26 College Green, Belfast

26 College Green is a two-storey with attic, red-brick, late-Victorian end-of-terrace house built in 1870–71, positioned at the corner of Rugby Road and College Green, to the north-east of the main quadrangle at Queen's University, Belfast. It now serves as the offices of the Presbyterian Historical Society of Ireland, an organisation associated with the Theological College of the Presbyterian Church, which stands directly opposite. The building sits within the Queen's Conservation Area and has group value with the adjoining No. 24 College Green: the two houses interlock in plan — both were originally L-shaped with two-storey returns — and together read as a symmetrical composition forming a bookend to the longer Victorian terrace that runs from No. 2 to No. 26 inclusive.

ROOFS AND CHIMNEYS

The roof is natural slate, duo-pitched with black clay ridge tiles, and covers the main building, its return, and both dormers. The gable end facing Rugby Road is half-hipped. Unlike the adjoining No. 24, No. 26 retains its original two-storey gabled return, built at half-landing level and centred on the rear elevation. A red brick chimney, rectangular on plan and shared with No. 24, sits centred on the ridge and comprises three stacks with chamfered edges and a shared corbelled brick cap. The chimney carries three square-based yellow clay pots with pointed arched tops that resemble bishop's hats. The eaves to the front (south) elevation are corbelled in brick, made up of one row of headers, one row of stretchers, and one row of alternating angled bricks. The eaves to the rear are simpler, with a projecting angled brick course. At the east gable end, both front and rear eaves terminate in moulded kneeler stones that support lead-clad raised copings; the front kneeler stone is the more decorative of the two, featuring a raised club motif. There is a small duo-pitched timber-framed dormer with slated cheeks to the front roof pitch, and a similar dormer to the rear.

MATERIALS

The roof covering is natural slate throughout, including the return and dormers. The canted bay to the south has a lead roof; the square projection to the north has a lead roof too. The single-storey flat-roofed canted bay to the east and the external store to the north-east are covered in mineral felt sheet. Rainwater goods are cast aluminium replacement ogee-profile gutters to the south elevation and cast iron elsewhere. The walls are red brick laid in Flemish bond to the south elevation and English Garden Wall bond to the north. Windows to the south and east elevations are single-glazed timber-framed sliding sashes with 1-over-1 panes; those to the north elevation and return are a mix of steel-framed Crittal-type windows, timber casements, and sliding sashes.

SOUTH ELEVATION

The south elevation is the principal façade. It is asymmetrical but formally arranged, with the entrance positioned to the left and a two-storey canted bay to the right. The entrance is raised three steps above pavement level. The doorcase is square-headed with a nine-panelled timber-framed door featuring raised and fielded panels set in bolection moulding, a gothic arched over-light, and a decorative surround. The surround is ornamented with a moulded leaf band set within an archivolt and is supported on impost blocks and grey marble colonnettes; these colonnettes have Corinthian-style capitals and simple moulded bases, all set on a substantial plinth. Apart from the colonnettes, the surround is flush with the brick walling and is entirely painted — as with other painted dressings on the building, this is likely a combination of stucco and dressed stone beneath the paint. A continuous projecting brick plinth runs either side of the entrance, with a chamfered stone top, and a continuous string course runs between the first-floor window heads, both painted. Between ground and first floor there is a continuous brick string course of headers in alternating depth, topped by a terracotta tile. A similar detail appears between the first floor and attic, where the string course consists of alternating straight and angled headers between two rows of terracotta tiles. A glazed ceramic black-and-white tiled street sign reading 'College Green' is wall-mounted near the east corner at first-floor level. All openings have stop-chamfered head and jamb details and a cavetto moulding to the underside of the cills. Above the entrance at first-floor level is a single window with a painted cill and a slightly cambered lintel with a simple keystone; historic glass is noted in the bottom sash. A relieving arch is formed in brick headers above the lintel. The canted bay has three windows to both the ground and first floor, with continuous painted cills and lintels. Centred above the canted bay is a meticulously detailed duo-pitched dormer with paired fixed lights, stop-chamfer detail to the timber framing, a projecting bargeboard supported on exposed ridge and eaves beams with carved ends, a diagonally sheeted timber spandrel above the windows, and an exposed sheeted timber soffit, all painted; the cheeks are slated.

