Orange Hall

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

Symmetrical attached three-storey with attic redbrick Orange Hall, dated 1901, to the designs of David Cooper. Rectangular on plan facing south with two-storey redbrick hall to rear, located on the north side of Albertbridge Road.

Hipped natural slate roof with terracotta ridge tiles, lead hip ridges with ogee-moulded cast-iron rainwater goods set behind balustraded redbrick parapet wall and central pediment. Parapet wall terminated to either end by decorative red sandstone squat drums and finials with a central red sandstone dentilated pediment and cloche-shaped metal dome supported on series of cast-iron columns on a circular redbrick base. The pediment has a red sandstone plaque with raised numerals stating; '1901'. Redbrick walling laid in Flemish bond to a red sandstone dentilated cornice spanning entire front elevation flanked by full-height redbrick pilasters surmounted by diminutive pediments. Decorative string courses below cornice, to second floor sill course and impost level of first floor with decorative terracotta panels above second floor. Replacement uPVC windows.

Symmetrical pedimented front elevation is eight windows wide with a central two-bay breakfront to the pediment flanked by shallow redbrick pilasters to the second floor. Round-headed window openings to the second floor with decorative terracotta keystones, grouped hood mouldings and foliate label stops, impost mouldings and continuous sill course. Square-headed window openings to the central two first floor window openings with painted lintels and three-sided canted bay windows to either side with felt-lined roofs above egg-and-dart dentilated cornice and set behind a replacement iron balustrade to the ground floor projection. Four shop units occupy the ground floor projection with a central decorative pedimented doorcase comprising; round-headed door opening with moulded surround flanked by pair of polished granite Doric columns on raised plinth bases supporting entablature and segmental pediment above. Lettering to frieze stating 'ORANGE HALL' with the pediment filled with cartouche and 'red hand' motif and foliate decoration. Door opens onto four nosed granite steps. The ground floor projection contains four retail units flanked by slender Doric pilasters and entablature above curved to either end while the shop units have replacement aluminium shopfronts.

Blank redbrick west side elevation with shaped parapet wall and abutted by adjacent building No.174.

Rear elevation abutted by lower two-storey redbrick hall having sheeted iron roof with square-headed window openings with concrete lintels and uPVC windows.

East side elevation abutted by adjacent building No.184.

Setting:
Located on the north side of Albertbridge Road within a small cluster of commercial units.

Roof Natural slate
RWG Cast-iron
Walling Redbrick
Windows UPVC

Historical information

Ballymacarrett Orange Hall was built between 1901 and 1902 to designs by David M Cooper. (Irish Builder)

The Orange Order was founded in the wake of the Battle of the Diamond in Armagh in 1795 and the Grand Lodge was formed in Dublin in 1798. Initially named the Orange Society their mission statement was, ‘to defend themselves, to support the Protestant Religion and to uphold the King and Constitution’. The activities of the Orange Order have often been subject to restrictions, for example an Act against unlawful association in 1825 which was extended to Orange Lodges and, as a result, the organisation met secretly. However. following the repeal of restrictive legislation in 1870, the Order began to grow in the North of Ireland and has become a worldwide organisation. Orange halls, which are often the only public hall in a community, are used for social and cultural activities, prayer meetings and evangelistic missions, as well as the business of the lodge. As a Benevolent Society the Orange Order cares for its members and their dependants and its members, although anti-papist, are encouraged not to antagonistic to Catholic people. (McCormack)

The municipal boundary of Belfast included Ballymacarrett from 1854 but for many years the inhabitants retained a sense of separate identity. Ballymacarrett was, from the early nineteenth century an important centre of industry, with the majority of its exports for the domestic (Irish) market. Manufactures included glass, rope, canvas, vitriol for bleaching and a foundry which supplied steam engines to mills and factories throughout the north. Weaving took place in the farmsteads of the surrounding countryside. During the course of the nineteenth century, shipbuilding was added to the engineering and chemical industries which had become employers of huge numbers of people in the area. (OS Memoirs; Bardon; Jones)

The ‘New Lagan Bridge’ was built by a private company in 1831 and a toll of a halfpenny was charged for crossing it (leading to the local name ‘Halfpenny Bridge’. A ‘new road’, later to become the Albertbridge Road, connecting the bridge with the major route eastwards, the Newtownards Road, is shown on the first edition OS map of 1834. In 1860 the bridge was purchased by the Grand Juries of Antrim and Down and opened free of charge. The bridge collapsed in 1886 and was replaced by a temporary wooden structure until the present Albert Bridge was opened in 1890. By the third edition of 1902 the area had become a heavily-developed commercial and service centre for the surrounding residential streets and industrial enterprises (McCreary)

Queen’s Island was reclaimed in the late nineteenth century and the wider Ballymacarrett area became a focus for shipbuilding as Harland & Wolff established their shipyards on the island. Shipbuilding reached its peak around the turn into the twentieth century and this was also the peak of house-building in Belfast as the city’s industrialization led to population growth and territorial expansion. Ballymacarrett and the head of Belfast Lough was one of the two main industrial areas of Belfast (the other being the mills and foundries of west Belfast) The housing was high-density and of low to medium valuation. The area has traditionally been largely a protestant one – at the time of the 1901 census, Pottinger ward, which included Ballymacarrett was around 80% protestant. (1901 census; Jones)

