Malcolm Jewellers

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

Four-storey building with Art Nouveau shopfront on the corner of Chichester Street and Arthur Street, dating from 1906 by Thomas Houston but later reclad in rustic brick.

Pitched roof over part of the structure, Bangor blue slates with blue clay ridges, with squat wallhead chimneys in rustic brick. (A former courtyard at the NW corner has been roofed over to form a staircase, but roof is not visible). Brick walling. Generally metal casement windows in concrete frames.

Front elevation to Chichester Street, facing south: Upper floors stretcher bond rustic brick with vertical soldier courses over single windows. First, second and third floors have similar fenestration: window with transom and mullion, blank bay, then three three-light metal casement windows with opening top lights, set in a concrete frame with projecting cill; blank bay, then another three-light window on the curved corner to Arthur Street. Projecting eaves and cornice over the ground floor shopfront frame this Modernist section. The shopfront is in a totally different style with Art Nouveau decoration including vertical rods in the fanlights over doors and pilasters after the style of Charles Rennie Mackintosh. Shopfront divided by vertical columns clad in black glazed brick with bases and baroque shields for capitals, one incorporating the rainwater downpipes. Door at W has art nouveau fanlight and undulating lintel carrying the legend "Chichester Buildings" in condensed Roman lettering. The double doors in the opening incorporate further detailing along with more conventional panels, but appear to be replacements. The main double doors (again modern replacements - the doorcase originally had deep reveals leading to a recessed single door) in the centre of the elevation are glazed with baroque main panels and triple upper panels glazed, and the doorcase has a convex broken pediment supporting a large clock face bearing Fred J Malcolm's name. Black granite stall risers and modern glazing to shop windows incorporating etched upper panels.

Elevation to Arthur St: Similar to the front elevation, but with three equally spaced windows to upper floors and two pilasters between the end brick pilasters at the curved corner and the end of the building.

Setting

Before the refacing of the building it would have been echoed at the other end of its terrace by the curved corner and gables of Payne's Buildings at no.2. Now occupying a city centre corner site surrounded by buildings of various ages and styles.

Roof: Slate
Walls: brick
Windows: steel
Rwg: Cast metal

Historical information

Nos 16-18 Chichester Street, a four-storey brick building possessing an Art Nouveau corner shopfront, was constructed in 1906 and was the first steel-framed building to be constructed in Belfast, however the upper floors have been completely altered from their original appearance. Upon its completion, nos 16-18 Chichester Street was valued at £368 10s. and was leased by a Mr. Reuben Payne; the Belfast Street Directories note that Payne was employed as a merchant and ladies tailor and operated from premises at nos 2-4 Chichester Street (known as Payne’s Buildings) whilst retaining ownership of a number of plots and properties along the rest of the street (Belfast Street Directory – 1907).

Nos 16-18 Chichester Street was divided into its ground floor shop (which was individually valued at £185) and offices on the upper floors (which were collectively valued at £183 10s. And were occupied by a number of different tenants). In 1907 the shop lay vacant; however by 1908 the unit had been occupied by J. B. Ferguson Ltd., an automobile engineer. Contemporary photographs of nos 16-18 Chichester Street show that when originally completed the façade of the upper three floors were dramatically different from the current edifice; the photo (taken in the Edwardian period when Ferguson occupied the ground floor) records that the original façade was of a distinctly Elizabethan style (Larmour, p. 76).

J. B. Ferguson continued to occupy the ground floor shop until c. 1913 when Charles Hardy, a musical instruments merchant, took over the premises. Hardy only briefly operated from the site and vacated the shop in c. 1925 when it was taken over by its current occupants, Frederick J. Malcolm Ltd., who converted the retail until into a jewellers shop. By the end of the Annual Revisions, which were cancelled in 1930, the value of nos 16-18 Chichester Street stood at approximately £319 10s; the value of the site was greatly increased to £621 10s. Under the First General Revaluation of property in Northern Ireland which was carried out in 1935. Nos 16-18 Chichester Street escaped damage during the 1941 Belfast Blitz which caused great destruction to neighbouring buildings (including a direct hit on Belfast’s City Hall); in 1943 Malcolm’s Jewellers continued to operate, the Belfast Street Directory for that year described the company as ‘Fred. J. Malcolm Ltd., Diamond Merchants, Goldsmiths and Silversmiths.’ A decade after the end of the Second World War nos 16-18 Chichester Street was included in the second general revaluation which greatly increased the total value of the building to £1,201 10s. (£640 for the ground floor shop and £561 10s. For the upper offices); the value of the building remained at this level by the end of the revaluation in 1972.

