68-70 Royal Avenue

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

A four storey, with attic, commercial building, 1885, designed by William Fennell in Classical style. It sits in a terrace on the west side of Royal Avenue at the end of a row of listed buildings.

Pitched natural slate roof to east, front; mansard roof, brick copings, modern rooflights to rear; tall, deep brick chimneys with moulded cornices to each gable; cast iron rainwater downpipe. Walls of Dumfries sandstone ashlar; Venetian windowed dormer, flanked by urn parapet, has 1884 carved in pediment, and vestiges of foliate decoration to spandrel (northern lost); deep bracketed cornice; elevation framed by pilasters with mouldings at first floor; moulded string courses and architraves; foliate carved roundel over second floor central window. Window openings vary: third floor has paired square headed windows either side of smaller central window; second floor has same grouping with segmental arched lintels to side windows with foliate impost mouldings; first floor windows in same grouping but of equal height, square headed with rounded corners. Windows 2 pane 1/1 original timber sashes with horns. Ground floor replacement shop front between original pilasters.

East elevation is symmetrical comprising 5 windows centred on pedimented dormer. Central entrance.

The north elevation is abutted and obscured by a modern construction replacing a former four storey, ashlar stone Italianate building known as Crown Chambers (HB26/50/181).

The west elevation has full height central lean-to projection, dormer window. Walls are cement rendered with a single 1/1 sash timber window to each floor of set back walls.

The south elevation is abutted and obscured by a Nos 72-74 (HB26/50/183).

Setting

68-70 sits directly on to the pavement on the west side of the major commercial street of Royal Avenue. The building is bounded on the north by Gresham Chambers (HB26/50/183) and to the south by Nos 58-66.

Roof: Natural slate
Walling: Sandstone
Windows: Timber
RWG: Cast iron.

Historical information

Nos 68-70 Royal Avenue, a four-storey office building with ground floor shopfront, was constructed in 1885 and is one of the original buildings constructed as a result of the Royal Avenue redevelopment of 1880-81. The Irish Builder records that the building was constructed for George Tate, a rent agent, and was designed by William John Fennell (d. 1923). A Belfast-based architect, Fennell was originally born in Canada but returned to Ireland during his childhood, setting up an independent architectural practise in 1880. Nos 68-70 was the second contract Fennell completed on the newly laid out Royal Avenue; in 1883 Fennell had won the competition to design the Belfast Water Commissioners headquarters effectively launching his career in the city (No. 53 – demolished in c. 1965). A similarly early contract, Fennell’s design of nos 68-70 Royal Avenue was executed in Dumfries red sandstone (Irish Builder, p. 230; Dictionary of Irish Architects).

When originally constructed the ground floor of nos 68-70 Royal Avenue was divided into two separate shop units whilst the upper floors were utilised as office space for a number of private firms. The Annual Revisions recorded that George Tate occupied one of the ground floor retail units, whilst the other was utilised by a Mr. R. B. Batt (Batt’s business is not known); the total rateable value of the building, including the upper floor offices, was set at £173 upon its completion in 1885. By 1900 the ground floor retail units were occupied by a Miss Mary Brennan who operated a millinery and fur house, and a Mr. D. Lyle Hall who owned a men’s clothing store and linen warehouse. Under the revaluation in that year the value of nos 68-70 Royal Avenue was increased to £336; the valuer noted that amongst the upper offices of the building was a tea room café which was located on the 2nd floor. Over the following three decades a number of businesses and organisations occupied the upper offices; for example in 1907 the Belfast Protestant Association had offices on the third floor, in 1910 a Mr. Joseph Moles operated a Business school from the property and in 1918 a number of merchant tailors operated from the upper floors (Belfast Street Directories – 1901-1918).

By the end of the Annual Revisions, which were cancelled in 1930, the total value of nos 68-70 Royal Avenue stood at £295 10s., however under the First General Revaluation of property in Northern Ireland (1935) the value of the building was increased to £422 10s. Royal Avenue was hit by a number of bombs during the Belfast Blitz of 1941 when a number of its buildings were moderately damaged and in the aftermath of the Second World War nos 68-70 Royal Avenue was included in the second revaluation which commenced in 1956. By the 1950s the ground floor shop (which had been converted into a single retail unit) had been occupied by Jean Millar Ltd., a bridal salon which continues to occupy the site; by the end of the second revaluation the total value of nos 68-70 Royal Avenue had been greatly increased to £926 5s.

Nos 68-70 Royal Avenue is one of the many commercial properties erected on the newly created boulevard of Royal Avenue which was laid out in 1880-81 by the surveyor J. C. Bretland (who in the process relocated approximately 4,000 people). Prior to the redevelopment of the area Donegall Place and Hercules Street (the precursor to Royal Avenue) were divided by an additional line of buildings located on the eastern side of the current street. The demolition and clearing of Hercules Place and Hercules Street created the long open boulevard which now extends from Donegall Square to York Street; however it required the destruction of almost all the buildings on the street pre-dating the 1880s. The only building to survive the clearing of the area is the former Provisional Bank of Ireland (HB26/50/106) which continues to occupy the original line of Hercules Place (a narrow square that linked Donegall Place to Hercules Street) and as a result is set further back than the adjoining buildings. Nos 68-70, along with the adjoining nos 58-88 (HB26/50/181; /183; /184), were amongst the last buildings to be erected along the western side of the newly laid out boulevard (Brett, p. 40; Patton, p. 282; p. 286).

Nos 68-70 Royal Avenue was described by Patton as a ‘rather elegant narrow four-storey building in Dumfries red sandstone, framed by pilasters. Delicately carved roundheaded windows at second floor with a spiral of acanthus leaves over dwarf central window; tall central pedimented dormer with smaller flanking windows in balustraded parapet’ (Patton, p. 288). Nos 68-70 Royal Avenue was listed in 1989; despite the installation of a modern shopfront to the ground floor, the four-storey building retains much of its original late-Victorian character; Jean Millar’s Bridal Salon continues to occupy the ground floor shop and also utilised the former office space on the upper floors.

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/12/B/43/E/1-13 – Annual Revisions 1862-1896
6. PRONI VAL/12/B/43/C/17-44 – Annual Revisions 1897-1930
7. PRONI VAL/7/B/12/1 – Belfast Revaluation 1900
8. PRONI VAL/3/B/3/13 – First General Revaluation of Northern Ireland 1935
9. PRONI VAL/4/B/7/41 – Second General Revaluation of Northern Ireland 1956-72
10. Irish Builder, Vol. 27 (15 Aug 1885)
11. Belfast Street Directories (1861-1918)
12. First Survey Image – HB26/50/182 (1977)
13. Ordnance Survey map 130-13NE (1959-60)

Secondary Sources

1. Brett, C. E. B., ‘Buildings of Belfast: 1700-1914’ Belfast: Friar’s Bush Press, 1985.
2. 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
I. Quality and survival of Interior

Criteria for listing: historic interest

V. Authorship
X. Local Interest

Evaluation

A four storey sandstone, terraced, commercial building of 1885 designed by William Fennell. Although compromised by modern alterations, much historic fabric and detailing survive. In a robust Classical style with fine carving this building represents the ongoing development of industry and commerce in the city centre in the late Victorian era. This is a good example of the minor works of an architect of note.