2-4 Belmont Road

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

Four-bay two-storey red-brick corner building with curved entrance facade facing west. Built c. 1902 with elaborate entrance with pillars, sculpted pediment, clock, open-work balustrade to parapet with hipped roof behind. Restaurant unit in ground floor east of entrance, offices above. Building is located on the northern corner of the junction of the Belmont Road and Holywood Road, known locally as Gelston's Corner.

Hipped natural slate roof with terracotta ridge, hips and finials at each end. Cast-iron ogee gutters and uPVC downpipes.

Main entrance is curved and faces west. Pairs of 'Corinthian' style marble pilasters frame either side of shop front, with curved bay plate glass windows with timber frames supported on splayed marble stall-riser to north and south of entrance doors, rendered and painted fascia. Door opening has modern timber glazed door with overlight, framed with pair of pilasters as before and ornate sculpted sandstone pediment to portico with pair of marble 'Corinthian' style columns supporting entablature, now covered with sign. Stone string course with dentil detail runs length of west and south elevations at cornice level. Red-brick curved wall in Flemish bond above at first floor level with red-brick pilasters echoing those at ground floor level. Square headed window openings with uPVC frames, central window above portico projects forward and has central sandstone 'Corinthian' column dividing opening and supporting brick soldier lintol. Carved sandstone cill to windows linked by brick special with similar profile to form string course. Projecting sandstone string course supported on moulded terracotta brackets, above window heads. Openwork balustrade to parapet over north and south windows with projecting piers, terracotta panels inset into brickwork and topped with sandstone coping with plinths and terracotta ball finials at each end of wall sections. Central section of parapet over portico, also projected forward with piers, plinths and terracotta ball finials to each end and clock face inserted in decorated terracotta panel with carved pediment to top.

North elevation, red-brick in Flemish bond, has red-brick arches with brick pilasters and recessed blank panels along length. No openings. Door opening to single-storey single bay adjoining bay to east end. Modern door and concrete surround.

East elevation only visible above single storey entrance adjoining main building and neighbouring building. Red-brick in Flemish bond with single square-headed window opening to centre at first floor level, uPVC frame.

South elevation has restaurant in three bays to ground floor area with marble stall-riser below modern broad timber frames to shop-front to west and east bays; and entrance door to central bay with modern timber and glazed door. Walls including fascia now rendered and painted, shop awning in three sections runs full length of three bays. Stone string course with dentil detail runs length of south elevation at cornice level. Above brickwork detailing including pilasters, string and cill as west elevation. Three square-headed windows with uPVC frames in brickwork panels formed by pilasters. Terracotta brackets support ogee shaped gutter. Single storey single-bay entrance with rendered wall and pitched roof adjoins at ground floor east bay and contains four-centred arched door opening with concentric moulding and hood moulding above with decorated 'keystone' detail to centre over opening. Modern timber glazed door with fanlight.

Materials:
Roof : Natural slate
RWGs: Cast-iron and uPVC
Walls : Red brick; render
Windows : Timber and uPVC.

Setting:
Building is located on the northern corner of the junction of the Belmont Road and Holywood Road, known locally as Gelston's Corner.

Historical information

Nos 2-4 Belmont Road, a two-storey redbrick building located at the corner of the Holywood Road and also known as Strandtown Hall, was constructed in c. 1902. Prior to the erection of the current building, the corner site was occupied by a local post office (UTD). With the passing of the Belfast Corporation Bill in 1896 Belfast’s municipal boundary was extended to include a number of townlands in East Belfast such as Ballyhackamore, Ballycloghan and Strandtown. Nos 2-4 Belmont Road was constructed at Gelston’s Corner on land leased by Braithwaite & McCann, spirit dealers who owned one of the largest chain of public houses in the city (Law, pp 45-46). Nos 2-4 Belmont Road was first recorded on the third edition Ordnance Survey map (1902) which depicted the building along its current layout. The building cost £1,500 to erect and was initially valued at £75. Haines states that Braithwaite & McCann originally intended to use nos 2-4 Belmont Road as a hotel. The building was never occupied and remained vacant from c. 1902 until the First World War (Haines; UTD).

