18 May Street

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

A three storey, mid 19th century Georgian style terraced house, with side entrance, one of a group of four, sitting directly on the N side of May Street.

Pitched, natural slate roof with 2 modern rooflights; moulded metal gutter on bracketted timber gutter tray; round cast iron downpipe. Red Flemish bond brickwork; stucco eaves fascia, string course to first floor cill and rusticated stucco plinth under ground floor cill. Window openings with painted stucco reveals and flat brick arches, 6/6 original sashes with horns, (ground floor window openings incorporate steel roll shutters). The entrance doorway, with segmental arch, has a stucco moulded surround with inset Ionic doorcase, plain fanlight over and replacement 6 panelled door; it is approached by 2 concrete steps. Across frontage are cast iron railings on a low stone kerb.

S elevation has entrance to the west side with 2 adjacent windows, first and second floors have 2 windows.

W elevation abutted by adjoining mirrored terrace (HB26/50/175B).

N rear elevation is a two storey modern pitched roof extension. Grey brick walls with two metal windows at first floor level, a vehicular opening with roller shutters and adjacent pedestrian door to ground floor level.

E elevation abutted by adjoining terrace (HB26/50/175C).

Setting

May Street is part of a busy, central thoroughfare which passes to the rear of the City Hall (HB26/50/001A). No.14 sits opposite May Street Presbyterian church (HB26/30/031A&B). In the same terrace, adjoining the terraced group of four to the east, is John Ross & Co (HB26/30/017).

Roof: natural slate.
Walling: brick.
Windows: timber .
RWG: metal

Historical information

No. 18 May Street, a three-storey redbrick townhouse, was constructed in c. 1855 first appearing on the second edition of the Ordnance Survey maps for Belfast in 1858; the map depicted No. 18 as part of the adjoining terrace which consists of the similar nos 14-20 May Street (HB26/50/175A-D); however the terrace had not been constructed by the 1852 Belfast Street Directory which noted that the area between a music hall (on the corner of Upper Arthur Street) and Hugh Morrison’s post office (at the corner of Montgomery Street) lay vacant. No. 18 May Street was valued at £33 in Griffith’s Valuation (1859) and possessed a more extensive stable block to its neighbours (the stable block was located to the rear of No. 18 and was accessed by Music Hall Lane. The valuer noted that the property was leased by the estate of Sir. Edward May to a Mr. Hugh Hanna who was employed as a County Land Surveyor (Belfast Street Directory – 1861).

Hanna resided at No. 18 May Street until his death in 1883 at which time the house fell vacant; a Mr. James [McConville] acquired the property in 1886, when the value of the site was subsequently increased to £36. The Annual Revisions for May Street during the period 1897-1905 are missing; however the Belfast Revaluation notes that the former private dwelling had been converted into a warehouse by 1900. In that year No. 18 May Street was revalued at £60 and the valuer noted that the site was occupied by Joseph Stevenson & Co., local linen merchants and manufacturers, who had acquired the site in 1899 (Belfast Street Directory -1901).

J. Stevenson & Co., continued to occupy No. 18 May Street until the mid-20th century; in 1920 the upper floors of the building were converted into offices that the firm leased out to other companies and by the end of the Annual Revisions in 1930 the total value of the property stood at £104 5s. Despite leasing a portion of the building out to other tenants, J. Stevenson & Co. continued to hold the ground floor of the building in 1935 when the First General Revaluation of Northern Ireland increased the value of the building to £145 10s. and noted that a shop had been installed on the ground floor by the linen merchants. Nos 14-20 May Street escaped the heavy bombardment of the Markets area of Belfast during the 1941 Blitz and in the aftermath of the Second World No. 18 was included in the second general revaluation (1956-1972). By the 1950s the ground floor shop of the site was occupied the Car and General Insurance Co. Ltd., however in 1963-65 the entire building was taken over by the Northern Ireland Scout Council who utilised the building as their Belfast headquarters; the Scout organisation continued to occupy the site by the end of the revaluation in 1972 at which time the value of No. 18 May Streets stood at £372.

