ROBINSON'S BAR

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

Terraced three-storey rendered building, built in 1846, with decorative stucco pub shopfront spanning ground floor, rebuilt c.1992 with a large three-storey extension covering the entire rear site and having a three-storey redbrick rear elevation fronting onto Keylands Place. One of three similarly scaled buildings lining the east side of Great Victoria Street.

Pitched slate roof with rendered chimneystack to the south gable with octagonal clay pots, set behind parapet wall with drip cornice and painted fascia. Painted rendered walling. Square-headed window openings with concrete sills and 6/6 timber sash windows.

Three-storey front west elevation is four windows wide with applied pediments to the first floor window openigns. Decorative stucco moulded pub shopfront divided into four bays by tapered Ionic pilasters on panelled plinths supporting fascia and dentilated cornice surmounted by triangular and segmental pediments in turn divided by urns. Canted display windows flank the principal entrance with etched glass and a pair of square-headed entrance bays have double-leaf timber panelled doors and etched fanlights.

North side elevation abutted by adjoining eleven-storey building.

Rear elevation abutted by large three-storey extension fronting onto Keylands Place as a redbrick elevation resembling a nineteenth-century warehouse.

South side elevation abutted by adjoining building No.44 (HB26/30/005B).

Setting:
One of three similarly scaled buildings lining the east side of Great Victoria Street, surrounded by multi-storey late twentieth-century developments.

Roof Slate
RWG Not visible
Walling Cement render
Windows Replacement timber sash

Historical information

Nos 38-40 Great Victoria Street, now known as Robinson’s Bar, was constructed in 1846 as the Dublin and Armagh Hotel; the 1852 Belfast Street Directory recorded that the hotel was occupied by James Keyland (who lent his name to Keylands Place to its rear), however by Griffith’s Valuation in 1859 the address was in the possession of a Mr. James Watson. Watson let the hotel from Henry Joy, who owned much of the land south of Belfast’s town centre at that time. The valuer described the hotel as a three-storey A Class (‘not cut stone’) building which had been constructed ’17 or 18 years’ previously and measured 20 by 11 ½ yds; the hotel was valued at £82 and was let to Watson at £43 annual ground rent.

By 1863 James Watson had purchased the building outright which he then let to a Mr. John Bain. Bain continued to operate the hotel until at least 1880 when he was still recorded as occupant in the Belfast Street Directory; however in 1889 the hotel was purchased by a Mr. William Robinson, after whom the current bar is named. Robinson converted the hotel into licensed premises in 1895 and carried out alteration work to the rear of the building upon taking possession, resulting in the increase of the value of the property to £135 by 1896.

The 1901 Census recorded that Robinson, a 48 year old Roman Catholic wine merchant, resided at the property with his wife and three children. He employed a number of staff as domestic servants and bar assistants. The Census Building Return described the building as a 1st class public house which consisted of 10 rooms and possessed a store as its single out office. There was no change by 1911 when Robinson continued to reside at the address. Nos 38-40 continued to be called the Dublin and Armagh Hotel in the 1910 Street Directory; however after 1906 the Annual Revisions described the building as a licensed house and shop, which also included Nos 4-8 Keylands Place to its rear. In that year the value of the public house was recalculated at £305 (at the same time Windsor Ward was first valued separately from the rest of central Belfast); Robinson appealed against this high value and by 1912 it was reduced to £220 and remained at this level until the end of the Annual Revisions in 1930.

In 1935 the public house continued to be valued at £220 in the first revaluation of property in Northern Ireland, however the second revaluation in 1956 recorded a very large increase in value to £2,250; this was reduced to £1,800 under the 1957 Rent and Valuation Act, however the occupant at that time appealed and had the value reduced further to £1,400 by the end of the revaluation in 1972.

