37-43 High Street

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

Asymmetrical three storey commercial building with attic, on the south side of High Street bordering Joy’s Entry to the west. Designed in 1881 by Thomas Jackson and Son in Italianate style.

Slate roof, mansard to main section with modern rooflights, hipped to central tower. Round metal downpipes. Walls are painted render; rusticated quoins to main floors and foliate decorated, rope edged panels to dormer, bracketted moulded cornice, moulded strings and architraves. The off-centre attic dormer has four arched windows, an engaged column to central pier, moulded panels to outer, urn balusters below cill; second floor openings are arched with moulded archivolts (not 3 eastern) and exaggerated keystones, the central three are framed with foliate capital pilasters, those to the west have intermediary square lintelled windows between with anthemion decoration over; the first floor openings are square lintelled with moulded architraves, decorated keystones and roundels to feet. Ground floor has a dentilled cornice (obscured by eastern shop fascia), the shop fronts are modern, original pilasters frame the modern glazing of the two western shops and the ornate wrought iron entrance screen. The windows are timber framed (3 and 4 paned), the eastern windows are metal framed casements with over lights.

The north elevation is 9 windows wide, the off-centre section of three windows rises to four storeys to form the attic dormer. The entrance doorway is offset to the west of the central section.

The east elevation is abutted by a modern building.

The rear south elevation is abutted by HB26/50/235.

The side west elevation is abutted by a modern building over the entrance of Joy’s Entry; to the rear it is 7 windows wide, the roof stepping down 4 windows from the N. A decorated arch sits on the ground floor south bay.

Setting

37-43 sits on the south side of High Street bordering Joy’s Entry to the west. It faces HB26/50/283 on the corner of Bridge Street across High Street, to the rear in Joy’s Entry is HB26/50/235.

Roof: natural slate
Walls: render
Windows: timber and metal
RWGs: metal.

Historical information

Nos 37-43 High Street, a three-storey late-Victorian commercial building (also known as the St. George’s Buildings), was constructed in 1881 to designs by Thomas Jackson & Son. Thomas Jackson and his son William Ridgeway Jackson operated a family practice from 1867; the Irish Builder records that St. George’s Buildings was the last work completed by the partnership, however Patton states that the Royal Avenue Hotel (now demolished but originally located at nos 21-29 Royal Avenue) was completed by Thomas Jackson & Son in 1884. Prior to the erection of St. George’s Buildings, nos 37-43 High Street was the site of three former properties which included two drapery warehouses; the current building, which originally consisted of shop units and office space, was constructed by H. & J. Martin a Belfast-based building firm (Belfast street Directory – 1880; Irish Builder, pp 213-298; Dictionary of Irish Architects).

St. George’s Buildings were built for Wheeler & Whitaker who initially operated the Belfast Apothecaries Hall from the premises; the apothecary occupied the westernmost retail unit (No. 37), however Wheeler & Whitaker retained ownership of the entire building until the 1920s. The St. George’s Buildings also includes a social hall, named the St. George’s Hall, which is located to the rear of the building (the hall occupies the upper two-stories of No. 4 Joy’s Entry, whilst the ground floor has been utilised as a public house throughout its history – see HB26/50/235).

The Annual Revisions initially valued the St. George’s Buildings, including St. George’s Hall, at £745; shortly after the buildings completion, the remaining ground floor retail units were occupied by R. Goodson who occupied the central unit and also occupied the upper floor office space (nos 39-41), and a Mr. W. J. Marshall, a merchant tailor, who occupied the shop at No. 43 High Street. The Belfast Street Directories simply noted that Marshall was a manufacturer and merchant of shirts, gloves, collars and cuffs, however by 1910 he was grandly advertised as ‘tailor in Belfast by Royal Warrant of Appointment to His Majesty the Kind … patronised by the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland and the Governor-General of Australia [as] the sole maker of the Irish Frieze Ulster Coat and the Acme Rainproof Coat.’

Wheeler & Whitaker had vacated No. 37 High Street by the Belfast revaluation in 1900 when a Ms. Ellen Boyd converted the unit into a licenced shop and restaurant; in the same year the revaluation noted that W. J. Marshall had vacated No. 43 but had taken over the upper floors of the building for his tailoring business. The remaining unit formerly occupied by R. Goodson, was acquired by a Mr. Robert Beverland who established a shoe shop at the site (Belfast Street Directory – 1901). Under the Belfast Revaluation of 1900, the total rateable value of St. George’s Buildings was increased to £945.

After Marshall vacated No 43 High Street in c. 1900, his former retail unit was occupied by Harris Rundle & Freeman, an optician; there was no further change to the occupants of the building until 1925 when Ellen Boyd’s licenced restaurant was taken over by a Mr. Samuel Hare, whilst in 1928 Robert Beverland’s shop was acquired by F. E. Harcourt & Co. Ltd., coal merchants. By the cancellation of the Annual Revisions in 1930 the total value of the building remained almost unaltered at £950.

