75 University Road (Fitzwilliam Place), Belfast, Co. Antrim, BT7 1NF

A mid-19th century terraced house forming the southern end of a three-house terrace known as Fitzwilliam Place, built around 1846–48 in a mildly Neo-Classical style. The terrace sits on the west side of University Road, abutting Queen's University Students' Union at an angle to the south, and roughly faces Lanyon's original Queen's College building of 1845–49. To the north is Fitzwilliam Street, and directly in front, all three properties share a garden, which lends the block a slight country cottage air.

The symmetrical front façade faces east and is finished in plain render, painted throughout. At ground floor level, the entrance occupies the centre and consists of a panelled timber door with a plain rectangular fanlight, framed by panelled pilasters with decorative brackets supporting a cornice hood, the edges of which appear to be enclosed in timber. To either side of the entrance is a fairly large window with a plain sash frame, a simple moulded surround, and a relatively slim cill. At first floor level there are three similar but smaller windows, the outer two being broader and squatter than the central one. The façade has full-height panelled outer pilasters, a deep eaves course, and a gutter course. To the left of the doorway is a small bronze oval plaque commemorating the house as the birthplace of novelist James Owen Hannay.

The main roof is gabled and covered in natural slate, with three Velux windows to the rear and a rendered parapet to the north gable. There is a rendered chimney stack on the ridge to the north, shared with No. 73, fitted with octagonal pots. Rainwater goods are metal, likely a combination of cast iron and aluminium.

The main rear façade retains 6-over-6 Georgian sash windows at first floor level to the left and right of the return, and a further matching window at ground floor level to the right of the return. To the rear, a lean-to structure backs into the main rear façade, with a glazed door, two modest windows with modern frames, and Velux windows in its roof. This lean-to serves as a short linking corridor to No. 73.

The large, centrally located, two-storey gabled return to the rear was rebuilt around 1990–91 on a larger scale, replacing an earlier and smaller return that was probably original to the house. The listing covers the main building only, excluding this return. The north face of the return has three windows at ground floor level and four at first floor level; the south face mirrors this arrangement. All windows in the return have modern frames designed to resemble sash windows with Georgian-style panes. The west gable of the return is blank. High rendered walls enclose the yards to the rear, one of which is shared with No. 73.

No. 75 was originally built as the personal residence of William Magill Collins, the solicitor who developed the terrace. Collins had leased the land from John Alexander in 1849 — land that had itself been leased from the Donegall estate since 1711 — and he obtained full freehold title in 1866 following the break-up of the Donegall estate. Because No. 75 was Collins's own home, it was originally the most substantial property in the terrace, with a larger return than its neighbours, an outbuilding (possibly a stable), and a rear garden. In the 1861 valuation its rateable value was recorded as £42, compared with £37 for the other houses.

Collins remained in the house until around 1862, when he moved to his newly built residence at Notting Hill. The house was then leased to the Reverend Robert Hannay, incumbent of Christ Church on College Square North, whose son, the novelist James Owen Hannay, was born here in 1865. Subsequent occupants included John A. Cochrane, listed as Secretary of the Belfast Mining Company (from around 1876–77), Alexander Mitchell (1899 to around 1907), and a Dr. A. Montgomery. In 1929 the house was sold to Dr. J. C. Rankin, who had lived there since around 1917. Rankin later sold to Sir Thomas Houston, and after Houston's death two years later, No. 75 was acquired by Queen's University. The university rented it to J. J. Graneck, a librarian, until the mid-1960s, when it was converted to offices serving the QUB Games Fund, Appointments service, Careers Library, and catering office. More recently it has served as offices for the QUB Enterprise Unit.

University Road began as the original route from Belfast to Lisburn and onwards to Dublin, and was superseded in 1817 by the newly cut Lisburn Road a short distance to the west. With the establishment of Queen's College in 1845 and the movement of Belfast's merchant and professional classes to the suburbs, the road saw considerable development from the mid-19th century onwards. Fitzwilliam Place was part of this growth, and like other terraces springing up around the newly built Queen's College, it was designed to attract professional and mercantile residents. Early tenants included clergymen, merchants, manufacturers, and solicitors; later occupants recorded in directories into the mid-20th century included wine merchants, accountants, doctors, company directors, and academics. Collins himself died in 1880 and the properties passed to his daughters and their descendants before all three houses were conveyed to Queen's University in 1962. The property lies within a conservation area.