19 Donegall Square East

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

Corner-sited terraced three-storey over basement with attic sandstone former townhouse, built c.1830, as one of a pair. Rectangular on plan facing west onto Donegall Square now amalgamated with No.2 May Street facing south. Extended to the east as a slender three-storey with attic red brick addition c.1900.

Single-span mansard type roof with natural slate to the front pitch having four box dormer windows to each elevation. Profiled rendered chimneystack to the north party wall and further profiled red brick chimneystack to the east party wall. Roof set behind lead-lined parapet having sandstone drip cornice and square-profile cast-iron downpipes breaking through. Sandstone ashlar walling, channel-rusticated to the ground floor below a continuous sill course at first floor and a further pair of string courses to the second floor. Red brick walling laid in Flemish bond to the east accretion and to the rear elevation. Square-headed window openings with replacement single-pane timber sash windows. Recessed square-headed door opening with replacement timber panelled door flanked by simple pilasters supporting a lintel cornice with overpanel. Painted masonry architrave surround flanked by scrolled brackets supporting hood cornice. Door opens onto platform and four steps with replacement tiling, bridging the basement area, all enclosed by original spear-headed iron railings returning to enclose the basement area.

Asymmetrical east elevation is six windows wide with an off-centre doorcase. Window and door openings detailed as per south elevation, except doorcase rectangular overlight, replacement double-leaf timber panelled doors and decorative cast-iron lamps to the lower step.

North side elevation abutted by adjoining building No.18 (HB26/50/172A).

Rear elevation largely obscured by rear extensions, fire escape and plant machinery.

East elevation abutted by neighbouring building 4-10 May Street (HB26/50/020).

Setting

Forming part of a pair at the junction of Donegall Square East and May Street having railed basement areas to both elevations.

Roof : Slate / felt
RWG: Cast-iron
Walling: Sandstone ashlar
Windows: timber

Historical information

No. 19 Donegall Square East (& No. 2 May Street), a three-storey Georgian townhouse in Ashlar stone, was constructed in c. 1830; the corner building between Donegall Square East and May Street, No. 19 (along with the adjoining No. 18 – HB26/50/172A) is one of the only survivors of the original residential character of Donegall Square which now mostly consists of commercial premises. The building is first seen on the first edition of the Ordnance Survey map for Belfast in 1832-33 which depicts a terrace stretching along the eastern side of Donegall Square; the contemporary Townland Valuations (c. 1830) note that No. 19 was occupied by a Mr. John Martin and was valued at £54.

Brett’s Georgian Belfast: 1750-1850 records that the lease for No. 19 Donegall Square East was originally acquired by a Mr. Samuel Rea in September 1831; the current house was erected by Rea soon after 1831, however it is unknown whether he resided there himself before letting the property out to Martin in the same decade. John Martin had died by 1843 when the Belfast Street Directory noted that his widow was the sole occupant of the house; by 1852 Mrs. Martin had vacated the site when a Dr. William McGee, a surgeon, was noted as resident (Belfast Street Directories – 1843-1852).

Dr. McGee had vacated No. 19 Donegall Square East by at least 1859 when a different surgeon, Dr. Henry Ferguson took possession of the lease; Ferguson leased the house, which had been decreased in value to £47, from Mr. Robert Lepper, a cotton mill owner who resided at Trainfield House on the New Lodge Road (Belfast Street Directory – 1861). No. 19 Donegall Square East lay vacant in 1868 at which time the site had only recently been converted into office premises; by 1877 the offices were occupied by Robert Glass & Co., local linen merchants (Belfast Street Directories – 1868-77). In 1880 No. 19 Donegall Square East had been converted into a hotel known as the Union Hotel; in that year the value of the building was increased to £140; however the hotel only operated for a decade before going out of business in 1892. The former hotel was acquired by the Young Men’s Christian Association (YMCA) in 1892 who converted the site into their main offices in Belfast.

The Belfast Revaluation (1900) included a ground plan of the building which depicted No. 19 Donegall Square East as a rectangular-shaped building; the valuer recorded that the building was jointly occupied by both the YMCA, and the Young Women’s Christian Association (YWCA), who occupied a portion of the building and also occupied the adjoining No. 18. In 1900 the YMCA occupied half of the ground floor and all of the first floor; the YWCA, subsequently occupied half of the ground floor (which was used as a dining room) and all of the second floor (utilised as a boarding house). The valuer notes that the three-storey redbrick extension (located on May Street) had only been recently added by 1900; the total value of No. 19 Donegall Square East was set at £105 in 1900. It is possible that the entrance door on May Street (which is not original) dates from c. 1900 when the building was acquired by the YMCA and YWCA and was segregated at the ground floor, the installation of an additional door perhaps provided separate access to the rooms of the male and female organisations.

The Annual Revisions note that No. 19 also included a large meeting hall on the 1st floor which was utilised for religious matters and lectures. A number of other Christian organisations also utilised the premises. By the cancellation of the Annual Revisions in 1930 the building was used as the offices for the Church Lads Brigade, and also by the private business, Alliance Assurance Co. Ltd who occupied one half of the ground floor as their offices. In 1930 the value of the No. 19 Donegall Square East had been increased to £427. Under the First General Revaluation of property in Northern Ireland in 1935 the rateable value of the building was adjusted to £301 10s; at that time the building was also used as the offices of the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel and the Bible Churchmen’s Missionary Society. There was no further valuation of the site carried out for over two decades due to the disruption caused by the outbreak of the Second World War; in 1943 during the conflict, the YMCA continued to occupy the site, the Street Directory for that year noted that the same organisations continued to have their offices in the building, including the Alliance Assurance Co. Ltd. (Belfast Street Directory – 1943). Under the second revaluation of 1956-72 the value of No. 19 Donegall Square East had been decreased to £248; by the end of the revaluation the YMCA continued to occupy the building, whilst the Church of Ireland Moral Welfare Association, the Bible Churchman’s Missionary Society and the Society for Irish Church Missions occupied the upper offices.