EAST ELEVATION

The gable end facing Rugby Road is half-hipped and asymmetrical. To the left of centre there is an external staggered and tapered chimneybreast, capped and slated over at the verge. To the right there is a two-storey square-based projection abutted by a single-storey canted bay. Two round-arched attic windows are present: one roughly centred on the gable and the other aligned above the projecting bay. The plinth and string course between ground and first floor continue around from the main façade; the string course between first floor and attic continues only as far as the chimneybreast. An additional string course of two terracotta tiles runs between the attic windows.

NORTH ELEVATION

The north elevation is largely symmetrical, with the two-storey gabled return at its centre and a flat-roofed abutment filling the north-east re-entrant corner, built in matching red brick and appearing contemporary with the main building. Openings are informally arranged; this rear elevation is one bay wider than the front and is detailed more plainly, with simple soldier-coursed headers and projecting stone cills. At ground floor in the main building, there is a sheeted timber door within a flat-roofed store to the left and a sliding sash window with 6-over-6 panes, likely original, to the right of the return; at first floor there is a tripartite steel-framed window aligned above the sash window below. Above the return, a small tripartite single-glazed timber-framed window lights the half-landing to the attic. In the return itself, there is a flush modern painted door at ground floor flanked by two steel-framed single-glazed casement windows; centred on the gable apex is one large segmental-arched sliding sash window with 1-over-1 panes and margin lights, and a further sliding sash window sits to the right; the eaves here are clipped. The east and west faces of the return are similar to one another, with informally arranged smaller windows. To the east, above the flat-roofed store, there are two small steel-framed casement windows at first floor, both with top-hung night vents. To the west, two small windows are offset to the right: a timber-framed single-glazed casement at ground floor and a sliding sash at first floor, the latter single-glazed and likely original, as with all other sliding sash windows on the building.

BOUNDARY WALLS AND SETTING

The corner of Rugby Road and College Green is defined by a curved red brick wall enclosing a yard to the north-east of the property. This wall is built in red brick headers with a chamfered plinth and large indented panels that culminate in dentilled brick flat arches along the Rugby Road frontage; it has a substantial stone coping. A blocked opening in the south face, which possibly served as a secondary entrance, retains its soldier-coursed brick headers and stone threshold step. Plainer red brick walling faces College Green Mews, partly replaced by a large structural opening framed in concrete to the east and a ledged-and-braced sheeted timber gate to the west. The remaining boundary to College Green and Rugby Road is smooth rendered walling with matching rendered piers between modern metal railings. Graded paving to the east side of the house provides ramped access to the front entrance. Concrete steps give access from College Green, with painted tubular metal handrails.

HISTORICAL CONTEXT

College Green was laid out in 1866 on what was then the semi-rural 'Plains' of Malone, the land to the east of the recently established Queen's College (completed 1849) and around and beyond the Union Theological College (completed 1853). The founding of Queen's prompted several decades of development in the vicinity, with regularly planned streets filled with mainly High Victorian terraced housing for the professional and merchant classes moving southward from a rapidly commercialising and industrialising Belfast city centre. The present Nos. 6–8 were the first to be built along the new thoroughfare in 1866, followed by Nos. 2–4, College Green House (originally 'Culfeightrin House', rebuilt around 1882), and Nos. 24–26 in 1870–71; Nos. 10–12 and 20–22 followed in 1876 and Nos. 14–18 in 1878. The street was originally conceived as part of Fitzroy Avenue, which stretches eastward beyond the intersection of what is now Rugby Road, and was treated as such for the first few decades of its existence: the name 'College Green' was applied only to Culfeightrin House and Nos. 2–8 on the 1871–73 Ordnance Survey map.

No. 26 appears to have been built by the estate of the late Robert Corry, the Belfast timber merchant who had developed part of College Green in the mid-1860s and, before that, Upper and Lower Crescent in the 1840s and 1850s. The identity of the architect is uncertain. The original occupant appears to have been William Crawford, who leased both this property and the neighbouring No. 24 from Corry's estate. Crawford appears to have died in the mid-1880s, after which the lease passed to his wife and then, around 1894, to Miss Emily Crawford — presumably a daughter — who was recorded in the 1901 census as occupying the house with her sister and a domestic servant. The building was noted at that time as a 'first class' dwelling with 13 rooms in use. Around 1906 the property passed to William McVicker, a leather merchant, who remained until around 1909. By 1911 Miss Emily S. Montgomery had become the householder and retained the property into the early 1960s. Sometime between 1965 and 1969 the house was acquired by the Presbyterian Church. The building was listed in 1979 and currently serves as the offices of the Presbyterian Historical Society of Ireland.