7 Lower Crescent, Belfast, Co Antrim, BT7 1NR

7 Lower Crescent is a relatively large, three-storey rendered terraced town house, built in 1852 as part of a regency-style terrace of eleven similar, though not identical, properties. The terrace known as Lower Crescent sits to the east of University Road and faces, across a small public park, Upper Crescent — a similarly styled development of 1846 which, unlike Lower Crescent, is actually arranged in a true crescent form. The building is currently in use as offices and forms part of a group that also includes properties converted to flats and a public house.

Exterior — Front Elevation

The front elevation is asymmetrical and faces roughly south. On the ground floor to the right is the entrance, comprising a four-panel timber door with a two-pane rectangular fanlight above; the upper panels of the door have semicircular heads. To the left of the doorway are two tall sash windows with Georgian panes (6 over 6). The ground floor level is finished in rusticated render.

On the first floor, two larger windows are set on a sill course. These have moulded surrounds and sash frames with regency-style panes — that is, horizontally orientated — in a 4/8 arrangement. The upper floors are finished in plain render. Above first-floor window height, and below the second-floor sill course, runs a broad plain course. Within this broad course is a thin moulded string course, which has been broken by the insertion of two patress plates; a further two similar plates are fixed at ground-floor level.

On the second floor, two much smaller windows, similar in style to those on the ground floor, are set on a more pronounced, cornice-like sill course ornamented with dentillations. Above second-floor window height is a plain course, above which rises a parapet with a plain stone (or probable stone) coping.

Exterior — Rear Elevation

The rear elevation is entirely in brick. To the left-hand side is a two-storey gabled return. On the first floor of the gable of this return is a Georgian-paned sash window (6 over 6). To the right, the return merges with a two-storey projection with a monopitched roof. On the rear (north) face of this projection there is a sash window at first-floor level and a large flat-arched opening fitted with a recent metal door at ground-floor level. On the inner (south) face of the projection there is a small roundel window at first-floor level, with a large flat-arched opening at ground-floor level. On the inner (west) face of the return are two sash windows at ground-floor level (each 3 over 6), with a doorway to the left of these, situated within the open archway of the projection. At first-floor level of the return there are three sash windows of the same type as below, though the second and third of these are considerably smaller.

On the rear façade of the main house, a recently inserted glazed door sits to the right at ground-floor level, occupying a position where there was originally a window; the upper portion of the original window survives and functions as a fanlight. To the right on the first floor is a sash window matching those on the ground-floor front, with another similar window to the right on the second floor, which is slightly smaller. Between the first and second floors, to the left, is a half-landing window matching the ground-floor front windows. Patress plates are also fixed to the rear façade.

Roof and Other Details

The gabled roof is slated and has two small Velux windows to the rear. There are two tall rendered chimneystacks, shared with the adjoining properties, with projecting copings and uniform pots. Rainwater goods are a mixture of cast iron and PVC.

Historical Context

The development of Lower Crescent, and of the wider area around University Road, was made possible by the selling off of much of Lord Donegall's Belfast estate during the early to mid 19th century. The lands to the south of the town, along the Malone Ridge, were particularly attractive to developers, and from the mid 1830s onwards a succession of fine late Georgian-style terraces was built there — a trend further accelerated by the establishment of the prestigious Queen's College in the area in the later 1840s. These grand new terraces were taken up by Belfast's professional and business classes, who vacated their older residences in the town centre, which were in turn gradually converted into shops and offices.

Upper Crescent was perhaps the grandest of these developments: an elegantly curving row of three-storey dwellings in a late regency style, built in 1846 by the timber and shipping merchant Robert Corry. Its authorship is uncertain, though Dr Paul Larmour has suggested that Charles Lanyon may have had a hand in its design. Corry himself undertook the building work and took up residence in the house at the east end; for the first few years of its existence the row was known as Corry's Crescent. To the immediate south of the crescent, where a church and small park now stand, Corry held a large lawn as a garden. Shortly after this garden was laid out, however, he had it ploughed up and used for the cultivation of vegetables for the relief of local workers suffering as a result of the Great Famine. To the north of the garden ran an old watercourse flowing northwards into a reservoir east of the Dublin Road known as the Basin; to the east lay smaller gardens belonging to other occupants of the crescent, and further east and north-east ran Albion Lane, a narrow semi-rural laneway stretching from the north end of Bradbury Place to the east end of the present University Terrace.

In 1852 Corry built a second terrace to the north of his garden and just south of the old watercourse. This new development — the erroneously named Lower Crescent, for it has no true crescent form — was built in much the same style as its neighbour to the south and was occupied by the same mix of professionals and businessmen. By as early as 1860, the ground floors of some properties were already being used as offices. In the later 1860s a railway line was cut immediately to the north of Lower Crescent, running along the line of the old watercourse. In 1873 a large sandstone building — originally the Ladies Collegiate, later Victoria College — was added to the west end of the terrace. By the close of the decade two further houses had been added to the east end, the most easterly of which, Rivoli House, was designed by William Hastings and originally contained a dance academy run by one Frederick Brouneau. The new railway line also cut across Albion Lane, and its construction presaged the laying out of the new and broader thoroughfare of Botanic Avenue.

Upper Crescent too saw further building during the 1860s and 1870s. In 1869, two large properties designed by William Hastings were erected at the west end, one of which — Crescent House, now the Bank of Ireland — also fronted onto University Road. In 1878–79, two further houses were added on the ground between those of 1869. Between 1885 and 1887, the large Presbyterian church now known as the Crescent Church was erected to designs by the Glasgow architect John Bennie Wilson on the west side of Corry's former garden; in 1898 a two-storey terrace, the present Crescent Gardens, was built on the site of smaller garden plots at the east end.

During the first half of the 20th century, most properties in Upper and Lower Crescent, as well as in Crescent Gardens, remained in private residential use. By 1960, however, many had been given over to business use or divided into flats, and the former Rivoli House — later renamed Dreenagh House — became the Regency Hotel. This process continued, and by the beginning of the 21st century none of the properties remained in private residential occupation. In the mid 1990s, three of the 1860s–70s houses at the west end of Upper Crescent were demolished and replaced by a modern office block. In 2000, the railway cutting to the south of Lower Crescent was built over in preparation for a new development.

No. 7 Lower Crescent

This property is one of the original eleven houses that made up Lower Crescent. In 1858 it was occupied by one Robert Cassidy, a solicitor, who by 1860 at the latest was using the ground floor as an office. In 1870 a James Campbell is listed as resident, followed by Henry F. Thomas in 1877, Samuel Alexander in 1882, and a Mrs Orr in 1910. The property appears to have been divided into flats during the 1960s, but had reverted to office use by 1980.