The building was simply described as ‘new shop – vacant’ by the Ulster Town Directories during this period. It was not until during the First World War that ownership of nos 2-4 Belmont Road passed to Greenhill & Craig, electrical engineers, who leased the building out to its first occupants. In 1915 the building was divided between W. J. Balmer, a local pharmaceutical chemist who established his business in the ground floor shop at the corner of the Holywood and Belmont Roads (No. 2 Belmont Road), and the Strandtown & District Unionist Club, whose clubrooms were located on the floor over Balmer’s shop (No. 4) and were accessed by the ground floor entrance on the Belmont Road (located next to the war memorial). The Annual Revisions amended the value of the building to £71 and 10 shillings in 1921.

A contemporary photograph of nos 2-4 Belmont Road (dated c. 1918) depicts the building along its current layout and shows that few major structural changes have been made to the building since the end of the First World War. The Portland stone war memorial was installed adjacent to the building in the aftermath of the conflict as a memorial to the residents of Strandtown who gave their lives in the war. The memorial, which is 10ft 6in in height and 4ft 6in in width, was commissioned by the Strandtown and District Unionist Club (the name of the organisation was carved in the ribbon at the top). Under the First General Revaluation of Property in Northern Ireland (1936-57) the total rateable value of nos 2-4 Belmont Road was increased to £110. This was further raised to £204 by the end of the Second Revaluation (1956-72). Throughout this period the building continued to be occupied by Balmer’s chemists and as clubrooms for the Strandtown and District Unionist Club.

Balmer vacated the ground floor of the building in the late-20th century when the ground floor retail unit became a bicycle shop. During the Second Survey the offices located on the upper floor of the building continued to be utilised by unionist organisations. In 2008 the Ulster Unionist Party established their headquarters at the former clubrooms which are also occupied by the Victoria Ulster Unionist Association. During the Second Survey the ground floor retail unit was utilised as a café.

References

Primary Sources
1. PRONI OS/6/3/4/2 – Second Edition Ordnance Survey map (1858)
2. PRONI OS/6/3/4/3 – Third Edition Ordnance Survey map (1902)
3. PRONI OS/6/3/4/4 – Fourth Edition Ordnance Survey map (1920-21)
4. PRONI OS/6/3/4/5 – Fifth Edition Ordnance Survey map (1931)
5. PRONI OS/6/3/4/6 – Sixth Edition Ordnance Survey map (1938)
6. PRONI VAL/12/B/43/N1-9 – Annual Revisions (1897-1930)
7. PRONI VAL/3/C/3/31 – First General Revaluation of Property in Northern Ireland (1936-57)
8. PRONI VAL/4/B/7/45 – Second General Revaluation of Property in Northern Ireland (1956-72)
9. Ulster Town Directories (1890-1943)

Secondary Sources
1. Law, G., ‘Historic pubs of Belfast’ Belfast: Appletree Press, 2002.
2. Haines, K., ‘East Belfast: Images of Ireland’ Dublin: Nonsuch Publishing, 2007.

Online Resources
1. War Memorials in Ulster website - http://www.ulsterwarmemorials.net/html/strandtown__belfast.html

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

A. Style
B. Proportion
C. Ornamentation
D. Plan Form
H-. Alterations detracting from building
J. Setting

Criteria for listing: historic interest

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

Evaluation

A well-proportioned and detailed red-brick former corner shop and office building, dating from c.1902. Situated in a prominent location at the junction of the Belmont and Holywood Roads, the building curves at the street corner and is well detailed with an ornate stone pedimented entrance, carved stone clock and openwork balustrade with ball finials.Originally commissioned by Braithwaite & McCann, spirit dealers who owned one of the largest chain of public houses in the city, the building functioned as a shop and the offices of various unionist organisations during most of the 20th century and was established as the headquarters of the Ulster Unionist Party c.2008. Whilst internally it is altered and modernised and the windows on the first floor are not original, it remains a focal point and an interesting local piece of architecture.