1-5 Royal Avenue

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

A five storey building on the southeast corner of Royal Avenue and High Street. Designed by David Salmond in 1881 in Italianate style.

Flat roof unseen. Rainwater pipes unseen. Walls are painted render with mouldings: bracketted cornice over third floor, string to first and second cill level, giant half-fluted Corinthian pilasters rise between second and third floors, rusticated pilasters to first floor, window architraves and aprons. Windows to fourth floor are flat lintelled; third floor windows have reeded stucco sides, foliate brackets, floral roundels and moulded cornices (with triangular pediments to single windows, segmental to tripartite), coffered apron to cills; second floor windows match third floor but with no pediments or aprons to cills; first floor windows have lugged architraves, the single window matches the third floor. Ground floor fascia and shop front is modern. All windows to are uPVC.

The west elevation is 3 windows wide (1/3/3) with the rounded corner to the south. A fire escape door is situated to the north. The corner is canted out to form bay windows to the first and second floors.

The north elevation is abutted by HB26/50/225B.

The rear east elevation is unseen, on High Street it is abutted by a modern building.

The south elevation matches the west having a bi-partite window to the east of the corner bay.

Setting

1-5 Royal Avenue sits on the southeast corner of the busy commercial street and High St.. To the north is HB26/50/225B which continues the same roofline, rhythm, materials and details. The building faces HB26/50/32, HB26/50/153, HB26/50/106, HB26/50/107 which are in line across Royal Avenue. To the east on High Street are located HB26/50/152 and HB26/50/299.

Roof: unseen
Walls: render
Windows: uPVC
RWGs: unseen.

Historical information

Nos 1-19 Royal Avenue, a four-storey 10-bay building (now known as Corry House) was constructed in 1881 to a design by David Salmond. Nothing definitive is known about Salmond; however the Dictionary of Irish Architects suggests that he may have been a son of Thomas Ross Salmond (1828-1917), engineer to the Belfast Harbour Commissioners between 1871 and 1892 and the engineer responsible for the Alexandra Graving Dock on Queen’s Island (Dictionary of Irish Architects).

From its completion in 1881, nos 1-19 Royal Avenue has been subdivided into two main sections, nos 1-5 and nos 7-19 (see HB26/50/225B). Nos 1-5 Royal Avenue comprises the southernmost three-bays of Salmond’s completed building and was initially owned by J. Robb & Co. Ltd., silk merchants, wool drapers and general warehousemen who also owned the adjoining buildings on nos 1-15 Castle Place. Nos 1-5 Royal Avenue originally consisted of two ground floor commercial units whilst the upper four storeys were occupied as office space. The Annual Revisions note that the first occupants of the ground floor units were Harbinson & Son (possible J. F. Harbinson & Co., jewellers who held offices on high Street in 1880) and Leahy & Kelly (wholesale tobacconists); the ground level units were valued at £135 and £90 respectively whilst the upper offices were occupied by a variety of firms and valued at a total of £269, making the total value of nos 1-5 Royal Avenue £494 in 1881.

In 1888 Harbinson & Son vacated the corner commercial unit; the Belfast Revaluation notes that by 1900 the company were replaced by A. L. Goodson, who was a mantle manufacturer and furrier. In that year the valuer described the corner unit as ‘unsuitable premises with very poor accommodation’ and also noted that a number of the upper floor offices lay unoccupied by the turn of the 20th century. In 1901 the Belfast Street Directory noted that the upper floors were occupied by the Equitable Life Assurance Society of the United States, and by a number of minor solicitors firms (Belfast Street Directory – 1901).

By 1907 the Equitable Life Assurance Society had vacated the upper offices, however in the intervening period the Berlitz School of Languages Ltd., and F. T. Connell’s Civil Service Institute had taken possession of the upper floors; by 1918 the majority of the upper offices had been acquired by the Civil Service as a Business Training Institute, however the ground floor retail units continued to be occupied by A. L. Goodson and Leahy & Kelly until the late-1920s (Belfast Street Directories – 1907-1918).

In 1929 the Annual Revisions noted that the two ground floor retail units had been converted into a single premises, newly occupied by D. Lyle Hall, a linen merchant who had occupied a store in the adjoining nos 7-19 Royal Avenue since c. 1907. Hall only briefly occupied the site but by the First General Revaluation of Property in Northern Ireland (1935) he was recorded as the owner of the entire nos 1-19 Royal Avenue. Under the revaluation the value of nos 1-5 Royal Avenue was increased to £1,471; at that time the ground floor units were occupied by Prices (Tailors) Ltd., whilst the upper floors continued to be occupied by the Civil Service Business School.

There was no further revaluation carried out at the site for over two decades due to the disruption caused by the Second World War, however by the end of the second revaluation (1956-72) the total value of the building had been set at £2,300. Between the 1950s and 1970s the entire building (nos 1-5) was occupied by Prices (Tailors) Ltd., the Civil Service having vacated the upper floors which were utilised as storage space for the clothing firm. The only other occupants of the building during this period was the Loyalist Charity & Benevolent Pool Club, a social club which occupied offices on the upper floors between at least 1956 and 1968 when they passed to Prices (Tailors) Ltd.

Nos 1-19 Royal Avenue was one of the first commercial properties erected on the newly created boulevard of Royal Avenue, originally 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 in the street than the adjoining buildings (Brett, p. 40; Patton, p. 282; p. 286). Designed for John Robb (of J. Robb & Co.), nos 1-19 Royal Avenue was originally intended to connect with Robb’s other properties on Castle Place (Patton, p. 282).

The First Survey Image records that nos 1-5 Royal Avenue underwent a renovation in 1977 when its facade was restored. Nos 1-19 Royal Avenue was listed in 1992 at which time it had been renamed ‘Corry House;’ Patton, writing in 1993, described the building as a ‘four-storey ten-bay stucco building with attic floor that was originally topped with a variety of small pediments, mostly segmental-topped with ball finials. Giant order semi-fluted Corinthian pilasters support bracketed cornice and separate bays of mostly triple-light windows in moulded surrounds, with pediments over central windows at third floor’ (Patton).

Nos 1-5 Royal Avenue continues to possess a single ground floor commercial unit (currently occupied by Spar), however it is not clear if the upper floors continue to be utilised as storage space or whether they are occupied as private offices.

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/9/22 – 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. Belfast Street Directories (1901-1918)
11. First Survey Image – HB26/50/225A (1977)
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

A. Style
B. Proportion
C. Ornamentation
H-. Alterations detracting from building
J. Setting
K. Group value

Criteria for listing: historic interest

V. Authorship
X. Local Interest

Evaluation

A five storey building built 1881 to designs by David Salmond. It matches the Italianate style, roofline, rhythm, materials and details of the adjacent building to the north (HB26/50/225B) forming a coherent pattern in a large block of Royal Avenue. Although compromised by modern alterations, much historic fabric and detailing survive. The whole block represents the larger premises arising from the expansion of city centre commerce in the late Victorian era. It is a good example of the type.