81-87 Royal Avenue

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

A four storey commercial building, with attic, originally dated 1888, in simple Victorian Classical style. It sits in a continuous terrace on the east side of Royal Avenue.

Pitched roof unseen behind parapet, pitched dormers with slate-hung sides; brick chimneys with stepped cornice to centre (rebuilt) and south gable. Rainwater goods hidden within construction. Walls of stretcher bonded red brick (parapet and dormers of different brick to lower floors and evidence of new brickwork to all lintels) with giant order pilasters and gauged brick; sandstone dormer pediments with block and ball finial and 1888 date stone to the main dormer, dormer string courses, dentilled cornices to eaves and ground floor, string courses at cill levels, moulded hoods to first floor windows, stone plaque with 'Ashling Buildings 1999' incised. Gablets over black granite rusticated and fluted pilasters to ground floor. Window openings to attic are flat brick arches, to other floors shallow segmental brick arches with dropped keystones to second and third floor. Windows to attic and third floor are uPVC, to first and second floor are replacement sashes 1/1 with horns, ground floor replacement shop windows.

West elevation has 5 dormers, the second from the north gable has 3 windows, the remaining single windows. The fourth floor has 15 windows grouped in threes, the first and second floor have 11 windows reflecting the rhythm of the gables 2:3:2:2:2. The entrance is now incorporated in the shop front.

The north elevation is abutted and obscured by HB26/50/186.

The east elevation is all new brick construction with an external metal staircase covered by corrugated sheeting.

The south elevation is abutted and obscured by a terraced building of equal height.

Setting

87 sits directly on the east side pavement of the busy commercial Royal Avenue. The terraced building is adjoined to the north by listed building HB26/50/186, it faces listed buildings HB26/50/182, HB26/50/183 and HB26/50/184.

Roof: Natural slate
Walling: Red brick
Windows: timber/uPVC.
RWG: Hidden

Historical information

Nos 81-87 Royal Avenue, a four-storey redbrick commercial building, was constructed in 1888 and is one of the original buildings constructed as a result of the Royal Avenue redevelopment of 1880-81. The Irish Builder notes that nos 81-87 were designed by Samuel Stevenson (1859-1924), a Belfast-based architect who had served his apprenticeship at Young & Mackenzie before establishing an independent practise in the city in 1886. The construction of nos 81-87 Royal Avenue was one of Stevenson’s earliest contracts; the Dictionary of Irish Architects notes that throughout his career Stevenson ‘designed a few Presbyterian churches and some houses, but his work was chiefly industrial and commercial.’ Nos 81-87 Royal Avenue was constructed for the firm, McKelvey & McCombe who operated a residential estate agency (Irish Builder, p. 16; Dictionary of Irish Architects).

Upon its completion in 1888, nos 81-87 Royal Avenue was valued at a total of £351; the building, which was also known as ‘Avenue Chambers’ originally consisted of four ground floor retail units, whilst the upper floors were utilised as office space for a variety of private firms and organisations (McKelvey & McCombe occupied one of the ground floor shops). By 1900 the value of nos 81-87 Royal Avenue was increased to £574 under the Belfast Revaluation; in that year the valuer noted that the northernmost unit (No. 87) possessed a connection to the adjoining No. 90 North Street to its rear (a separate building). In 1901 one of the ground floor retail units continued to be occupied by McKelvey & McCombe; the estate agents held offices in a central unit whilst P. & J. E. Byrnes, tobacconists, A. J. Lewis solicitors, and Walter Marsden, a wall paper merchant, occupied the neighbouring shops at that time. The upper offices were utilised by a variety of firms; in 1901 G. K. Smith & J. S. McTear and Ferguson & Houston, both solicitors firms, had their offices here, whilst the architect of the building, Samuel Stevenson, and another engineer, Godfrey William Ferguson (c. 1855-1939) also operated from the upper floors (Belfast Street Directories – 1901).

McKelvey & McCombe continued to operate from nos 81-87 Royal Avenue until the mid-20th century, however the other occupants of the four-storey building changed with some frequency over the following three decades; by 1910 Cripps & Co. opticians and Tom Sterling’s confectioners had taken over two of the ground floor retail units whilst a photographic studio, known as the Palace Studio operated from the attic floor. By 1918 the drapery firm of Sinclair & Co. (which constructed the adjoining nos 89-101 Royal Avenue in 1926-35) had occupied two of the ground floor shops (Belfast Street Directory – 1910-1918). By the cancellation of the Annual Revisions in 1930 the total rateable value of nos 81-87 Royal Avenue stood at £605 10s. Under the First General Revaluation of property in Northern Ireland (1935) the value was further increased to £940; in 1935 McKelvey & McCombe were recorded as occupants of the ground floor unit for the final time, vacating the property at some point between 1935 and 1956. The was no valuation survey carried out at the site over the following two decades due to the disruption caused by the Second World War, however in 1956 nos 81-87 was included in the second general revaluation which increased the rateable value of nos 83-87 to £1,480 (at that time No. 81, occupied by Sinclair & Co., was jointly valued along with one of the firm’s department store at nos 65-73 Royal Avenue at a total of £4,184.

Nos 81-87 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 81-87, along with the opposite nos 58-88 (HB26/50/181; 182; 183; 184), were amongst the last buildings to be erected along the northern stretch of the newly laid out boulevard (Brett, p. 40; Patton, p. 282; p. 286).

Patton described nos 81-87 Royal Avenue as a ‘four-storey redbrick building with stucco details, broad semi-fluted pilasters at ground floor, eyebrow course over first floor windows, upper floors articulated by brick quirks; pedimented dormers with stucco scrolls at base, the central one larger and with a ball finial’ (Patton, p. 284). Nos 81-87 Royal Avenue was listed in 1989 and was largely reconstructed in 1999 when the interior was gutted and all historical fabric was removed; a stone plaque located on the facade records that the building was renamed the Ashling Buildings in 1999. Nos 81-87 continues to be utilised as commercial premises; the formerly separate ground floor retail units have been converted into a large single retail premises, currently occupied by a clothing warehouse.

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. 30 (15 Jan 1888)
11. Belfast Street Directories (1901-1918)
12. 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

Not listed

Criteria for listing: historic interest

Not listed

Evaluation

This four storey with attic commercial building built 1888 largely reconstructed in 1999. Modern reconstruction has resulted in the loss of significant historic fabric and detailing with the upper levels of the façade rebuilt in modern brick and the loss of the interior. Although its external character survives to a certain extent, it is not among the best of the type and the building no longer meets the statutory and policy tests as a building of special architectural or historic interest.