Head Line Building

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

Attached symmetrical multi-bay three-storey over basement with attic sandstone and brick Italiante office building, built c.1863, to the designs of Thomas Jackson for the Scottish Amicable Life Assurance Company. Square on plan facing west onto Victoria Street with a full-height shallow entrance breakfront and curved corner bays. Bomb damaged in 1976 and subsequently refurbished as a modern office block.

Hipped natural slate roof with two central valleys running perpendicular to the front elevation having several yellow brick chimneystacks with machicolated stone coping and clay pots. Roof hidden behind sandstone parapet over crown cornice supported on decorative console brackets over plain frieze and corbelled architrave. Concealed rainwater goods. Sandstone ashlar walling to front elevation, yellow brick to side elevations with sandstone dressings all set on a tooled limestone ashlar plinth course rising to first floor sill level with part exposed basement. Continuous moulded courses frame each floor. Round and segmental-headed window openings with decoratively carved surrounds, apron panels and single-pane timber sash windows.

Symmetrical west front elevation is five windows wide with a full-height shallow central breakfront and curved corner bays. Round-headed window openings to the second floor with moulded archivolt and keystone rising from slender Ionic columns resting on stepped sill with pierced apron (repeated as curved windows to the corner bays). Triple light to the centre with continuous archivolt and scalloped keystones rising from slender Ionic colonettes resting on squat plinth blocks forming a balcony with pierced stone panels and supported on elaborate paired console brackets. All openings to the second floor are flanked by paired pilasters, Composite to the breakfront, Doric to remainder. Segmental-headed window openings to the first floor with stilted architrave heads and cartouche keystones rising from engaged Doric pilasters resting on stepped sills and pierced aprons and flanked by rusticated pilasters to end and corner bays. Venetian window opening to the centre with embellished entablature, impost moulding and continuous hood moulding with foliate enriched head flanked by rope-moulded blind roundels and resting on a stepped sill with pierced aprons. To either side of the Venetian window is a round-headed window opening with enriched heads and pierced aprons, all flanked by Doric pilasters having central fillet. Segmental-headed window openings to the ground floor, as per first floor with foliate enriched keystones and foliate apron panels flanked by rusticated pilasters having dentilled course below continuous platband. Round-headed window openings to the corner bays with foliate enriched keystones, stepped lintels supported on polished granite Ionic columns and decorative aprons. Round-headed window openings flank the principal entrance with a fluted entablature spanning entire breakfront. Deeply set round-headed door opening with compound moulded archivolt supported on pairs of polished granite Composite columns rising from the plinth course and surmounted by an elaborate carved coat of arms with unicorns. Double-leaf hardwood doors with diamond-faced panels and bolection mouldings below a foliate enriched lintel cornice, plain semi-circular fanlight and stone steps with mosaic risers. Shouldered basement lights set within the limestone plinth course with iron grilles.

North side elevation is five windows wide, yellow brick to the upper floors, with all windows framed by pilasters, yellow brick to the upper floors, rusticated sandstone to the ground floor. Round-headed window openings to the second floor with archivolts and keystones rising from Ionic pilasters and resting on pierced aprons. Stilted segmental-headed window openings to the first and ground floors rising from Doric pilasters resting on stepped sills and pierced aprons, foliate enriched apron panels to the ground floor. Deeply set round-headed door opening to the left with archivolt and enriched keystone rising from impost blocks and polished granite Composite columns resting on limestone plinth course. Double-leaf hardwood doors with foliate bolection mouldings and diamond-faced panels, semi-circular fanlight and opening onto four concrete steps.

Red brick rear elevation abutted by eight-storey apartment development.

South side elevation is five windows wide, detailed as per north elevation with the former door opening now serving as a window but retaining a similar surround. To the right a window opening has been adapted to accommodate a vehicular entrance to the basement with sandstone surround and steel roller shutter.

Setting:
Fronting onto Victoria Street with its north side elevation fronting onto Waring Street and its south side elevation fronting onto Ulster Street.

