News Letter Office

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

Symmetrical terraced multi-bay three-storey with attic sandstone Gothic-Revival building, built c.1875, to the designs of William Hastings. Rectangular on plan facing west on the east side of Donegall Street with a triple gabled extension added to the rear c.1980.

Pitched natural slate roof with cement verges to either gable end surmounted by a rendered chimneystack to the north with sandstone base. Central octagonal plan turret rising from a tapered weathered sandstone base and surmounted by lead-lined conical roof. The turret has alternating pointed-headed openings and square carved floral panels all flanked by slender colonettes having stiff-leaf capitals and moulded iron gutter over. Flanking the turret are gabled wall-head dormer windows having moulded coping and paired pointed-headed windows with central colonettes and squat piers with stiff-leaf impost mouldings and single-pane timber sash windows. Replacement moulded metal guttering supported on moulded eaves course with series of foliate console brackets and square-profile downpipe. Sandstone ashlar walling with a central shallow breakfront, continuous foliate sill courses, moulded plinth course and a series of medallions to the first floor with portraits in relief. Pointed-headed window openings arranged in groups of three with replacement Y-tracery fixed-pane windows and framed by slender polished granite colonettes with stiff-leaf capitals (unless otherwise stated).

Symmetrical front elevation is seven windows wide with a central shallow entrance breakfront corresponding to the turret. The second floor windows have voussoired sandstone and polished granite heads with cable mouldings rising from continuous stiff-leaf impost mouldings. Pointed-headed openings are set within deeply coved surrounds. First floor windows are detailed as per second floor with a continuous hood moulding while the central window is flanked by polished granite columns having stiff-leaf capitals embraced by gabled surround surmounted by fleur-de-lys finial and opening onto a stone balcony supported on decorative brackets and having a decorative wrought-iron balustrade. To the ground floor all openings are shouldered and flanked by slender pilasters. The window openings have replacement timber fixed-pane windows while the door opening has double-leaf hardwood panelled doors and plain overlight flanked by polished granite colonettes and a further pair of engaged piers.

North side elevation abutted by neighbouring building.

Rear elevation is abutted by three full-height gables, built c.with painted cement rendered walling and square-headed window openings and replacement timber windows.

South side elevation abutted by neighbouring building (51 Donegall Street).

Setting

Street-fronted and forming part of a terrace of buildings dating from the late nineteenth to the late twentieth-century.

Roof : Natural slate
RWG : metal
Walling: Ashlar sandstone
Windows: timber

Historical information

The former offices of the Belfast Newsletter date from 1872-4 and were built to designs by William Hastings. The building is first shown on the third edition OS town plan of Belfast dating from 1883-4 and enters valuation records in 1873 at a valuation of £245, replacing houses, shops and workshops on the site.

The Belfast Newsletter is the oldest continuously published daily newspaper in the English-speaking world. It was established by Francis Joy in September 1737 in the form of a single printed sheet from premises in Bridge Street. In 1776 the newspaper was the first in the British Isles to report that America had declared its independence. The ship carrying a copy of the Declaration of Independence was bound for London but was forced by a storm to seek refuge at Londonderry. The Newsletter editor gained access to the document as it was carried through Belfast and printed it on the front page, in support of the colonists’ claim for independence. Proprietorship of the newspaper passed down through the Joy family until 1795 when it was bought by an Edinburgh company, of which Alexander McKay was a director. McKay became sole proprietor in 1804 and in 1844 the Henderson family, close friends of the McKays, assumed control, retaining ownership until 1991 when the Newsletter group was bought by the publishing consortium Tinsdale Press. James Alexander Henderson instituted many changes at the newspaper, purchasing a ‘new and elegant’ type in 1846 and increasing the number of editions from two to three a week. The first pictures appeared in the newspaper in 1852 with coverage of the Duke of Wellington’s state funeral. (www.newsletter.co.uk)

It was during the proprietorship of James Alexander Henderson, in 1861, that the newspaper outgrew its premises in Bridge Street and moved to larger offices in Donegall Road. These were given a new front and altered to designs by W J Barre. (Belfast Newsletter; www.dia.ie) The newspaper continued to prosper and construction of a new building began c1872 to designs by William Hastings, also architect of the Lytle and McCausland seed warehouses. The contractors were Messrs McCracken and the ornamental ironwork was supplied by Messrs Riddel & Co. Messrs Harper & Co of Donegall Street fitted out the offices and the work was completed by April 1874. The heads in the spandrels above the first floor windows represent, from right to left: Gutenberg, who introduced printing to Europe; Mercury, the messenger of the gods; a female personification of Belfast; Caxton, who introduced the printing press to England; Goldsmith, the Anglo-Irish playwright, novelist and poet; the Duke of Abercorn who had latterly been Viceroy of Ireland, Dr Henry Cooke, Presbyterian minister and political leader and the Earl of Derby, three times Prime Minister of Great Britain and Ireland. (Belfast Newsletter)

In 1886 the printing department was rebuilt to designs by William Batt, contractor H & J Martin, and in 1915 and 1924 further alterations and additions were made to designs by Thomas Houston. (www.dia.ie) The building sustained heavy damage in a bomb blast in the early 1970s which killed seven people and seriously injured many others, including Newsletter staff. Further space being required in recent years, a modern building of brown brick was constructed on the adjacent plot (architect A F Lucy) and the present building was painted brown to match. (Perspective)

In the 1990s the Newsletter relocated to Boucher Crescent and sold their former premises. The present building was acquired by Wills & Doherty Insurance Brokers and Turkington Magowan Partnership were engaged to renovate the structure. Much of the internal partitioning on the ground floor was removed and the original detailing exposed. The sandstone facade was stripped of paint before being cleaned and consolidated. The windows and first floor balcony were replaced and the dormers restored, the central octagonal tower becoming a staff shower. Assistance towards the cost of refurbishment was provided by the DoE. (Perspective)

References:

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/12/B/43/C/1-45 Annual Revisions (1863-1930)
6. Belfast Newsletter 3rd June 1861
7. Belfast Newsletter 22nd April 1874

Secondary Sources

1. Brett, C.E.B. “Buildings of Belfast 1700-1914” Belfast: Friar’s Bush Press, revised edition 1985
2. Patton, M “Central Belfast: An Historical Gazetteer” Belfast: Ulster Architectural Heritage Society, 1993
3. www.dia.ie
4. www.newsletter.co.uk)

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

A. Style
B. Proportion
C. Ornamentation
H-. Alterations detracting from building
I. Quality and survival of Interior

Criteria for listing: historic interest

X. Local Interest
V. Authorship

Evaluation

Terraced multi-bay three-storey with attic sandstone Gothic-Revival building built c.1875, to the designs of William Hastings. This symmetrical building has a richly decorated sandstone facade with dormers and a turret punctuating the skyline. Although compromised by 20th century renovations and changes, much historic fabric survives and the building represents significant newspaper history both in Belfast and Northern Ireland, being the head office of the oldest newspaper published in the English-speaking world. The façade is finely decorated and this is one of Hastings’ many Belfast buildings executed in a High Victorian idiom. It is an unusual and noteworthy example of the commercial and civic history of Belfast.