26 College Green, Belfast

A two-storey end-of-terrace house built in 1870–71, located at the corner of Rugby Road and College Green, north-east of the main quadrangle at Queens University Belfast. The building is constructed of red brick with a natural slate roof and is now used as the Presbyterian Historical Society of Ireland. It forms part of a longer Victorian terrace (Nos. 2–26 College Green) within the Queens Conservation Area.

The house has group value with the adjoining No. 24 College Green, with which it originally shared an 'L'-shaped plan with two-storey returns. The pair reads as a symmetrical composition and bookends the broader Victorian terrace. Unlike No. 24, No. 26 retains its original two-storey gabled return, built at half-landing level and centred on the rear elevation.

The roof is laid in natural slate with black clay ridge tiles and a half-hip at the gable end. A shared red brick chimney with No. 24, rectangular on plan with three stacks of chamfered edges and a corbelled brick cap, rises centrally on the ridge. It is topped with three square-based yellow clay pots with pointed arched tops resembling bishop's hats. Corbelled brick eaves on the front elevation comprise one row of headers, one row of stretchers, and one row of alternating angled bricks; the rear eaves are simpler with projecting angled brick. Eaves terminate in moulded kneeler stones supporting lead-clad raised copings to the east gable end. The front coping is more decorative, featuring a raised club motif. Small duo-pitched dormers with slated cheeks appear on both front and rear pitches, timber-framed throughout.

The south elevation serves as the principal façade. It is asymmetrical and 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 and comprises a square-headed nine-panelled timber-framed door with raised and fielded panels in bolection moulding. Above it is a gothic arched over-light and surround, decorated with a moulded leaf band set within an archivolt, supported on impost blocks and grey marble colonnettes with Corinthian-style capitals and moulded bases on a substantial plinth. The surround—apart from the colonnettes—is set flush with the brick wall and entirely painted, likely combining stucco and dressed stone beneath the paint. A continuous projecting brick plinth with chamfered stone top and a continuous string course between first-floor window heads flank the entrance, both painted. Between the ground and first floors runs a continuous brick string course of headers in alternating depth topped by terracotta tile; a similar detail appears between first floor and attic, consisting 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 feature stop-chamfered head and jamb details with cavetto moulding to the underside of cills. A single window aligned above the entrance at first floor has a painted cill and slightly cambered lintel with a simple keystone; a relieving arch in brick headers is formed above it. Historic glass is noted in the bottom sash. The canted bay contains three windows at ground and first-floor levels with continuous painted cills and lintels. Above the canted bay sits a duo-pitched dormer, meticulously detailed with paired fixed lights and stop-chamfer timber framing. A projecting bargeboard is supported on exposed ridge and eaves beams with carved ends; a sheeted timber spandrel with diagonal boarding rises above the windows, and an exposed sheeted timber soffit remains visible, all painted. The dormer cheeks are slated.

The east elevation is a gable end overlooking Rugby Road, asymmetrical in character. An external staggered and tapered chimneybreast, off-centre to the left, is capped and slated over at the verge. A two-storey square-based projection sits to the right, abutted by a single-storey canted bay. Two round-arched attic windows are present: one more or less centred on the gable, the other aligned over the projecting bay. The plinth and string course between ground and first floors continue 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 appears between the attic windows.

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

The corner of Rugby Road and College Green is enhanced by a curved red brick wall enclosing a yard to the north-east. The wall is formed in red brick headers with a chamfered plinth and large indented panels culminating in dentilled brick flat arches along Rugby Road, topped with substantial stone coping. A blocked opening on the south face, possibly a secondary entrance, shows soldier-coursed brick headers and a stone threshold step in place. Plainer red brick walling to College Green Mews has been partially replaced with a large structural opening framed in concrete on the east and a ledged and braced sheeted timber gate on the west. Smooth rendered walling forms the remaining boundary at College Green and Rugby Road, with matching rendered piers between modern metal railings. Graded paving to the east of the house provides ramped access to the front entrance, while concrete steps from College Green, fitted with tubular metal handrails (painted), offer alternative access.

Roofing materials include natural slate to the main roof, dormer cheeks and return, with lead to the canted bay on the south elevation and a square projection on the north. Mineral felt sheeting covers the single-storey flat-roofed canted bay to the east and external store to the north-east. Gutters are cast aluminium with ogee profile (replacement) on the south elevation; cast iron gutters appear elsewhere. Walls employ red brick in Flemish bond on the south elevation and English Garden Wall bond on the north. Windows include single-glazed timber-framed sliding sashes with 1/1 panes on the south and east elevations, with a mix of steel-framed 'Crittal-type' windows, timber casements, and sliding sashes to the north and return elements.