An Orange Hall had first been built in Ballymacarrett in 1877 to designs by William Batt. Previous to this the Orangemen were compelled to meet in ‘public-houses or such out-of-the-way places’. The membership was composed largely of ‘hardy sons of the Queen’s Island’. The new hall was described as a ‘neat two-storey structure, containing four commodious lodge rooms, one large assembly room and caretaker’s apartments’. However, the growth in population of the area was such that by 1894, the eighteen lodges of Ballymacarrett then in existence, found that a ‘new and more commodious’ hall was necessary. ‘At the present time there is really no hall worthy of the name in Ballymacarrett in which a large public meeting can be held, whether in reference to social or political matters.’ A building committee was appointed in 1894 but it was some years before the project could be brought to fruition, probably because a substantial amount of money had to be raised. (Belfast Newsletter)

The construction of the hall began in July 1901 and in December of that year the Irish Builder reported that the work was well underway. The District Lodge of Ballymacarrett had ‘resolved to erect a new hall’ in view of the increase in membership due to ‘the rapid growth of the population in that part of the city.’ The hall was intended to provide instruction and recreation rooms as well as a meeting hall and was to be built at a cost of £3,300. The hall was nearing completion in February 1902 and the architect was said to be David M Cooper ‘of Dublin’, however, the Dictionary of Irish Architects casts some doubt on whether Cooper came from, or had offices in, Dublin stating that his office address was in Belfast. The contractor was K G Walker. The Irish Builder gives a brief description of the building, stating that ‘the external walls are 2 ft thick, built with best compressed bricks. Plinths, facings of entrance door, window sills, pediments, cornice, parapet, turrets, and caps of pilasters are of moulded Giffnock sandstone, with terracotta keystones, panels and verandas on first and fourth storeys. The columns at the entrance door are to be of Newry granite, moulded and polished and the steps at the entrance door are also of granite’. The building was to be lit by electric light, and the entrance hallway was to be laid with mosaic terrazzo work. A circular dome at the rear was fitted with stained glass. Of particular note was the fact that the first floor joists were of steel, likely the product of nearby foundries. (Irish Builder)

The Orange Hall first enters valuation records in 1903, valued at £100, later lowered to £60 , probably as the result of an appeal. Six shops are also listed as part of the holding together with three houses and a billiard room, valued in total at £151. There are no significant changes in valuation records up to 1930.

The Albertbridge Road Orange Hall forms part of the recollections of Wilfrid Ewart in ‘A Journey in Ireland 1921’ in which Ewart recounts a walking tour between Cork and Belfast. His pen-portrait of Ireland on the eve of partition ends with a description of a rabble-rousing unionist public meeting in Ballymacarrett orange hall which was addressed by Dawson Bates and Herbert Dixon. ‘It was a wet night in East Belfast. And under the rain a great industrial city is a dreary place. Everybody was glad to squeeze into the Orange Hall where two of the candidates were going to address the electors…’ (Ewart)

Alterations and additions were made to the hall in 1934-5 to designs by Seaver and Gibson. (www.dia.ie)

References:

Primary Sources

1. PRONI OS/6/3/4/1 – First Edition OS Map 1834
2. PRONI OS/6/3/4/2 – Second Edition OS map 1858
3. PRONI OS/6/3/4/3 – Third Edition OS Map 1902
4. PRONI OS/6/3/4/4 – Fourth Edition OS Map 1920-1
5. PRONI OS/6/3/4/5 – Fourth Edition OS Map 1931
6. PRONI VAL/12/B/43/L/1-8 – Annual Revisions (1897-1930)
7. 1901 census online
8. Belfast Newsletter 24th November 1877
9. Belfast Newsletter 1st September 1894
10. Irish Builder 5th December 1901
11. Irish Builder 13th February 1902

Secondary Sources

1. Ewart, W “A Journey in Ireland 1921” University College Dublin Press, 2008
2. Jones, E “A Social Geography of Belfast” London: Oxford University Press, 1960
3. McCormack, W J (ed) “The Blackwell Companion to Modern Irish Culture” Oxford: Blackwell, 1999
4. McCreary, A “Titanic Port – An Illustrated History of Belfast Harbour” Booklink, 2010
5. www.dia.ie

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

A. Style
B. Proportion
C. Ornamentation

Criteria for listing: historic interest

R. Age
S. Authenticity
T. Historic Importance
V. Authorship
Y. Social, Cultural or Economic Importance
X. Local Interest

Evaluation

Large symmetrical three-storey with attic redbrick Orange Hall, dated 1901, to the designs of David Cooper. A relatively rare example of a large urban Orange Hall. Rectangular on plan facing south with two-storey redbrick hall to rear, located on the north side of Albertbridge Road. It is well proportioned, retaining much of its high quality external classical detailing and is one of the most impressive buildings in this area of Belfast. It is of substantial social interest to the local community.