8 College Green, Belfast

8 College Green is a mid-terrace, two-storey with attic, red brick double-fronted house built in 1866, facing south on College Green, to the north-east of the main quadrangle at Queen's University, Belfast. It is now used as offices for Queen's University's School of Education. The building has group value with the adjoining No. 6 College Green, and together the two houses form the earliest surviving pair within a longer Victorian terrace incorporating Nos. 2–26 inclusive. This terrace overlooks the Theological College of the Presbyterian Church within the Queen's Conservation Area, Belfast.

ARCHITECTURAL OVERVIEW

The front and rear elevations are largely symmetrical. Despite some loss of outbuildings and a number of replaced casement windows to the rear, the building retains a good deal of authentic character. Although now in office use, the interior layout and detailing remains domestic in scale and contains some noteworthy features. The building's significance lies primarily in its group value with No. 6, and in the integrity of the overall composition of College Green, which is among the most striking terraces in the Queen's Conservation Area.

ROOF AND CHIMNEYS

The roof is a natural slate duo-pitched design with black clay ridge tiles. There are two rectangular red brick chimneys, both centred on the ridge, with corbelled brick copings and octagonal yellow clay pots. One chimney is shared with No. 6 College Green and carries ten pots; the other abuts the chimney of No. 10 and carries eight pots. To the front (south) pitch there are two barrel dormers fitted with replacement timber-framed double-glazed sliding sash windows. Two modern rooflights are positioned to the rear. The natural slate covering extends to the rear return. The dormer cheeks are lead-clad. Rainwater goods to the south elevation are aluminium ogee gutters with replacement circular-section aluminium rainwater pipes; to the north, uPVC rainwater goods are used.

REAR EXTENSION

A two-storey gabled return is built at half-landing level to the rear, centred on and set parallel to the rear elevation. A single-storey L-shaped lean-to abuts this return. The original outbuildings and yard walling have been removed to make way for off-street parking accessed from College Green Mews.

MATERIALS

The principal south-facing walls are red clay brick laid in Flemish bond with painted masonry dressings. The north-facing rear walls are brownish-red variegated brick in English Garden Wall bond above painted render at ground floor level. Windows are generally single-glazed timber-framed double-hung sliding sash with 1/1 panes to the south elevation and multi-paned to the north, except where otherwise noted.

SOUTH ELEVATION

The south elevation is the principal façade, symmetrically arranged with formal fenestration. The central entrance is flanked at ground floor by two single-storey projecting bays: that to the left is square on plan with two windows, and that to the right is canted. At first floor there are three equal-sized windows, each with 2/2 panes, their positions aligning with the centres of the bays and entrance door below. A moulded string course forms the cill line at first floor level.

Toothed quoins appear at the far right (east) side, indicating that Nos. 6 and 8 were originally built as a stand-alone pair before the terrace was extended on either side. There is a deep continuous base plinth with sub-floor vents and a moulded top. Heavy eaves are supported on scrolled brackets above a deep plain frieze and moulded string course, all painted.

The ground floor bay windows and doorcase have painted surrounds — likely combined stucco and dressed stone beneath the paint. The bay windows have stop-chamfered detail to the head and jambs; the jambs extend down to the plinth with deep bull-nosed stone cills recessed between. Above the bay windows there are decorative round and diamond-shaped incisions featuring abstract cross, thistle and clover motifs.

The entrance consists of a square-headed timber-framed four-panelled traditional-style door with a plain glass fanlight set in a round-arched opening with roll-edge detail. This is set within a projecting surround with a moulded cornice hood and incised roundels, similar in character to the bay window dressings.

The first floor windows have moulded surrounds with a plain frieze and projecting cornice hood featuring a diamond-head moulded edge over a row of dentils.

NORTH ELEVATION

The rear elevation faces north and overlooks a shared service lane, College Green Mews. It is largely symmetrical in arrangement, though more plainly detailed than the front, with red brick soldier-coursed headers, thick projecting stone cills and rendered reveals to all openings, both painted. All walling is rendered smooth and painted up to first floor level. Sub-floor vents indicate suspended ground floor construction. Galvanised steel bars have been fitted across the external reveals to all ground and first floor windows.

The two-storey gabled return is centrally placed and parallel to the main building. At first floor it has a large round-arched sliding sash window, offset to the left, comprising 2/1 panes with stained and etched margin panes; two rows of brick headers form the arch above. Below this arched window there is a flush stained timber door with a glazed sidelight, opening onto concrete steps with a tubular metal handrail.

At ground floor level, an L-shaped lean-to abuts the left side of the return and contains one 3/6 sliding sash window, likely original, together with two modern casement windows. To the right of the return there is a sliding sash window with 1/1 panes. Above ground floor level, the return is flanked by sliding sash windows with 6/6 panes at first floor, and a single window at half-landing level to the attic has 3/6 panes.

The west face of the return has clipped eaves, with a modern timber casement window at each of ground and first floor levels. The east face of the return mirrors this arrangement but has no openings.

BOUNDARY AND SETTING

The building sits midway along College Green, which runs between Botanic Avenue to the east and Rugby Road to the west. The boundary to the south is defined by dwarf rendered walling with a canted top and modern metal railings, enclosing a small front garden. The garden is paved with concrete slabs, including a ramp and entrance steps, with a tubular metal handrail aligned with the ramp and painted to match the railings.

HISTORICAL CONTEXT

College Green was laid out in 1866 on land then known as the semi-rural 'Plains' of Malone, to the east of Queen's College (completed 1849) and around the Union Theological College (completed 1853). The foundation of Queen's College prompted several decades of southward residential development, with regularly planned streets filled with High Victorian terraced housing for the professional and merchant classes moving away from an increasingly commercial and industrial city centre.

Nos. 6 and 8 were the first properties to be built along the new thoroughfare, constructed in 1866 by timber merchant Robert Corry — the man responsible for the development of Upper and Lower Crescent in the 1840s and 1850s. The identity of the architect is not certain. The remainder of the terrace followed in stages: Nos. 2–4 (College Green House, originally 'Culfeightrin House', rebuilt around 1882) and Nos. 24–26 came next in 1870–71, Nos. 10–12 and 20–22 in 1876, and Nos. 14–18 in 1878. The street was originally conceived as part of Fitzroy Avenue, and on the 1871–73 Ordnance Survey map the name 'College Green' was applied only to Culfeightrin House and Nos. 2–8.

The lease of both Nos. 6 and 8 was obtained by Mrs Abigail Blackwood, who lived at No. 6 until 1893 and sublet No. 8 to Herman Boas. Mr Boas remained there until 1876, when he was succeeded by Reverend William Park, who was in turn followed around 1886 by John Thompson, and then by Samuel Byers (a land commissioner and Justice of the Peace) around 1893. W. S. McNaughton, a linen merchant, moved to No. 8 in or just before 1901, and the census of that year records him living there with his wife Annie, their two young daughters, and two domestic servants. The house was noted in that census as a first-class dwelling with 13 rooms in use.

Mrs Mary D. Fennell became householder before 1907, followed by William Rea by 1910. The 1911 census records Mr Rea — who described himself as a managing director of inland navigation, though later directories refer to him as a steamship owner — occupying the house with his wife Mary Alice, their son, a house guest, and a domestic servant. The Rea family retained the property into the mid-1940s, after which it was divided into three flats. An outhouse attached to the rear of the property appears to have been demolished around the 1960s. In the later 1970s the building was acquired by Queen's University and converted to offices for its Department of Education. Since around 1990 this office use has been shared with No. 6. The building was listed in September 1979, and both Nos. 6 and 8 underwent a major refurbishment scheme around 2014.