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The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

A two-storey multi-bay industrial building, erected for the Festival of Britain as a farm and factory exhibition in 1951, for the long term use as a factory. Attributed to Henry Lynch-Robinson (advisor on design to the fesitival committee); Willy De Majo (designer-in-chief of main exhibition building) and Ferguson and McIlveen (architects of the main factory). Oblong plan form with large square plan industrial unit to the rear. Located on the north side of Montgomery Road, at the junction with Alanbrooke Road, in south east Belfast.

Flat-roof construction with parapet; projected horizontal eaves with stepped-edge; north light roof. Concealed rainwater goods; uPVC vent pipes. Red-brick walling laid to stretcher bond; partially rendered. Replacement uPVC double windows; plain squared projected window surrounds. Replacement double-leaf glazed aluminium framed doors.

The principal elevation faces south and is asymmetrically arranged. Two storey projected double-aspect entrance block to the right; the south facade is principally arranged with symmetrical vertical fenestration; projected smooth rendered surrounds; the central portion is slightly wider and more projected denoting the entrance which is incorporated with a horizontal canopy; later added herring-bone brick spandrel panels between ground and first floor levels; later smooth rendered parapet with coping flashing to both facades. The east facade is asymmetrically arranged; centrally positioned projected half-round glazed-stair-shaft with slightly-wedged mullions. Left of the stair is blank. Right is smooth rendered; a single ground floor door and first floor window with matching window to the north return. Left of the entrance block is a long multi-bay block comprising horizontal glazed strip to the ground and first floor; partially altered to the ground floor.

The left elevation is asymmetrically arranged. To the right is the terminating facade of the oblong block comprising three first floor windows and a double-leaf ground floor door with projected brick piers and horizontal concrete canopy.; single ground floor window to the left. Partially clad with corrugated metal.

The rear elevation has a series of high-level windows and is principally abutted by the large double height industrial portion comprising non-matching brick with corrugated metal cladding to the upper levels.

The right elevation is asymmetrically arranged comprising a largely blank facade with vertical piers and various ground floor windows and roller shutters.

Setting:

The building is located in an industrialised area surrounded by similarly sized buildings from the same era. There are extensive car-parking plots around the building with a large fore-court to the west. Open culvert adjacent to main entrance. Site bounded by roads to the south and east.

Roofing: Asphalt/corrugated asbestos.
Walling : Red-brick
Windows: uPVC Replacement
RWG: Unknown

Historical information

The current building was newly-constructed as a factory in 1951 with the intention that it would initially be used to house Northern Ireland’s chief contribution to the Festival of Britain, the ‘Ulster Farm and Factory’ exhibition. (Festival of Britain official handbook and official souvenir)

The Festival of Britain 1951, intended to be a ‘tonic to the nation’ in the midst of post-war austerity with rationing still a daily reality, was also an opportunity for the Labour government of the day to celebrate its achievements. Ostensibly the festival commemorated the Great Exhibition of 1851 and was part of a tradition that included the British Empire Exhibition of 1924. It differed from these predecessors, however, in that empire was no longer the focus. The South Bank Exhibition set out to tell ‘one continuous, interwoven story...of British contributions to world civilisation in the arts of the people’. (Strong) The festival aimed to refocus national identity and also to introduce high-modern ideas into art and design. (McBrinn)

Although the festival was centred on the South Bank in London there were to be two regional exhibitions in Glasgow and Belfast, both with an industrial theme. Belfast was to hold the ‘Ulster Farm and Factory Exhibition’, a specially designed narrative exhibition held in the current newly-built model factory building. The exhibition was to describe the growth and development of the linen trade and other local industries. The grounds of the factory building were to tell the story of agriculture in Northern Ireland and the modern research that was informing farming practice (Festival of Britain official catalogue). It was hoped that the exhibition would demonstrate the contribution made by Northern Ireland to the British economy and help reaffirm the province’s place within collective national identity. (McBrinn)

