42-44 GREAT VICTORIA ST.

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

Mid terrace three-storey rendered building, built c.1875, with modern shopfront to the ground floor. Rectangular on plan facing west and set among a terrace of three similar buildings lining the east side of Great Victoria Street.

Pitched natural slate roof behind parapet wall with lead ridge, iron skylights and a shared rendered chimneystack to the south. Replacement iron downpipe, shared with adjoining building to south and plastic guttering to rear on timber fascia. Painted rendered walling rising to parapet with projecting drip cornice, plain coping and string course. Square-headed window openings, painted masonry sills and single-pane timber sash windows with ogee horns.

Three-storey front elevation is two windows wide with a modern tiled shopfront to the ground floor. Simple architrave surrounds to the second floor window openings and continuous sill course. First floor window openings are framed by incised pilasters and decorative scrolled console brackets supporting entablature above. Modern tiled shopfront has a plastic fascia spanning the entire elevation with central glazed doors, two display windows and a further square-headed door opening with steel roller blind giving access to the upper floors.

North side elevation abutted by adjoining building (HB26/30/005A).

Stepped rear elevation largely obscured by later developments belonging to adjoining building to south (HB26/30/003). Where visible the rear elevation has cement rendered walling and square-headed window openings with stone sills and replacement timber windows.

South side elevation abutted by adjoining building (HB26/30/003).

Setting:
Forming part of a terrace of three similar buildings lining the east side of Great Victoria Street. The rear site has been developed by the adjoining pub 'The Crown' (HB26/30/003) as a single and two-storey modern extension and small rear yard opening onto Keylands Place.

Roof Natural slate
RWG Replacement iron / plastic
Walling Painted render
Windows Timber sash

Historical information

The second edition of the Ordnance Survey map for Belfast records that nos 42-44 Great Victoria Street had not been constructed by 1858 when a plot of land separated the current Crown Bar (HB26/30/003) and Robinson’s Bar (HB26/30/005A). The single-bay three-storey building was constructed between the two earlier structures (which dated from the 1840s) in 1875 when it was first recorded in the Annual Revisions. In that year the valuer noted that nos 42-44 Great Victoria Street was utilised as a dwelling and shop and valued at £30; the building was owned by Terence O’Hanlon, who also owned the adjoining Ulster Railway Hotel (which later became the Crown Bar) and was occupied from 1875 by a Mr. William Barklie who operated a confectionary shop from the premises (Belfast Street Directory – 1880).

A Mrs. Catherine Rogan had come into possession of the building (which she had also purchased outright) by 1901. In that year the census and the Belfast Street Directory recorded that Rogan operated a Temperance Hotel from the premises; the 1901 Census Building described the hotel as 1st class hotel that consisted of eight rooms. In 1906 the value of Rogan’s Temperance Hotel was increased to £50; it is not known why this increase took place, however Windsor Ward was first valued separately from the rest of central Belfast in that year, perhaps prompting a revaluation of property in the area. Mrs. Rogan still occupied the site in 1911 when the census indicated that she also operated a shop from the premises, however by 1915 her relative, a Mr. James Rogan, had taken possession of the property which he continued to occupy until the mid-1960s. The First General Revaluation of Northern Ireland was undertaken in 1935 by which time the value of Rogan’s Hotel had increased to £96. Due to the outbreak of the Second World War a second revaluation of property in Belfast did not take place until 1956 at which time the value was recalculated at £224 at which it remained by the end of the revaluation in 1972.

Patton records that nos 42-44 Great Victoria Street was constructed in 1875 and in 1890 was known as the Crown and Anchor Temperance Hotel, before being renamed Rogan’s Hotel once Catherine Rogan took possession (Patton, p. 170). This was the fourth hotel constructed across the road from the Great Northern Railway Station on Great Victoria Street and the first to be associated with the Victorian temperance movement in Ireland; a hotel continued to operate from the premises until the mid-1960s (Law, p. 74). Nos 42-44 Great Victoria Street was listed in 1978 and since at least the 1990s has been utilised as a bookmakers, named the Crown Bookmakers by at least 1993 but very recently purchased by A. McLean Bookmakers (Patton, 170).

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 (1861; 1877; 1880; 1901; 1907; 1908; 1910; 1918)
15. Census of Ireland (1901; 1911)

Secondary Sources

1. Law, G., ‘Historic pubs of Belfast’ Belfast: Appletree Press, 2002.
2. Patton, M., ‘Central Belfast: An historical gazetteer’ Belfast: Ulster Architectural Heritage Society, 1993
3. First Survey Record – HB26/30/005 (1977)

Online Resources

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

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

A. Style
B. Proportion
C. Ornamentation
H-. Alterations detracting from building
K. Group value

Criteria for listing: historic interest

X. Local Interest
R. Age
S. Authenticity

Evaluation

Mid terrace three-storey rendered building, built c.1875, facing west and set among a terrace of three similar buildings lining the east side of Great Victoria Street. Originally constructed as a house and shop it later became a hotel. The interior, rear and front façade of this building have been substantially altered. The building has similar window and eaves detailing and is consistent in scale and proportion to the neighbouring Grade A listed Crown Bar (HB26/30/003) with which it has group value.