Larmour states that nos 16-18 Chichester Street was designed by a Mr. Thomas J. Houston; the Dictionary of Irish Architects notes that Houston (1873-1938), a Belfast-based architect, was born in Coleraine but served his apprenticeship with Young & Mackenzie (the principal commercial architectural firm of the late-Victorian and Edwardian period). Houston established his own practice in 1901 and his contracts included hospitals, churches and commercial premises; however he is best known as a domestic architect, and for almost four decades designed a multitude of houses in the Malone Road area of South Belfast, which he executed in an Arts and Crafts style. It is known that, in his early years, Houston was a student of English architecture but also embraced the emerging aesthetic art nouveau style. As a result nos 16-18 Chichester Street, one of Houston’s early independent works, incorporates these two architectural interests; the modern Art Nouveau shopfront on the ground floor, contrasted by the Elizabethan façade of the upper floors (Larmour, p. 76; Dictionary of Irish Architects).

Reputedly among the first steel-framed buildings to be constructed in Belfast, nos 16-18 Chichester Street has now lost its original Elizabethan style façade; the upper three floors were replaced by dark brick in the mid-20th century; photographs of the building dating from during and immediately after the Second World War show that the Elizabethan style facade could not have been altered any earlier than 1945, but the new facade had certainly been installed by the time Larmour was writing in 1987 (perhaps damaged during the Northern Ireland Troubles). As a result of this alteration the original facade, and some other features such as the original Jacobethan chimneys, have been lost.

Nos 16-18 Chichester Street was listed in 1988; Patton, writing in 1994, described Malcolm’s Jewellers as a ‘four-storey building in dark rustic brick with rounded corner above excellent Art Nouveau shopfront; door to offices has glazed brick pilasters with cartouches on capitals, and wave top breaking into slightly Glaswegian fanlight; similar detailing to shop door incorporating clock in fanlight; low stall risers to shop windows, separated by panelled pilasters’ (Patton, pp 65-66). The ground floor of nos 16-18 Chichester Street continues to be occupied by Fred Malcolm’s Jewellers who have operated from the site for almost 90 years. Larmour states that despite the concealment of the original façade, the ground floor retail unit ‘still survives as a rare example of an Edwardian shop front in Belfast … by an architect who mostly built Arts and Crafts houses’ (Larmour, p. 76).

References

Primary Sources

1. PRONI OS/6/1/61/3 – Third Edition Ordnance Survey Map 1901-02
2. PRONI OS/6/1/61/4 – Fourth Edition Ordnance Survey Map 1931
3. PRONI OS/6/1/61/5 – Fifth Edition Ordnance Survey Map 1938
4. PRONI VAL/12/B/43/C/33-45 – Annual Revisions 1906-1930
5. PRONI VAL/3/B/3/14 – First General Revaluation of Northern Ireland 1935
6. PRONI VAL/4/B/7/38 – Second General Revaluation of Northern Ireland 1956-72
7. Belfast Street Directories (1861-1943)
8. First Survey Image – HB26/50/179 (2003)

Secondary Sources

1. Hogg, E., ‘The darker side of Belfast’s history: The Blitz’ Belfast.
2. Larmour, P., ‘Belfast: An illustrated architectural guide’ Belfast: Ulster Architectural Heritage Society, 1987.
3. Patton, M., ‘Central Belfast: An historical gazetteer’ Belfast: Ulster Architectural Heritage Society, 1993.

Online Resources

1. Dictionary of Irish Architects - http://www.dia.ie

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

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

Criteria for listing: historic interest

X. Local Interest
V. Authorship
Z. Rarity

Evaluation

A four-storey building on the corner of Chichester Street and Arthur Street dating from 1906 to designs by Thomas Houston. Although the original façade treatment has been lost, the reclad in rustic brick perhaps indicates a change in fashion and, as such, is of some interest. Primarily of interest as the first steel-framed building in the City and the Edwardian shopfront is a rare survival. It also represents the ongoing development of commerce in the City centre in the early Twentieth century.