Oxford House, 8 Purdysburn Road, Belfast, Co Down, BT8 7DE

Oxford House is a slightly Arts and Crafts influenced, free style, two storey late Victorian convalescent home built in 1889-90. It is located south of Purdysburn Road in Belfast.

The building was originally constructed as the Queen Victoria Convalescent Home for sick children. It closed in 1909, apparently due to financial difficulties, after which it was acquired by the nearby Belfast Mental Hospital at Purdysburn and used as a matron's residence. It may also have served as a residence for one of the hospital doctors, including possibly a Dr Caldwell. The hospital sold the property around 1963, when it became a private residence. The origin of the name 'Oxford House' is unclear, though it may stem from the Purdysburn hospital's practice of naming buildings after towns and islands. The earliest reference to the name appears on the 1925 6-inch Ordnance Survey map.

The building's various single and two storey bays and veranda give it the appearance of a suburban villa rather than an institutional building. The façade is in red brick with a Rosemary clay tile roof and tile cladding to the first floor.

The entrance is centrally located on the north façade within a semicircular opening dressed with brick mouldings and keystone, featuring a small bas relief stylised pediment. Above is a bracketed hipped porch roof which spans the chamfered bay to the right of the front door. Windows throughout are generally sash with a smaller upper frame without astragals and a taller lower pane with one central vertical astragal. Window openings are framed with segmental arch heads and brick dressings.

The north façade has three sash windows to the first floor (two grouped to the right and one to the far left), with a chamfered bay to the right containing lower ground and half landing windows. A two storey octagonal bay to the right has ground and first floor windows to the north and northwest faces, a panelled and glazed door to the lower half of the south face with moulded brick dressings, and a window to the upper level.

The west façade features an open timber veranda with a hipped roof abutting the octagonal bay. Below the veranda roof is a door matching that at the base of the octagonal bay, with a window to the right. The first floor has two widely spaced sash windows.

The south façade comprises a two storey bay to the left with a further central projecting single storey bay. This single storey bay has windows to each face and paired windows to the first floor. To the right is a two storey bay set at 45 degrees, with windows and a plain door with brick dressings. The southeast face of this bay has paired windows to both ground and first floors.

The east façade has a chamfered bay to the left with a window to each face and a single window to the right. A yard wall and single storey return partly obscure the ground floor. A large inappropriate steel fire escape stair dating to around the 1960s-70s provides escape from the first floor on the north side of this bay.

External walls have a chamfered base and a moulded string course. Above the string course, walls are finished with vertically hung fish tail Rosemary tiles. The complex roof features many hip and half hip elements, with ridges finished in decorative ridge tiles and finials. A modern brick wall and gateway stand to the north of the house.

The property originally had extensive grounds, though much has been lost in recent times due to the redirecting of Purdysburn and Beechill Roads.