Roof: Natural slate
RWG: Concealed
Walling : Dungannon sandstone ashlar / yellow brick / tooled limestone ashlar
Windows: Original single-pane timber sash

Historical information

The present structure, known as the Head Line building, was originally constructed for the Scottish Amicable Life Assurance Company in 1863-4 to designs by Thomas Jackson and is first shown on the second edition OS town plan of Belfast (1871-3). It was the first purpose-built insurance office in Belfast and is built in what was then called a ‘modern Italian’ style, inspired by the Venetian Renaissance palazzo. (Patton; Larmour)

In June 1863, building was underway of new premises for the Scottish Amicable, who had previously operated in the north of Ireland through their agent, W D Henderson. The floors and stairs were to be constructed on the ‘fireproof principle’, the central portion to be occupied by the offices, boardrooms and medical examination room of the company. Part of the basement was to be strong rooms and the remainder let out for storage. The company’s entrance was to be in the projecting front of the building with offices and warerooms for letting, at the sides and rear, accessible from the corners of the main front and from side streets. The building was constructed of Dungannon stone by contractors Messrs John Lowry & Son of Great George’s Street and the cost was £12-14,000. (Belfast Newsletter; Irish Builder; Industries of the North)

The building enters valuation records in 1864 as the Scottish Amicable Society’s Buildings valued at £230 in total. Stores and offices were let out to a number of firms and the Plymouth Brethren had a meeting room on the third floor. The 1877 street directory records William Carson, solicitor, in the offices to the right and JC Pinkerton, Italian consul, steamship and insurance agent in offices to the left. In offices entered from Ulster Street were solicitors, insurance agents, the Vice French Consul and John Milligen, agent for Gauchalland Coal Company. On the Waring Street side were Finlay & Co, American produce merchants, John McConnell Higginson, registrar of the Court of Probate, the office of the Belfast training ship Gibraltar and the offices of Samuel P Close, architect. (1877 Street Directory)

Shipping agents, who were often also marine insurance agents, occupied parts of the building from the start but it was not until around 1920 that G Heyn and Sons Ltd, the managers of the Ulster Steamship Company and owners of the ‘Head’ line and ‘Lord’ line steamers took over the building. The Ulster Steamship Company was founded by the family of the Chevalier Gustavus Heyn who had come to Belfast from Danzig. Gustavus Heyn became a shipping and marine insurance agent and married into the Pirrie family. In 1879 the steamer Fair Head was built for the company by Harland and Wolff and later vessels included Fanad Head, Ramore Head, Rathlin Head and Carrigan Head. The Head Line ships ran between Belfast and the Baltic ports as well as Canada, New Orleans and Galveston while the Lord Line steamers ran to Baltimore. Several boats were lost in both first and second world wars, including Fair Head which was bombed during air raids in Belfast Harbour, killing two firewatchers. (McCreary)

Competition from air travel and containerisation led to the sale of the last Head line vessel in 1979, although the building appears to have remained in the company’s ownership for some years afterwards. By the year 2000 a development company had taken over the building and it was refurbished and renovated to designs by Alan Cook Architects. The light-well at the centre of the building was floored over and basement parking was provided for nine cars. Floor levels were raised by 37 cm to provide computer services and air conditioning and a new lift and staircase were installed. (Perspective)

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
7. Belfast Newsletter, 26th June 1863
8. Perspective Vol 8 Iss 5 May/June 2000 p49-52
9. Dublin Builder Vol 5, 1 July 1863, p112

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. McCreary, A “Titanic Port, An Illustrated History of Belfast Harbour” Booklink, 2010
4. Patton, M “Central Belfast: An Historical Gazetteer” Belfast: Ulster Architectural Heritage Society, 1993
5. www.dia.ie – Dictionary of Irish Architects online

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

A. Style
B. Proportion
C. Ornamentation
D. Plan Form
H-. Alterations detracting from building
I. Quality and survival of Interior
J. Setting

Criteria for listing: historic interest

V. Authorship
X. Local Interest

Evaluation

Attached symmetrical multi-bay three-storey over basement with attic sandstone and brick Italianate office building, built c.1863, to the designs of Thomas Jackson for the Scottish Amicable Life Assurance Company. Square on plan facing west onto Victoria Street with a full-height shallow entrance breakfront and curved corner bays. Built as the first purpose-designed insurance office building in Belfast for Heyn & Sons, this attractive stone structure was designed with fire safety in mind. Despite the extensive bomb damage, the building has been refurbished with the reinstatement of the impressive central dome and retains much of its original detailing throughout. A fine example of the work of Thomas Jackson, this building represents the expansion of business in the City in the mid-Victorian era and changing commercial activity in the locale.