No's 18 and 19 Donegall Square East, two Georgian townhouses dating from c. 1830, are the sole surviving examples of the original residential character of Donegall Square. Patton states that the area was originally part of the Castle Gardens in the 17th to early 18th century and lay outside of the city walls; with the erection of the White Linen Hall in 1783-85 the current square was formed out and Donegall Place was laid out to connect the new square with the Belfast’s historic 17th century centre. The area around the Linen Hall was renamed Donegall Square in honour of the Second Marquis of Donegall who resided at Donegall House (which formerly stood at the corner of the square and Donegall Place). Donegall Square was at the very edge of Belfast in the early-19th century and when building work commenced around the square, the structures erected consisted mainly of private dwelling occupied by the leading citizens of the town, however even by 1819 only the south and east sides of the square had been significantly developed (Patton, p. 110; pp 116-117).

A photograph of Donegall Square East shows that no's 18-19 Donegall Square East were only two of a terrace of similarly designed townhouses. The photograph relates the original residential character of the street, with Donegall Square Methodist Church providing the sole break in an uninterrupted row of three-storey dwellings. The photograph also notes that No. 19 Donegall Square East has been considerable altered from its original Georgian design with the addition of dormer windows and mansard roof in the late-19th century (most likely when the former dwelling was converted into a hotel or when the YMCA took possession – 1880-1892); the stark contrast between No. 18, whose facade has been relatively unaltered, and No. 19 highlights the depreciative effect of the alteration work on the original character of the terrace.

Originally designed as residential dwellings, the Georgian terrace was gradually converted into commercial properties in the mid-to-late-19th century when the commercial centre of Belfast shifted southwards towards Donegall Place and the linen warehouses of ‘linenopolis’ were established in the streets south of Donegall Square. No. 19 Donegall Square East was briefly utilised as office premises for a local linen merchant before being converted into a hotel and then a religious meeting hall with lecture rooms and offices for the YMCA.

No. 19 Donegall Square East was listed, along with the adjoining No. 18, in 1986; Patton described both buildings in the following terms: ‘three-storey block with basement and attic, in gingery-brown ashlar which has decayed with an unusual pitted pattern. Painted stone doorcases with slender scrolled volutes supporting entablatures; channelled ground floor; roof set behind stone parapet; some six-pane sashes survive along with cast-iron railings’ (Patton, p. 117). No. 19 Donegall Square East currently lies vacant, however it is an excellent surviving example of a once common type of Georgian townhouse found around Donegall Square; the majority of the residential character of the area has been lost but other early-19th century examples survive on the neighbouring Chichester Street, Joy Street, Hamilton Street and May Street.

References

Primary Sources

1. PRONI OS/6/1/61/2 – Second Edition Ordnance Survey Map 1858
2. PRONI OS/6/1/61/3 – Third Edition Ordnance Survey Map 1901-02
3. PRONI OS/6/1/61/4 – Fourth Edition Ordnance Survey Map 1931
4. PRONI OS/6/1/61/5 – Fifth Edition Ordnance Survey Map 1938
5. PRONI VAL/1/B/720A+B – Townland Valuation c.1830
6. PRONI VAL/2/B/7/1A – Griffith’s Valuation 1859
7. PRONI VAL/12/B/43/A/1-14 – Annual Revisions 1863-1896
8. PRONI VAL/12/B/43/C/17-44 - Annual Revisions 1897-1930
9. PRONI VAL/7/B/9/47 – Belfast Revaluation 1900
10. PRONI VAL/3/B/3/13 – First General Revaluation of Northern Ireland 1935
11. PRONI VAL/4/B/7/39 – Second General Revaluation of Northern Ireland 1956-1972
12. Belfast Street Directories (1819-1943)
13. Ordnance Survey Map – 130-13SE (1959)

Secondary Sources

1. Brett, C. E. B., ‘Georgian Belfast, 1750-1850: Maps, buildings and trades’ Dublin: Royal Irish Academy, 2004.
2. Patton, M., ‘Central Belfast: An historical gazetteer’ Belfast: Ulster Architectural Heritage Society, 1993.
3. Pollock, V. & Parkhill, T., ‘Britain in old photographs: Belfast’ Gloucestershire, Sutton Publishing Ltd, 1997.

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
K. Group value

Criteria for listing: historic interest

X. Local Interest

Evaluation

Corner-sited terraced three-storey over basement with attic sandstone former townhouse, built c.1830 as one of three and part of a longer terrace, of which these are the only survivors. Rectangular on plan facing west onto Donegall Square, this property now incorporates No 2 May Street. Built for the shipowner John Workman, these former townhouses were built as three separate dwellings and are the only remains of Donegall Square’s former residential fabric. Much historic fabric and detailing survive and they are representative of the early development of the square and of the few remaining examples of Georgian architecture in the City centre.