Alfred House

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

A corner-sited freestyle five storey red brick linen warehouse, dated 1912, located on the corner of Alfred Street and Clarence Street, close to Belfast city centre. The plan is slightly L-shaped, with shallow re-entrant at south-west corner overlooking a courtyard shared with adjacent buildings on Alfred Street and Adelaide Street.

Flat roof with bituminous coating, surrounded by a brick parapet. There is a single tall circular chimneystack to west edge. Cast-iron downpipes and moulded sandstone gutters. The building is likely to be of frame construction; walling is red brick laid in Flemish bond; moulded sandstone dressings including cornice, platbands to window head level at each floor, and a moulded sandstone string between ground and first floor level. Openings are regularly spaced and set close together, diminishing in height at each floor. Metal-framed multi-pane windows set in flush neo-Tudor transomed and mullioned sandstone reveals to east front and part of north elevation. Remainder are expansive metal-framed windows in plain brick reveals with flush sandstone lintels, some with central pivoted openings; those to fourth storey are segmental headed. Except where stated otherwise, ground floor openings are segmental-headed replacement hardwood windows, with casement openings and sills close to ground level.

Principal entrance elevation facing east onto Alfred Street. Central section three-bays wide with Diocletian windows to top storey having moulded stone archivolt and keyblock; each bay framed by Giant order pilasters rising from the first floor string course, forming an arcaded effect with vertical emphasis. Segmental ground floor windows have ashlar sandstone heads and are flanked by chunky columns with heavy entasis; each column has ornate carving to capital (including winged dragons, interlocking griffins, and stylised celtic knotwork) and is surmounted by entablature detailed with scrolled cartouche reading ‘Pure Flax’ rising to gargoyles located beneath string course; all are supported on ashlar sandstone pedestals. Flanking entrance bays, that to left being narrower, and with raised parapet. Each has a fourth storey window fronted by a stylised flat Ionic arcade, tetrastyle to right, tristyle to left. Right bay is surmounted by a segmental pediment over bracketed cornice inset with a datestone of 1912 flanked by winged beasts; third storey window has a sweeping head. Principal entrance to right bay comprises a double-leaf woodgrained panelled timber door set in round-headed reveal with glazed tympanum, having sidelights flanked by twin columns on pedestals, as others. Left entrance is less ornately detailed, with plain stone banding to reveal, ashlar voussoirs and keyblocked head, ,and multi-paned timber framed tympanum with Art Nouveau stained glass. Modern tiled threshold and cast-iron protective corner brackets to reveal (maker’s mark Gregg Sons & Phoenix Union Foundry Belfast).

The rear re-entrant angle overlooks a courtyard with pedestrian access to the adjoining building; multi-paned glazed curtain walling to all floors between brick clad concrete frame construction. The south and east ends of the building are completely abutted by adjoining buildings.

The north elevation faces onto Clarence Street. There is a separation of emphasis between the two left bays, which have openings detailed as principal façade, and the central four bays, which are more utilitarian in appearance. To right side, each floor has a series of four tall closely spaced windows, with a paired window to ground floor. There is an entrance door offset to right having tall segmental tympanum and tall flanking sidelights.

Setting:
The building occupies an urban
setting, located opposite St Malachy’s Church (HB26/30/023A) on Alfred Street, immediately to south of Belfast city centre. It is street fronted to east and north, and the exposed part of the south and west elevations open onto a paved narrow and enclosed courtyard providing pedestrian access from the adjoining Premier Inn to Adelaide Street.

Roof: Flat
Walling: Red brick
Windows: Steel framed, replacement timber
RWG: Cast iron

Historical information

The Irish Architect and Contractor journal records that the five-storey redbrick warehouse, situated at nos 19-21 Alfred Street, began construction in 1911 and was built to designs by James A. Hanna; construction of the warehouse was completed by 1912 as is indicated by a datestone at the site. Hanna practised in Belfast from 1905 and constructed a number of Edwardian warehouses in the city as well as some schoolhouses and church buildings (Irish Architect and Contractor, Vol. 1, 13 May 1911, p. 214; Dictionary of Irish Architects). The warehouse was not included in the Annual Revisions upon its completion in 1912 but was recorded in the Belfast Street Directory for 1918; in that year the warehouse was occupied by a Mr. John Henning who owned a Linen, damask and cambric handkerchief manufacturing business (John Henning & Sons Ltd.) which he operated from the premises.