Under the First General Revaluation of property in Northern Ireland in 1935 the total value of the St. George’s Buildings was greatly increased to £1,430; in that year Rundle and F. E. Harcourt & Co. Ltd. continued to occupy the building, however, the restaurant at No. 37 had been taken over by Thompsons (Belfast) Ltd. while the upper offices were occupied by the clothing merchants Weatherwear Ltd.

Nos 37-43 High Street was one of only a small number of Victorian buildings along High Street to avoid destruction during the Belfast Blitz of 1941 when much of the area comprising Castle Place, Bridge Street and High Street was levelled. Photographs taken in the aftermath of the Blitz shows that the St. George’s Buildings only narrowly avoided a direct hit which almost totally destroyed the northern side of High Street (Bombs on Belfast, pp 36-39). Nos 37-43 High Street continued to be utilised as commercial space during the Second World War; the Belfast Street Directory notes that the ground floor retail units were occupied by Thompson’s Restaurant, Millett’s clothing store and R. L. Cochrane’s outfitters in 1943 whilst the upper office space was occupied by a variety of firms and organisations which included the Greenhill Bros. Ltd. (coal and coke merchants), A. & J. Little’s estate agency and the Ulster Sports Club which utilised St. George’s Hall as a boxing club (Belfast Street Directory – 1943).

Under the Second Revaluation (1956-72) both Millett and Cochrane continued to occupy their retail units at the site, whilst the central unit was occupied by G. A. Brittain Urenta Ltd. until 1970. The upper floors of the building remained occupied by a number of firms and businesses whilst the Ulster Sports Club shared St. George’s Hall with the Belfast Spiritualist Alliance. By the cancellation of the revaluation in 1972 the total value of nos 37-43 High Street had been increased to £2,661.

Patton states that St. George’s Hall, located to the rear of nos 37-43 High Street, was utilised for a variety of purposes throughout its history. When first opened it was used as a restaurant and as a spiritualists meeting hall, however it also operated as Belfast’s first full-time cinema; the theatre showed its first film, Bluebeard, to an audience of 1,500 in 1908, but the cinema was forced to close in 1916 as the venue was not deemed luxurious enough by the paying public. In the mid-20th century the Ulster Sports Club utilised the hall as a boxing club, however the space was also used as a dancing hall (Patton, p. 187).

Nos 37-43 High Street was badly damaged during a bomb attack in the 1970s which left the building lying derelict; the building was extensively restored by Deramore Developments in 1981. St. George’s Buildings was listed in 1990; Patton, writing in 1993, described it as a ‘three-storey stucco building of three asymmetrical three-bay sections, the central one rising an additional storey. Dentilled fascia with panelled pilasters dividing ground floor shops, with wrought iron gateway incorporating crowns on gates and sunburst fanlight; variety of surrounds to upper floor windows, and varied pilaster treatments including acanthus leaves inside rope moulded surrounds to those at attic; bracketed cornice’ (Patton, p. 187).

The ground floor retail units of nos 37-43 High Street continue to be utilised as commercial space for three individual shops, whilst a portion of the upper floors are occupied by a solicitors firm. St. George’s Hall, however, is no longer utilised as a social hall or sporting venue; the historically significant hall is currently lying vacant and in a state of disrepair.

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/12/B/43/C/1-42 - Annual Revisions 1897-1930
7. PRONI VAL/7/B/9/30 – Belfast Revaluation 1900
8. PRONI VAL/3/B/3/13 – First General Revaluation of Northern Ireland 1935
9. PRONI VAL/4/B/7/40 – Second General Revaluation of Northern Ireland 1956-1972
10. Belfast Street Directories (1852-1943)
11. Ordnance Survey Map – 130-13SE (1959)
12. First Survey Image – HB26/50/188 (1976)

Secondary Sources

1. ‘Bombs on Belfast: The Blitz 1941’ Newtownards: Colourpoint Books, 2011.
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
H-. Alterations detracting from building
I. Quality and survival of Interior

Criteria for listing: historic interest

X. Local Interest
Z. Rarity

Evaluation

A three storey commercial building with attic built 1881 to designs by Thomas Jackson and Son. Rendered, Italianate in style with moulded Classical decoration. Although compromised by modern alterations, much historic fabric and detailing survive, including the original hall. The building encapsulates the ongoing development of commerce in the city centre, as well as space for social functions. It represents the changing character of city life when the hall was converted to cinema use as the first full-time cinema in Belfast, showing the first moving picture in Belfast in 1908. This is also a good example of the smaller scale work of an architectural practice of note.