The co-ordinating and chief designer of the Farm and Factory exhibition was William Maks de Majo (1917-1993), graphic designer and native of Vienna. In 1939 de Majo had emigrated to England and served with distinction in the RAF. His contribution to design was later recognised by a number of awards and he is best remembered for founding 'Icograda', the International Council of Graphic Design Associations. (Independent) De Majo was the designer of the exhibition displays and he and Henry Lynch-Robinson (1920-84), Design Advisor to the local Festival Committee, played a part in ‘dressing’ the factory building for its role in the Festival and perhaps contributed to the design of the building itself. Primary sources contain perspective drawings of the factory signed by each of the men. Lynch-Robinson was at the time an emerging and influential young architect in the modernist vein, who went on to design several fire-stations, but much of whose work was cafes and lounge-bars that later proved ephemeral. (Oxford Dictionary of Architecture and Landscape Architecture) One secondary source suggests that Ferguson & McIlveen, an architectural and engineering partnership formed in the early 1920s, designed the building itself but this remains unconfirmed by primary sources (www.europeana.eu). It was always intended that the factory would be handed over to an industrial tenant after its three-month stint as part of the festival and it would have been designed with this ultimate purpose in mind. The 1950s was a period when large companies would still often advertise their wares in conjunction with an impressive photograph of their factory premises.

Much of the archive relating to the construction of the building has survived. Among the items available are photographs of the site as work began and the building at various stages of completion, showing the newly-laid-out Montgomery Road area as a district of green fields with industrial and agricultural buildings scattered across it. The existing factories in the area had been built under the post-war Industries Development Act and were part of a governmental drive to encourage firms to develop production branches in Northern Ireland. Further photographs show the interior exhibits being prepared and the visits of dignitaries to the site. Many of the features that distinguished the building at the time have now gone, such as a 50 foot vertical feature on top of the building that was included - at the suggestion of de Majo - as a Northern Ireland counterpart of the ‘Skylon’ at the South Bank. The original entrance to the building was on the southern facade under a triangular canopy. There was also a radar mast to the north of the building which allowed visitors to view the movements of ships on Belfast Lough. In front of the factory building was a water course and fountain over which hung a mobile designed by Veronica de Majo. The remainder of the 3.5 acre site was laid out as the farm exhibit with a traditional thatched cottage of 1851 and a ‘New Model Farm’ personally designed by Lynch-Robinson.

The Festival of Britain opened at the South Bank on 3rd May 1951 but the Castlereagh exhibition opened somewhat later, on 1st June and ran for three months. It had been intended that the King and Queen would open the exhibit but in the event the King was too unwell to attend and the Queen and her younger daughter Princess Margaret were the first visitors. The factory exhibit covered 20,000 square feet and much of the exhibition space was taken up with textiles including linen, cotton, shirt-making, poplin, woollens and the newcomer, rayon. Large sections were also given over to shipbuilding, including rope manufacture, tobacco, whiskey and mineral waters, pottery, aircraft and engineering industries. The factory building housed administrative offices and staff rooms, a souvenir shop, information counter, cinema, cafeteria and roof-cafe, first-aid centre and a BBC studio. There were 156,760 paid admissions during the 80 days the exhibition was open, 50 % more than was originally estimated, and the exhibition was generally judged to have been a huge success. The exhibition was a source of much local pride and excitement and the factory building itself was singled out for praise, “When you walk through the doors, you...walk not only into an exhibition which intelligently represents our way of life, you...walk into a factory which itself demonstrates one of the most significant and far-sighted methods by which we make that progressive way of life a possibility. You...see a fine self-portrait, finely framed”. (Exhibition Souvenir)