The warehouse was first valued during the general revaluation of property in Northern Ireland in 1935; the valuer noted that Henning continued to operate the site which he let from a Mr. Bernard Hughes (this may have been the Bernard Hughes noted in the 1910 Belfast Street Directory who owned a bakery company on the Springfield Road). In 1935 the warehouse was valued at £630 and was recorded as a ‘Laundry making up and finishing works.’ The second revaluation took place in 1956 by which time the value of the warehouse had increased greatly to £1,600; however by 1966 the warehouse had fallen vacant and was only used as a store by J. Henning and Sons Ltd, reducing the value of the site to £1,280.

Larmour describes Hanna’s warehouses as the ‘most interesting of the Edwardian era and the years immediately following’ and records that the first occupants of the site after its construction in 1912 were the Walpole Brothers who also operated a Linen warehouse from the premises. Williams noted that Hanna constructed the warehouse in a neo-Elizabethan style which he believes anticipated the functionalism of post-war architectural design; Hanna also incorporated a number of interesting features into his design including zoomorphic carvings and baroque shields, one of the shields reads ‘Pure Flax,’ an advertisement plaque reflecting the original use of the building (Larmour, p. 77; Patton, p. 7; Williams, p. 15).

The warehouse was utilised as a store for a number of years by John Henning & Sons, however at some stage between 1966 and the 1990s the former Linen warehouse was occupied by Appletree Press who converted it into a publishing house. Nos 19-21 Alfred Street was listed in 1988 and in 1999 the Town Planning Committee granted permission for the conversion of the ground floor into a restaurant and the alteration of the upper levels into a series of offices (Town Planning Committee minutes - 18 Nov 1999).

References

Primary Sources

1. PRONI OS/6/1/61/3 – Third Edition Ordnance Survey Map 1901-02
2. PRONI OS/6/1/61/4 – Fourth Edition Ordnance Survey Map 1931
3. PRONI OS/6/1/61/5 – Fifth Edition Ordnance Survey Map 1938
4. PRONI VAL/3/B/3/21 – First General Revaluation of Northern Ireland 1935
5. PRONI VAL/4/B/7/49 – Second General Revaluation of Northern Ireland 1956-72
6. Irish Architect and Contractor, Vol. 1, 13 May 1911
7. Belfast Street Directories (1910; 1918)
8. Belfast Town Planning Committee minutes (1999)

Secondary Sources

1. Larmour, P., ‘Belfast: An illustrated architectural guide’ Belfast: Ulster Architectural Heritage Society, 1987.
2. Patton, M., ‘Central Belfast: An historical gazetteer’ Belfast: Ulster Architectural Heritage Society, 1993
3. Williams, J., ‘Architecture in Ireland: 1837-1921’ Dublin: Irish Academic Press Ltd., 1994.
4. First Survey Record – HB26/30/025 (1983)

Online Resources

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

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

A. Style
B. Proportion
C. Ornamentation
D. Plan Form
J. Setting

Criteria for listing: historic interest

R. Age
S. Authenticity
T. Historic Importance
W. Northern Ireland/International Interest
V. Authorship

Evaluation

A Edwardian Free style five storey red brick former linen warehouse, now offices; built c.1912 to designs of James A. Hanna and located on the corner of Alfred Street and Clarence Street, close to Belfast city centre. A prominent building with its principal entrance elevation facing east onto Alfred Street, although the setting has been altered in recent years by an adjoining modern hotel development. Sympathetically converted into a modern office in recent years, the internal layout is largely unchanged and some elements of a typical Edwardian interior survive. Of significant historical interest and architectural interest, both locally and in the wider context of the economic development of Northern Ireland.