West Belfast Orange Hall

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

An attached two-storey-with-attic red-brick Orange Hall with round corner tower and cupola to designs by William Batt; dated 1898 and situated to the south side of Shankill Road in west Belfast. Rectangular on plan with projecting porch to front, engaged round tower to east corner and two-storey entrance bay to southwest.

Hipped natural slate roof with angled terracotta ridge tiles; lead clad roof to cupola. Cast-iron ogee rainwater goods on dentilled brick eaves with aluminum downpipes. Walling is English garden wall-bonded red-brick on a chamfered and painted concrete plinth; dentilled string-course between floors and moulded string-course to impost level at each floor (also to porch). Windows are a variety of late twentieth-century timber casements with projecting painted sills, in camber-headed openings having impost mouldings and keyblocks; round-headed at ground floor.

The principal elevation faces northeast and is (almost) symmetrically arranged with round tower to left corner and central entrance bay rising to aediculed glazed oculus piercing balustraded parapet. Three windows to first floor; that to central bay is narrower and framed by paired brick pilasters (one also to far right). Ground floor is abutted to centre by the projecting porch and has two windows at right and one at left. Porch has slate roof, moulded eaves and corner piers; double-leaf five-panelled timber doors surmounted by round-headed transom light with lettering reading “WEST BELFAST/ ORANGE HALL”, in a chamfered reveal with impost mouldings, archivolt and keyblock. Door accessed via a single concrete step. Tower at left is lit by two windows at each floor and rises to ocatgonal timber cupola having ogee-arch openings with trefoil detailing and surmounted by lead roof with tall finial.

The southeast elevation has two sets of paired windows at first floor divided by pilasters. Five windows to ground floor (without impost mouldings). Two-storey entrance bay at left (lower) has a round-headed window at first floor with moulded head, decorative stops and keyblock; ground floor has a replacement timber door with concrete lintel, fronted by modern metal roller shutter and accessed by a set of six modern tiled steps.

The southwest elevation is abutted by adjoining building (HB26/34/004B).

The northwest elevation is abutted by adjoining building.

Setting:
Street-fronted and situated at the west end of the Shankill Road between Battenberg Street and Brookmount Street. Facing twentieth century Spectrum Centre to north and streets to south lined with two-storey red-brick terraced housing.

Roof: Natural slate
Walling: English garden wall-bonded red-brick
Windows: Replacement timber casements
RWG: Cast-iron

Historical information

The West Belfast Orange and Unionist Hall was built in 1897-8 to designs by William Batt on what was formerly a vacant plot on the outskirts of the burgeoning city. The hall is first shown on the third edition OS map of 1901.

The closing years of the nineteenth century, and the attempted introduction of Home Rule, brought about a period of enormous growth for the Orange Institution with ‘record numbers’ of new Orange Halls being opened (Belfast Newsletter 31st December 1897). An earlier hall in Agnes Street had been built when West Belfast was still relatively undeveloped but had become inadequate as the city had entered the period of its most rapid expansion. The old hall had become surrounded by houses which obstructed entry and exit into the building and the rent and taxes were very heavy (Belfast Newsletter). The decision was taken to erect a new hall in October 1890, a lease was obtained on the present plot and designs were produced by William Batt, architect of a number of orange halls, including those in Clifton Street and Ballynafeigh. However, construction was delayed by opposition to Home Rule which absorbed funds and energies that would otherwise have been directed towards the new hall and the original design for the hall had to be set aside as too costly (Belfast Newsletter; Irish Builder). After the second Home Rule Bill was defeated in 1893, fundraising began in earnest and the foundation stone was laid on 19th April 1897 by Alderman McConnell. McConnell was a well-known supporter of the community in West Belfast and had been instrumental in acquiring the site as well as contributing significantly towards the building fund. The contractors were Campbell & Lowry of Cliftonpark Avenue and the cost was to be £2,500 of which £800 had been promised at the time of laying the foundation stone (Belfast Newsletter).

The opening ceremony took place on 22nd April 1898 when the wife of Alderman McConnell declared the building open. The building consisted of an entrance vestibule, lodge, ante-rooms, reading, arch and box rooms. Upstairs was the large hall and gallery, off which were a number of ‘ladies’ and gentlemens’ retiring rooms’. The hall itself was decorated for the opening ceremony with ‘an artistic arrangement of Chinese lanterns, garlands of roses, Indian palms, Japanese sunshades and ferns’. The hall was to be a focus, not only of political work but of social and religious outreach, there being a particular concern about the ‘vice of intemperance’ and the proliferation of public houses in the Shankill Road area. A debt of £8-900 remained on the building when it opened which was cleared by subsequent fundraising efforts (Belfast Newsletter).

The hall remains the home of the No 9 District Orange Lodge which celebrated its 110 year anniversary in 2008. Improvement works to the building were recently carried out by Belfast City Council which included the fitting of new bespoke galvanized railings at the entrance (www.belfastcity.gov.uk).

References

Primary Sources

1. PRONI OS/6/1/60/3 Third Edition OS Map (1901)
2. PRONI OS/6/1/60/4 Fourth Edition OS Map (1920-31)
3. PRONI OS/6/1/60/5 Fifth Edition OS Map (1920-38)
4. Belfast Newsletter 31st December 1897
5. Belfast Newsletter 23rd April 1898
6. Irish Builder 1st August 1891

Secondary Sources

1. www.belfastcity.gov.uk

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

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

Criteria for listing: historic interest

V. Authorship
X. Local Interest

Evaluation

An attached two-storey-with-attic red-brick Orange Hall dated 1898 with round corner tower and cupola to designs by William Batt. Characterised by classical proportions and restrained classical detailing, a round corner tower and copper clad cupola enliven the design. Some replacement fabric, including fenestration, but otherwise much of the original fabric and detailing is intact. Also of interest is the attached Caretaker's house (HB26/34/004A). A good example of the work of a prominent architect. Its history also reflects the development of Belfast in the late Victorian era.