The Farm and Factory exhibition was seen as a way of stimulating an understanding of ‘modern’ design and de Majo and Lynch-Robinson were seen as pivotal to this effort. It was recognised that Ulster had not hitherto been at the forefront in this area and the souvenir programme, while gently self-mocking, made a serious point about the necessity to move with the times. “We have much to learn in this matter of good design...We are inclined to think of industrial designers as corduroy-trousered young men who want us to print Picasso drawings on the handkerchiefs we sell to the Middle West, or furnish Aunt Matilda’s bedroom with tubular furniture. And we don’t hold with that, as we say in Ulster. We know, or we think we know, the Middle West. We certainly know our Aunt Matilda. So we tell the corduroy-trousers to call again some day – when we are out.” (Exhibition Souvenir)

A subsequent report by the Festival Chair concluded that, “The impressive story told by the exhibits was one in which the spectator could well take pride, and the setting in which it was displayed added to its attractiveness. Above all there was the cheerful atmosphere of lightness, colour and gaiety, music, flowers and lawns.’ (Festival Report)

Following the closure of the exhibition, the fixtures and fittings, including the 50 foot vertical feature were auctioned and the factory building was adapted for use by local firm Messrs Short Brothers and Harland. It appears that some of the exterior decorative features were retained at first, but the fountains and water courses have now gone. The building is first shown on the OS map dating from the 1960s/70s captioned ‘Works’ and enters valuation records in 1953 at a valuation of £600 for industrial buildings and £120 for non-industrial. The factory was used as a ‘paint store and flow test house’ by Short Bros and Harland Ltd and leased from the Ministry of Commerce for Northern Ireland. The 1950s was a period when Shorts were involved in much pioneering research including planes with adjustable wings and the first vertical take-off planes. (Donne) There were regular increases in valuation over subsequent years indicating that the premises were expanding through the 1950s and 60s, but in recent years Shorts/Bombardier has vacated the building and it is now occupied by a number of commercial ventures.

References:

Primary Sources

1.OS Map 147 – 1960s/70s
2.PRONI VAL/3/D/4/4E/4 – First General Revaluation 1933-57
3.PRONI VAL/4/B/3/22 – Second General Revaluation 1956-72
4.PRONI COM/4/E/1/5 – Festival of Britain in Northern Ireland official catalogue
5.PRONI COM/4/E/1/10 - Festival of Britain in Northern Ireland official souvenir
6.PRONI COM/4/E/2/1 – Press Cuttings
7.PRONI COM/4/F/8 –Photographs of site, construction and fitting of exhibition
8.Independent 23rd October 1993

Secondary Sources

1.Donne, Michael “Flying into the Future: a pictorial history of Shorts” Good Books, 1993
2.“Festival of Britain in Northern Ireland – Official Souvenir Handbook” Belfast: H R Carter Publications Ltd (n.d.)
3.McBrinn, J “Festival of Britain in Northern Ireland, 1951” Perspective June 2011-08-02
4. Negus, D “Obituary: Willy de Majo” Independent, 23rd October 1993
5. Curl, J S “Oxford Dictionary of Architecture and Landscape Architecture” Oxford: OUP, 2006
6. Strong, R in Banham, M and Hillier, B eds “A Tonic to the Nation, The Festival of Britain, 1951” London: Thames and Hudson, 1976
7. www.europeana.eu

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

A. Style
B. Proportion
C. Ornamentation
D. Plan Form
H-. Alterations detracting from building
I. Quality and survival of Interior

Criteria for listing: historic interest

X. Local Interest
V. Authorship

Evaluation

A two-storey multi-bay industrial building, erected for the Festival of Britain as a farm and factory exhibition in 1951, and in the longer term as a factory. Attributed to Henry Lynch-Robinson (advisor on design to the fesitival committee); Willy De Majo (designer-in-chief of main exhibition building) and Ferguson and McIlveen (architects of the main factory). Built to display the forefront of design and modernism, the complex was designed with the intention of reverting to function as a long term industrial unit after the Festival of Britain. A building of unique history, the distinct post-war Festival of Britain style and proportions are immediately identifiable, in particular the original stairwell,despite some alteration to the interior, exterior and immediate setting.

General comments

Additional Listing Critieria Apply - R - Age, S - Authenticity and U - Historic Associations