May Street, a long axial street which runs from Oxford Street to Donegall Street South, was mostly laid out in the early-19th century and was partially constructed over reclaimed land; this land was provided by the construction of Henry Joy’s paper mill over the Blackstaff River which opened up acres of land to the south-east of Belfast’s town centre for development. The eastern section of May Street was the first to be developed, however it was not until the mid-19th century that the western stretch of the street was fully built over. Originally, the short section of May Street between Joy Street and Alfred Street (including nos 14-20) was known as Clarendon Place; this name was retained until c. 1860 when the entire length from the square to Oxford Street was permanently designated May Street. May Street was named after the May family; Edward May, an influential figure in Belfast’s development, pioneered the reclamation of the Blackstaff river and acquired a large number of the newly created leases from the Marquis of Donegall (who married his daughter Anna May).

Nos 14-20 May Street were constructed on the newly reclaimed land in c. 1855. Prior to the stylistical experimentation of the Victorian period, the formal Georgian townhouse was the most recognisable feature of Belfast’s urban fabric. Few examples of pre-Victorian style housing survive in the city centre; the three-storey terraces on neighbouring Joy Street and Hamilton Street (HB26/30/007A-C; 008A-I; 009A-F), as well as the early-19th century townhouses at nos 18-19 Donegall Square East (HB26/50/172), are the last remnants of the original Georgian character of the May Street area. In the Victorian period the availability of cheap building materials resulted in the construction of the redbrick terraces that now greatly characterise Belfast’s city centre and its environs. Nos 14-20 May Street were constructed during this intermediate phase; the redbrick Flemish-bond buildings were constructed utilising materials and construction techniques of the early Victorian period, however the overall design of the terrace is conservative and resembles the formal townhouses of the Georgian period incorporating pillared doorcases with fanlights above and quoins bookending nos 14 and 16. Patton described nos 14-20 May Street in the following terms: ‘Flemish bond redbrick houses with small-pane sashes and arc-headed doorcases with slender edge mouldings and plain fanlights, and recessed Ionic columns supporting plain entablatures; corbelled gutter on rendered wallhead’ (Patton, p. 234).

No. 18 May Street was utilised as a private dwelling from c. 1855 until c. 1899 when the building was first converted into business premises for J. Stevenson & Co., who occupied the premises until the mid-20th century. In the 1960s the Belfast Branch of the Northern Ireland Scout Council took over the premises, however the organisation only occupied No. 18 until c. 1978 when the property fell vacant (the First Survey Image shows that the ground floor shop was boarded up whilst the entire building lay vacant in 1978). No. 18 May Street was listed in 1988; in recent years the modern shopfront was removed when restoration work returned the redbrick façade to its original state. No. 18 May Street is currently utilised as office space for a local solicitors firm.

References

Primary Sources

1. PRONI OS/6/1/61/1 – First Edition Ordnance Survey Map 1832-33
2. PRONI OS/6/1/61/2 – Second Edition Ordnance Survey Map 1858
3. PRONI OS/6/1/61/3 – Third Edition Ordnance Survey Map 1901-02
4. PRONI OS/6/1/61/4 – Fourth Edition Ordnance Survey Map 1931
5. PRONI OS/6/1/61/5 – Fifth Edition Ordnance Survey Map 1938
6. PRONI VAL/2/B/7/1A-B - Griffith’s Valuation 1859
7. PRONI VAL/12/B/43/A/1-25 – Annual Revisions 1862-1897
8. PRONI VAL/12/B/43/C/18-42 - Annual Revisions 1897-1930
9. PRONI VAL/7/B/9/41 – Belfast Revaluation 1900
10. PRONI VAL/3/B/3/13 – First General Revaluation of Northern Ireland 1935
11. PRONI VAL/4/B/7/40 – Second General Revaluation of Northern Ireland 1956-1972
12. Belfast Street Directories (1861-1918)
13. Census of Ireland (1901; 1911)
14. PRONI Wills Catalogue (5 Dec 1883)
15. First Survey Image – HB26/50/172 (1978)
16. Ordnance Survey Map – 130-13SE (1959)

Secondary Sources

1. Patton, M., ‘Central Belfast: An historical gazetteer’ Belfast: Ulster Architectural Heritage Society, 1993

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

A. Style
B. Proportion
C. Ornamentation
D. Plan Form
H-. Alterations detracting from building
K. Group value

Criteria for listing: historic interest

X. Local Interest

Evaluation

A three storey mid 19th century red brick Georgian style terraced house. Although compromised by recent alterations, much historic fabric and detailing survive. This short terrace is as a good example of the type of residence for the professional classes that represents the ongoing growth of Belfast ain the mid 19th century. Its changing history reflects the development of the city centre throughout the 19th and 20th centuries.