings and arched gate, installed circa 1988 as part of an improvement scheme for the entire terrace. The side elevations abut adjacent properties (No. 22 to the east and No. 26 to the west).

The house retains significant external character despite the rear extension and boundary replacement. It represents a good example of modest Edwardian urban terraced housing, built when Belfast was expanding rapidly southwards from the city centre along main thoroughfares including the Ormeau, Lisburn and Malone Roads.

Sunnyside Street itself first appears on the Ordnance Survey town plan of 1871–73 as a lane stretching from the Ormeau Road to the current junction with Whitehall Parade, with only a six-house terrace (present numbers 43–53) on the north side. It was designated 'Sunnyside Street' by 1879. The present numbers 14–24 appear on the 1901–03 Ordnance Survey plan, with numbers 26–42 recorded in the contemporary valuation book for 1904, and numbers 44–52 noted in the 1910 valuation book. The opening of King's Bridge in 1912 allowed the street to extend its current length as a thoroughfare to Ridgeway Street beyond the River Lagan.

The developer of numbers 14–42 appears to have been Hugh Scott, listed as lessor for all these properties in 1906, though the architect (if any) remains unidentified. The first occupant of No. 24 was John McIntyre, a carter. The 1911 census recorded the building as a second-class dwelling with five rooms, occupied by McIntyre, his son (a general labourer), daughter (charwoman), son-in-law (army pensioner) and granddaughter (tobacco factory worker). Subsequent occupants included Mrs Grant (McIntyre's daughter) from 1924 and Mr Jackson from the mid-1960s onwards. The property was listed in 1986. It retains significant group value with the remainder of the terrace despite replacement of the original front boundary and the addition of the new-build two-storey rear extension.