Twin Peaks
The traditional Italian campanile is a standalone structure, not integrated with the accompanying building, and reserved for its purpose of keeping bells. St Mark’s Campanile in Venice is the most famous: it is the belltower of the adjacent St Mark’s Basilica.
Queen Victoria and Prince Albert were together responsible for lots of fads that became fashions that became fixtures of national life, from Christmas trees to white wedding dresses. Their mid 19th century house on the Isle of Wight, Osborne House, remodelled (with a helping hand by Prince Albert) and rebuilt by the developer Thomas Cubitt, launched an architectural craze. The residential campanile. Osborne House has two such vertical features. Soon, campaniles were springing up on houses everywhere across the British Isles. “The top floors were sometimes used to house water tanks,” explains heritage architect John O’Connell.
Belfast has a handful of striking examples. In the north of the city, campaniles dramatically rise above the side elevations of a pair of semi-detached villas on Donegall Park Avenue. In the east of the city, twin campaniles are attached to the front elevations of a pair of semi-detached houses on Belmont Road named Barden Towers.
Completed in 1895, Barden Towers are typical red brick bay windowed suburban Belfast houses of the larger kind but the campaniles with their terracotta trimmings give them a novel twist. These belvederes each contain a square ground floor vestibule with a corresponding room on the two storeys above. The upper floor tower rooms are lit on three sides by generously sized sash windows. Daylight streams into one of the bedrooms like Edward Hopper’s painting ‘Sun in an Empty Room’.
Built decades after their Osborne House inspiration and centuries after their Italian forerunners, the campaniles of Belfast are shining examples of an architectural feature adapted in terms of material and function to a different climate, country and culture.
22 replies on “Campanile + Barden Towers Belfast”
Gorgeous photos. There are houses like this parts of Bristol. I didn’t know the Osborne House connection. S x
Thanks Sophie, Bristol has some great domestic architecture too. X
Interesting piece. It would be great to see what the interior would look like furnished in High Victorian style!
All the bare bones are there from original cornicing to Bristol blue stained glass.
I have never been to Belfast. It looks pretty.
Belfast is ful of surprises.
I drive past these houses quite often. Good to see their architectural features intact when do many other Victorian houses have been ruined. There was another couple of houses with similar towers on the Newtownards Road which were modernized beyond recognition.
That is sad to hear and makes the continued preservation of Barden Towers ever more important.
Still need to visit Belfast great looking houses 🙌🏿
You’d love it!
Very atmospheric looking! A xx
Great architecture and sense of space. LVB X
Dr. Paul Larmour of Queens University produced a good book on Belfast architecture many years ago. Maybe he should include these two handsome houses in any updated edition !
Dr Paul Larmour did a great lecture a few years ago for the Irish Georgian Society London.
Stuart, great article and photos as usual. The house is a real landmark and hope the features are well preserved in the decades to come.
Thanks Catherine let us hope it continues to remain preserved as you say. LVB X
You’d need to have great taste to live in a house like this. Lovely photos Stuart
A great taste house for great taste people Charlotte you are right. X
We have purchased the lefthand property and it is great to read these comments. Trying to find out more history about the house. We will be preserving as much as we can as we just love all the features. unfortunately discovering lots of damp and rot. But hopefully the improvements we make will preserve the house for many many years to come! 🥰
Hi Caggie thanks for your message – the pair of houses that make up Barden Towers really are a wonderful architectural landmark of Belfast. That is great to hear you are preserving the character of the property and all the best with the ongoing works. Wishing you all the best in your “new” home! Best, Lavender’s Blue
Yes these beautiful old houses are worth preserving faithfully and sympathetically. They are like living creatures too that need constant heat and airing! Every owner is like a steward! I hope the new owners enjoy it.
Thank you Charlotte for your message. We know Barden Towers has had excellent stewardship to date and are confident it has going forward too. As we hopefully get across in the article it really is a key piece of Belfast’s domestic architectural heritage.