Bogarts

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

A four storey Italianate commercial building, c.1830 and refaced c.1885, end of terrace sitting on the corner of Ann Street and Upper Church Lane.

Pitched slate roof unseen behind balustraded parapet, rendered chimney with moulded and bracketed cornice to west gable. Gutter and rainwater pipes to rear are uPVC. Walls painted, plain render. Square urn balustraded parapet over deeply projecting moulded cornice with brackets to soffit; staged pilasters on corners, fluted to shafts with different capitals at each floor; moulded strings at each cill level. All windows have flat lintels with moulded architraves, those to the third floor have lugged architraves and exaggerated keystones; second floor windows have pediments with floral tympanum sitting on fluted pilasters; first floor have segmental pediments, floral tympanum on console brackets over moulded uprights with volute feet. The ground floor shop front is framed by slender pilasters with fluted bases, diamond motifs and Ionic capitals; modern plastic fascia between original end stops. Windows are 2 pane 1/1 timber sashes. The shop windows and door are replacement timber.

The main, north elevation is 3 windows wide; the shopfront has 3 bays with the entrance in the west bay.

The east elevation is abutted by a four storey building.

The rear south elevation is a blank wall with small windows at the second and third floors.

The side west elevation has windows to the south corner on each of the upper floors. The corners have pilasters (N) and rusticated quoins (S), remaining blank wall has a three storey high moulded plaster panel. The shop front has a window bay flanked by bays of sold rusticated render, the fourth bay to the south has a shuttered door.

Setting

57 Ann Street sits directly on the south side of the pedestrianised street, on the corner of Upper Church Lane.

Roof: slate
Walls: render
Windows: timber
RWG. uPVC

Historical information

No. 57 Ann Street, a four-storey late-Georgian building, was erected in the early-19th century and was refaced in the Victorian period. Without a corresponding town plan, the building could not be identified in the Townland Valuations of c. 1830; however a building was depicted on the current site as early as George Benn’s 1822 map of Belfast. The four-storey building can first be identified with certainty in the Belfast Street Directories. In 1843 the building was occupied as commercial premises by William Charnock & Co., glass, oil and colour merchants. Charnock had vacated the site by 1852 when the building lay unoccupied; however by Griffith’s Valuation in 1860, No. 57 Ann Street, and the adjoining No. 59 Ann Street, were occupied by a Mr. John Moffett who operated a soap and candle factory from the site. The valuer set the joint value of nos 57-59 Ann Street at £65 in 1860, noting that John Moffett also resided at the properties which he leased from a Mr. Martin Harper (a wholesale grocer who resided at No. 35 Victoria Street – Belfast Street Directories – 1842-1861).

In 1872 Moffett vacated the adjoining No. 59 Ann Street (which was re-established as the grocery store of John Woods & Co.) but continued to operate his soap and candle business from No. 57 for another decade; after Moffett vacated the adjoining building the value of No. 57 Ann Street was lowered to £55. John Moffett died in 1885 at which point the lease for No. 57 Ann Street was purchased outright by a Mr. John Smyth; by 1890 Smyth had carried out a number of alterations to the late-Georgian building resulting in its current Italianate facade (the new features can be clearly seen when No. 57 is contrasted with the adjoining No. 59). By 1890 the total value of No. 57 Ann Street had been increased to £75 as a result of this refacing work.

By the 1900 Belfast Revaluation, No. 57 Ann Street had been occupied by the Lennon Bros. who established a fruit grocer called The City Fruit Stores at the premises, resulting in the value of the building being further raised to £82. By 1910 the Lennon Bros. had vacated the building; however in 1912 the property was re-occupied by a Mr. George E. Irwin, an outffiter and hatter who first established the site as a clothing store. By the end of the Annual Revisions in 1930 the value of the shop had been increased to £100, however under the First General Revaluation of Property in Northern Ireland (1935) the rating was further increased to £170. The valuer noted that Irwin had vacated the site by 1935 when it was occupied by a Mr. John Rainey who continued to operate a outfitting shop and showroom from the property.

