Riddel Building

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

An attached High Victorian four-storey seven-bay warehouse of c1865 in a terrace on Ann Street, designed by Thomas Jackson & Sons in polychrome brick fronting five stories of galleries supported on cast iron columns and beams, lit originally by a cast iron and glass roof. Located in Belfast city centre, on Ann Street, close to the River Lagan

Roof is not visible from the street, but is presumed slate, with tall yellow brick chimneystacks. Some remaining cast iron rainwater goods. Walling is of cream brick with polychrome decoration; Newry granite to ground floor. Openings are infilled with concrete block (unless otherwise stated).

Front (North) elevation: Symmetrical cream brick elevation with polychrome decoration, four storeys high and seven bays wide. Ground floor of Newry granite has arched openings with richly carved sandstone reveals and capitals, and carved roundels in the spandrels between openings. The central bay is wider, segmental headed, and has a sheeted timber carriageway door. At first floor the windows are round-headed with substantial stone reveals and keystones, and a smaller pair of windows in the central bay. At the second floor windows are smaller, segmental-headed and with polychrome brick heads, while at the third floor the windows are smaller still, round-headed and paired under red and black brick arches, with a triplet window in the central bay. Above the deep cornice is a parapet pierced between the structural openings. The roof is not visible from the street and is sarked below but presumably is slate. Although heavily encrusted with soot the front elevation stonework is richly carved and the brickwork has coloured banding.

The side elevation to the W is partly visible and is in red common brick; the E side is a party wall, and there was no access to the rear elevation but rectangular d/h sash windows survive at the second floor rear and are blocked up at first floor level.

The rear elevation is abutted by smaller buildings within Ann Street PSNI precinct; fully abutted to east by adjoining red brick former bank.

Setting

Street fronted, located on Ann Street number of substantial late Victorian buildings in the vicinity, west of the nearby former docks.

Roof: slate/cast iron & glass
Walls: brick/stone
RWG: Cast iron
Windows: Timber

Historical information

The current warehouse, built for John Riddel & Son between 1865 and 1867 to designs by Thomas Jackson & Sons, is first shown on the large-scale town plan of Belfast dating from 1871-73. Larmour suggests that the architect was Anthony Jackson, rather than his father Thomas, while the contractor was William Nimick of Holywood. (Larmour)

John Riddel & Sons, wholesale iron, steel, tinplate and metal merchants was founded c1830 under the name of Messrs Edward Porter & Son in premises in Hamilton’s Court. In 1851 the stock and goodwill was bought from the Porters by William Riddel JP who had been running an ironmongery business with his father, John Riddel, in High Street. William Riddel renamed the business John Riddel & Son and developed and expanded it in premises in Ann Street. In 1865 Riddel bought the site and two adjoining plots from the Corporation of Belfast and erected the present warehouse at a cost of over £6,000 to plans by Thomas Jackson & Sons. The four-storey warehouse is galleried internally and supported by metal pillars, having a central courtyard covered with an iron and glass roof. The ground floor of the front elevation is of Newry granodiorite while stonework elsewhere on the building is Dungannon sandstone, Armagh limestone and Whitehaven redstone. The upper storeys are of patent white bricks by Allan & Mann of Glasgow. (Industries of the North) Arcade reveals are richly carved with water-lilies, ivy, columbine and shamrock, and piers have floral capitals and rosettes in the spandrels. (Patton) The windows and ground floor arcades were glazed with plate glass and traffic entered through the central archway over a weighbridge, from which ‘metal trams’ took the goods into the rear of the premises. The centre courtyard was paved with wooden setts to deaden sound and the stores at the sides with square setts from Messrs Ritchie & Jackson. The warehouses held ‘vast stocks’ of iron, steel, tinplate, zinc and other patent metals. The premises when first built were said to have ‘no superior in the three kingdoms’ and the business carried on there was ‘one of the most important and representative of its kind in the North of Ireland’. (Industries of the North)

John Riddel & Son remained in the building until 1976, when they left Belfast for premises elsewhere. (Street Directories) The company still operates under the name John Riddel & Son Ltd and now trade in wholesale hardware from premises in Lisburn. (www.riddel.co.uk) The company’s former building in Ann Street appears to have been vacant since the 1970s, apart from some minor use by the neighbouring Police Service, appearing on the Built Heritage at Risk register since its first edition. (Built Heritage at Risk register)

References:

Primary Sources

1. PRONI OS/8/30/2/30 – Belfast Town Plan 1871-3
2. PRONI OS/6/1/61/4 – Fourth Edition OS Map 1901-2
3. PRONI OS/6/1/61/6 – Sixth Edition OS Map 1931
4. PRONI VAL/12/B/43/B/1-21 Annual Revisions (1862-1930)
5. PRONI VAL/12/B/43/C/1-45 Annual Revisions (1863-1930)
6. Street Directories

Secondary Sources

1. “Industries of the North One Hundred Years Ago” Belfast: Friar’s Bush Press, 1986 (First published as ‘Industries of Ireland, Part 1. Belfast and the Towns of the North’ in 1891)
2. Larmour, P “Belfast, An Illustrated Architectural Guide” Belfast: Friar’s Bush Press, 1987
3. Patton, M “Central Belfast: An Historical Gazetteer” Belfast: Ulster Architectural Heritage Society, 1993
4. www.dia.ie – Dictionary of Irish Architects online
5. www.doeni.gov.uk – Built Heritage at Risk Register
6. www.riddel.co.uk

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

A. Style
B. Proportion
C. Ornamentation
D. Plan Form
E. Spatial Organisation
F. Structural System
I. Quality and survival of Interior

Criteria for listing: historic interest

V. Authorship
W. Northern Ireland/International Interest
Z. Rarity

Evaluation

A mid Victorian polychrome brick warehouse by Thomas Jackson, with a remarkable Piranesian interior of five floors of galleries supported on cast iron columns. It is rare for a warehouse in Belfast to have such a complete and little-altered interior, including an intact set of cast iron columns and atrium. Although most of the fittings have gone, its plan form survives with most of the flooring and varied arrangements of steps between the different levels intact. The exterior boasts some richly carved stone detail. The former warehouse provides historic context, adjacent to the nearby docks where a number of ironmongers and ship’s chandlers were based. It is a fine example of the type, representing Belfast's mercantile history and the work of a well-known architectural practice and a rare and unusual survivor.