10 Church Lane

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

Three-storey two-bay rendered mid-terraced building in late Georgian style with shopped ground floor facing Church Lane.

Slate roof with blue clay ridge tiles; no chimneys. Ruled and lined rendered walling. Upper floors have 6/6 d/h timber sash windows with projecting cills.

Principal west elevation comprises single-fronted shop with plate glass window over rendered stall riser with slender fluted pilasters on bases. Door and window of similar design to nos.6-8 (HB26/50/042A). Modern barber's pole to one side. Ulster Historical Foundation 'Blue Plaque' affixed, commemorating Andrew Nicholl, painter.

Rear elevation rendered without windows and includes a small lean-to extension bringing the building out to the stone rubble wall of St George’s Church (HB26/50/045).

Setting: Although now obscured by rendering, Church Lane contains a number of similar related late Georgian structures and nos.4-8 (HB26/50/042A) which back onto St George’s churchyard (HB26/50/045), indicating the densely-packed nature of the city at that time.

Walls: Rendered
Windows: Timber
Roof: natural slate
RWG: Cast iron.

Historical information

Buildings are shown on the site on a map of Belfast dating from 1715 and it is possible that the present shops retain some early fabric. However, the appearance of the buildings is consistent with a Georgian/Victorian urban vernacular of uncertain date. Patton dates the current terrace to c1780 on the grounds that Church Lane had been redeveloped by 1788 with leases requiring frontages of up to fifteen feet in height.

In 1800 one of the principal inns of Belfast, the White Hart stood in Church Lane and the street was known for its shoemakers, the celebrated painter Andrew Nicholl being the son of a Church Lane bootmaker. (Patton) Individual houses in Church Lane are not identifiable in the Townland Valuation (1828-40) because the associated town plan is missing. However the buildings are listed in Street Directories from the early nineteenth century and in Griffith’s Valuation (1856-64). No occupants are recorded in the 1901 and 1911 censuses, suggesting that by this stage the shopkeepers resided elsewhere.

A street directory of 1808 lists Martins & Parks, merchants at number ten Church Lane, followed by Anne Browne (1819) and George Brodie, watch glass manufacturer (1843). By the time of Griffith’s Valuation (1856-64) the occupier was Robert Brown, boot maker, and the valuation was £14. James Carnduff ran a shoe shop here in 1868. The valuation of number ten was increased to £25 c1900 in common with other buildings in the terrace indicating that remodelling or improvements took place at this time. The shop became a tobacconists from 1901 run first by C Kirk and then by Miss Moran, who later moved to number 4/6. In subsequent years the shop changed hands frequently: W F Platt Raynewear (1935), A Faith gold buyers (1945), W T Pyper chemist (1950), S Gray leather goods and shoe repairs (1965), Thos McCleary & Son, Estate Agents and Valuers (1975), Audio Fare (1980) and Audiotronics (1990).

The shopfronts were replaced in traditional style c1985 and the current premises is now run as a barber shop.

Primary Sources

1. PRONI OS/6/1/61/1 – First Edition OS Map 1832-3
2. PRONI OS/6/1/61/3 – Third Edition OS Map 1858
3. PRONI OS/6/1/61/4 – Fourth Edition OS Map 1901-2
4. PRONI OS/6/1/61/6 – Sixth Edition OS Map 1931
5. PRONI VAL/2/B/7/4A Griffith’s Valuation (1856-64)
6. PRONI VAL/12/B/43/C/1-31 Annual Revisions (1863-1905)
7. PRONI VAL/12/B/43/D/1-22 Annual Revisions (1862-1930)
8. Street Directories 1808-1995
9. 1901 census online
10. 1911 census online

Secondary Sources

1. Patton, M “Central Belfast: An Historical Gazetteer” Belfast: Ulster Architectural Heritage Society, 1993
2. www.ulsterhistorycircle.co.uk

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

A. Style
B. Proportion
C. Ornamentation
K. Group value

Criteria for listing: historic interest

X. Local Interest

Evaluation

A three-storey rendered mid-terraced building dating from c.1780. Although some historic fabric survives, representing a late Georgian urban vernacular, the whole has been compromised by restoration and renewal. This small group (HB26/50/042A&B) is of some interest as the remnant of the Georgian street, the remainder of which has been lost.