There was no further revaluation carried out at the site for over two decades due to the outbreak of the Second World War; the Belfast Street Directories note that Irwin vacated the site between 1935 and 1943 when a Mr. Albert Gardner took possession of the ‘men’s outfitters’ (Belfast Street Directories – 1943). Gardner continued to operate from No. 57 Ann Street until the end of the Second Revaluation (1956-72); the valuer noted that by 1972 the total rateable value of the clothing store had been set at £256, however by that date Bogart’s Menswear had taken over the site from Gardner.

Brett states that Ann Street was one of the earliest roads to be established in Belfast and likely represents the route of a medieval thoroughfare that extended west from the River Lagan. The street was first depicted along its current layout on Phillip’s 1685 map of Belfast but with no evidence of development having taken place along its southern side at that time. Brett’s Georgian Belfast records that the plot of land at the corner of Ann Street and Upper Church Lane had been purchased by a Mr. John Radcliffe in 1756; Radcliffe had nine similar houses constructed on this plot, however nos 57-61 Ann Street date from c. 1830 (Brett, p. 56).

No. 57 Ann Street represents one of the few surviving Georgian townhouses to survive in the historic centre of Belfast; the property is believed to date from c. 1830 but the existence of a building on Benn’s 1822 map may hint at an earlier origin. The building is also a survivor of the 1941 Belfast Blitz during which many of the buildings at the end of Church Lane were destroyed (and the street subsequently redeveloped). No. 57 Ann Street has been continuously utilised at a clothing store for over a century; the most recent occupants have been Bogart’s Menswear who occupied the building in 1971. Bogart’s currently occupy nos 57 and 59 Ann Street, however the adjoining No. 59 was not taken over until sometime after the end of the Second Revaluation in 1972 (the extension of the clothing store had certainly taken place by the First Survey image which shows that the store inhabited both buildings by 1989).

No. 57 Ann Street was listed in 1989; Patton, writing in 1993, described the late-Georgian structure as an ‘ornate four-storey stucco building with Italianate details including rich cornice and balustrade parapet ... with spiked urn finials; ornamental shop front with iron cresting and panelled pilasters; delicate moulding round panel on gable to Upper Church Lane; corner pilasters vary in detail at each floor’ (Patton, p. 11). No. 57 Ann Street has continued to be occupied by Bogart’s Menswear for over 40 years.

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/7/2A – Griffith’s Valuation 1860
7. PRONI VAL/12/B/43/C/1-42 - Annual Revisions 1897-1930
8. PRONI VAL/7/B/9/35-37 – Belfast Revaluation 1900
9. PRONI VAL/3/B/3/13 – First General Revaluation of Northern Ireland 1935
10. PRONI VAL/4/B/7/38 – Second General Revaluation of Northern Ireland 1956-1972
11. PRONI Wills Catalogue (3 Oct 1885)
12. Belfast Street Directories (1843-1943)
13. Ordnance Survey Map – 130-13SE (1959)

Secondary Sources

1. Brett, C. E. B., ‘Georgian Belfast, 1750-1850: Maps, buildings and trades’ Dublin: Royal Irish Academy, 2004.
2. Patton, M., ‘Central Belfast: An historical gazetteer’ Belfast: Ulster Architectural Heritage Society, 1993

Online Resources

1. Bogart’s Menswear website - http://www.bogart.co.uk/

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
J. Setting

Criteria for listing: historic interest

X. Local Interest

Evaluation

A four storey commercial end of terrace building which turns corner of Ann Street and Upper Church Lane. Originally built c.1830 and refaced c.1885 it has Italianate proportions and plasterwork detailing. Although compromised by modern alterations, much historic fabric and detailing survive. The building represents the ongoing development of commerce in the city centre and is also of some interest for having accommodated a men's outfitters for over a century. It is a good example of this type of minor premises.