Patton and Law state that the Dublin and Armagh Hotel was constructed in 1846 by James Keyland, (who also constructed the current Crown Bar building at the same time). The erection of the hotel coincided with the construction of Ireland’s second railway line between Belfast and Lisburn in 1839; in fact there were a total of four hotels situated across the road from the Great Northern Railway Station by the 1870s. These hotels were the main stopping point for the new influx of travellers to Belfast in the Victorian period. When William Robinson came into possession of the site in 1889 he continued to operate the Dublin and Armagh Hotel until 1914 when he changed the name to Robinson’s Bar and dropped the hotel status. Robinson’s continued to be owned by William Robinson until the 1940s when the bar passed into the possession of the O’Neill family who also owned The Garrick in Chichester Street. In the 1980s the former hotel was purchased by Crofts Inn, a subsidiary of Guinness. Before it was destroyed by fire in 1991 Robinson’s Bar had a timber ship’s stern attached to its rear elevation; this was the centrepiece of a modern extension themed bar named the Robinson Crusoe Lounge (Law, pp 73-74; Patton, p. 169).

Robinson’s Bar was listed in 1978 along with the neighbouring nos 42-44 Great Victoria Street (HB26/30/005B), however, in 1991 a firebomb attack was made on the bar destroying its first and second floors. The front elevation of the building was completely demolished and rebuilt in a sympathetic early Victorian style including a new basement level; Robinsons Bar reopened in 1993 after £2 million was spent on its repair, the Victorian theme of Robinsons was maintained after its reconstruction (Heritage News, Vol. 9; Law, pp 73-74) Interestingly the First Survey image of Robinsons bar records that the facade of the formal hotel possessed pilastered columns similar to those on the front elevation of the Crown Bar.

References

Primary Sources

1. PRONI OS/6/1/61/1 – First Edition Ordnance Survey Map 1832-33
2. PRONI OS/6/1/61/2 – Second Edition Ordnance Survey Map 1858
3. PRONI OS/6/1/61/3 – Third Edition Ordnance Survey Map 1901-02
4. PRONI OS/6/1/61/4 – Fourth Edition Ordnance Survey Map 1931
5. PRONI OS/6/1/61/5 – Fifth Edition Ordnance Survey Map 1938
6. PRONI VAL/2/B/7/1B – Griffith’s Valuation 1859
7. PRONI VAL/12/B/43/A/1 – Annual Revisions 1863-1881
8. PRONI VAL/12/B/43/A/11 – Annual Revisions 1882-1897
9. PRONI VAL/12/B/43/A/36 – Annual Revisions 1897-1905
10. PRONI VAL/12/B/43/P/2 – Annual Revisions 1906-1915
11. PRONI VAL/12/B/43/P/5 – Annual Revisions 1915-1930
12. PRONI VAL/3/B/3/21 – First General Revaluation of Northern Ireland 1935
13. PRONI VAL/4/B/7/50 – Second General Revaluation of Northern Ireland 1956-72
14. Belfast Street Directories (1852; 1861; 1877; 1880; 1901; 1907; 1908; 1910; 1918)
15. Census of Ireland (1901; 1911)
16. ‘Heritage Newsletter, Vol. 9’ Belfast: Ulster Architectural Heritage Society, 1992.

Secondary Sources

1. Heatley, F., ‘Belfast: Paintings and stories from the city’ Donaghadee: Cottage Publications, 1998
2. Law, G., ‘Historic pubs of Belfast’ Belfast: Appletree Press, 2002.
3. Patton, M., ‘Central Belfast: An historical gazetteer’ Belfast: Ulster Architectural Heritage Society, 1993
4. First Survey Record – HB26/30/003 (1977)

Online Resources

1. Dictionary of Irish Architects - http://www.dia.ie

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

Not listed

Criteria for listing: historic interest

Not listed

Evaluation

Terraced three-storey rendered building, built in 1846 as a hotel, with decorative stucco public house shopfront spanning ground floor. It was rebuilt c.1992 following firebomb attacks destroying the first and second floor. The front elevation was completely demolished and rebuilt in an early Victorian style but not as a replica of what had been there. As a rebuilt structure with altered detailing it is not of special architectural or historic interest, however the scale and proportion are complementary and are extremely important to the adjacent Grade A listed Crown Bar (HB26/30/003B).

General comments

FILE PA'd 16/04/15