Electrical service / section pillar at south end of Linenhall Street, Belfast, BT2 8BA

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

Freestanding cast-iron electrical 'service' or 'section / isolation pillar' sited at the edge of a pavement, which originally housed components most likely relating to the tram (and later trolleybus) network, and as such probably dating from 1905 or slightly later. It is located at the south end of the eastern side of Linenhall Street, close to the junction with Ormeau Avenue.

The cabinet is of sturdy appearance and broadly Classical in styling. Its main ‘box’ section now stands roughly 1.3m high and is rectangular in plan (about 0.75m x 0.5) with curved corners. Each face is panelled, with hinged doors to the longer east and west faces, both displaying the arms of the City of Belfast. In the lowest panel of the east door there is an additional oval plaque containing the decorative letters ‘BTH’ (undoubtedly a manufacturer's logo - British Thomson-Houston); there appears to have once been a similar plaque to the west. Due to a rise in the pavement level both doors are now jammed shut, and the whole structure itself is slightly shorter than it would have been originally (probably by around 0.2m). The cabinet itself is topped with an almost imperceptibly domed, cushion-like oversailing cap on which is a prominent ‘ball’ final.

Historical information

This metal cabinet was a ‘service pillar’ or ‘section / isolation pillar’, whose function was to house electrical equipment, most commonly a junction for the general power supply, or an isolator for electrically powered transport systems. The latter were required by legislation to be positioned every half mile, and were used to isolate part of the tram / trolleybus route, stopping the electricity running through a particular section, or to make the current bypass the pillar, enabling engineers to work on it whilst the network itself continued to run.

Photographic evidence dating from sometime before 1913 shows a similar pillar at the edge of the pavement on the south side of Shaftesbury Square, thus making it highly likely that this one is of the same date. The electrical engineering firm of British Thomson-Houston, whose ‘BTH’ logo appears on the eastern door, are reported to have been accepted as the suppliers ‘for switch-boards for the tramway depots’ as part of Belfast Corporation's electrification of the tram network in 1905 and it is possible that they were also responsible for providing these pillars (or at least their internals), and that the pillars were indeed associated with the city’s tramlines. BTH were involved in at least one other major infrastructure in the Belfast area, when the company was awarded a contract to supply ‘Mazda’ electric lamps to the City and County Borough in 1927, but whether there is any connection to this pillar is uncertain - it appears unlikely.

This particular pillar (if indeed part of the transport system) would have served that line which ran along Ormeau Avenue and as such is likely to have been installed in 1905. It was presumably ‘decommissioned’ when the trolleybus successors to the trams were taken out of service in 1968.

References - primary sources
1 ‘Belfast News-Letter’, 14 June 1905, p.7
2 ‘Belfast Evening Telegraph’, 6 December 1905
3 ‘The Engineer’, 15 April 1927

Secondary sources
4 Maybin, Mike, ‘A nostalgic look at Belfast trams since 1945’, (Silver Link Publishing, 1994)
5 Maybin, Mike, ‘Belfast’s lost tramways’, (Stenlake Publishing, 2003)
6 Maybin, Mike, ‘Ireland in the age of the trolleybus - Belfast 1938-1968’ (Silver Link Publishing, 2005)
7 Maybin, Mike, ‘Belfast transport’, (Fonthill Media, 2018)

Secondary sources - online
8 http://www.historywebsite.co.uk/articles/lucy/lucyboxes.htm
9 https://www.gracesguide.co.uk/BTH#cite_note-19
10 http://www.tramwaybadgesandbuttons.com/page148/page4/page213/page213.html

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

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

Criteria for listing: historic interest

R. Age
S. Authenticity
T. Historic Importance
Y. Social, Cultural or Economic Importance
W. Northern Ireland/International Interest
Z. Rarity

Evaluation

Freestanding, cast-iron electrical 'service’ or 'section pillar' sited at the edge of a pavement, which is likely to have housed electrical components relating to Belfast’s former tram (and later, trolleybus) network. Broadly Classical in styling and probably dating to 1905, it is thought to be one of only one of three such pillars to have survived and quite possibly one of the very few remaining structures associated with Belfast's tramways. It is largely intact externally and, aside from its rarity, remains attractive piece of early 20th century street furniture in its own right.