416 Antrim Road, Belfast, Co. Antrim, BT15 5GA

416 Antrim Road is an end-of-terrace, two-bay, three-storey house with attic, built in 1872 in red brick and stucco. It was designed by Redfern Kelly (1845–1928), a Belfast-based engineer best known for his industrial work on behalf of the Belfast Harbour Commissioners — including the deepening of the Victoria Channel, the reconstruction of the Alexandra Graving Dock following its collapse in 1905, and the construction of the Thompson Graving Dock. Despite this predominantly industrial portfolio, Kelly also designed a Masonic Hall in Larne and the Murlough Cottages in Dundrum. Number 416 was built as the southernmost of a terrace of seven similar houses originally known as Fortwilliam Terrace (the remaining six being numbers 418–428). A comparable terrace directly opposite on the east side of Antrim Road, formerly known as Castleton Terrace and built in 1878, is also thought to have been designed by Kelly.

The house is rectangular on plan, facing east, with a lower three-storey gable-ended rear return. It sits slightly elevated and set back on the west side of Antrim Road, screened by mature trees behind a low rendered wall. A shared bitmac driveway serves the terrace. There is a small enclosed front private space and an enclosed rear yard. The building has been subdivided into seven flats, a conversion carried out in 1965 by a J. W. Hall, and is no longer in single occupancy.

The roof is pitched and covered in natural slate, with a lead-lined dormer window set behind a painted stucco parapet wall. The parapet is finished with a deep moulded cornice and plain frieze. A replacement rendered chimney stack rises from the north party wall, and a cast-iron downpipe runs down the south gable. The original chimney stack to the gable end has been removed, and the uppermost section of the south gable wall has been rendered over approximately six brick courses near the ridge, likely in its place.

The red brick walls are laid in Flemish bond with cement pointing. Continuous moulded string courses run at first and second floor sill level, and vermiculated stucco quoins mark the left corner. The south gable is plain red brick, while the rear elevation and return are finished in rough-cast cement render.

The principal east-facing front elevation is two bays wide across three storeys and presents a largely intact composition of restrained neo-classical stucco ornament with a strong vertical emphasis and graduated fenestration. At ground floor level there is a rendered three-sided canted bay window with a continuous masonry sill, plat band, and shallow cornice to the parapet. The first floor windows are framed by scrolled foliate console brackets supporting a hood cornice, with a moulded sill carried on stepped brackets. The second floor windows have decorative painted lugged architrave surrounds with bracketed sills. The left bay at ground floor level has a round-arched opening formed in gauged brick. All window openings are square-headed with decorative stucco surrounds and moulded sills, and are glazed with replacement single-pane timber sash windows.

The entrance doorcase is notable: a replacement timber panelled door is flanked by fluted Ionic columns supporting a dentilated lintel cornice, with a plain glazed fanlight above and a deep moulded surround. The door opens onto a concrete platform, descends three concrete steps to a half-landing, and a further three concrete steps to ground level. To the left of the entrance door, the original stone plinth wall with a carved anthemion panel has survived intact. The steps and raised front area are otherwise retained by concrete and enclosed by replacement steel railings and pedestrian gates.

The gabled south side elevation is blank, with the parapet, quoins, and string courses returning only around the right corner. The north side elevation adjoins number 418. The rear elevation is abutted by the gable-ended three-storey return: the original section of the return retains red brick walling, while a later addition is finished in rough-cast cement render with square-headed window openings, concrete sills, and uPVC windows throughout. These replacement rear windows and the removal of the gable chimney stack are the principal alterations detracting from the building's overall integrity.

Before the terrace was built, the surrounding area of Skegoneil was predominantly rural. The second edition Ordnance Survey map of 1858 records the land north of the Belfast Waterworks and Limestone Road as largely undeveloped. With rapid growth in Belfast's population and the expansion of shipbuilding, rope-making, and textile industries through the mid-19th century, the townland of Skegoneil swiftly became one of the most affluent areas in the city, attracting merchants and gentlemen seeking to escape the overcrowded inner city. Numbers 416–428 Antrim Road were constructed on the grounds of Hopefield House, a two-storey six-bay mansion previously occupied by the Sinclair family. The majority of those grounds were built over during the 1870s; numbers 344–354 Antrim Road were also constructed on the same parcel of land in 1877.

The terrace was leased by Samuel Lawther, manager of Samuel Lawther & Co., local coal importers and ship and insurance brokers with premises on Corporation Square, who resided on Duncairn Street. Number 416 was initially valued at £40 and first occupied by V. C. Taylor, a local iron founder, machinist, and millwright who owned the Atlas Foundry on Townsend Street. Taylor remained at Fortwilliam Terrace until 1887, when he moved to number 605 Antrim Road. By 1901, the house was occupied by William Roche, a local linen manufacturer; the census building return for that year described it as a first-class dwelling consisting of 14 rooms. By the 1930s it was occupied by a Ms Mary E. Murphy, and under the First General Revaluation of Property in Northern Ireland (1936–57) its value was increased to £46. By the end of the Second Revaluation (1956–72), the value had risen further to £83. The terrace was listed in 1987.