7-19 Royal Avenue

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

A five storey commercial building on the east side of Royal Avenue. Built in 1881 in Italianate style.

Pitched roof unseen. Rainwater pipes swan neck from gutters (material unidentified) penetrating wall at base of attic floor. Walls are painted render with mouldings: bracketted cornice over third floor, string to first and second cill level, giant semi-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 segmental to triplets windows, triangular pediments to single), 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 shop fronts are modern with the exception of the northern one which is framed by rusticated and moulded pilasters. Over the doorway, supported on oversize foliate brackets, is a segmental arched pediment and foliate decorated frieze; sitting on the segmental arch, either side of a cartouche, are two figures - a gentleman with a forked beard holding a book and a woman with a pail. The windows to the top floors are 4 pane metal casements; the first floor windows are 3 pane timber. The door is timber double, six panelled.

The west elevation is symmetrical around the central doorway with single windows above. The flanking window architraves are tripartite (6 in total); to the second and third floor they frame 2 windows with a central blank panel; to the first floor they frame 3 windows.

The north elevation is abutted by a modern building.

The rear east elevation is unseen.

The south elevation is abutted by HB26/50/225A.

Setting

7-19 Royal Avenue sits on the east side of the busy commercial Royal Avenue. To the south is HB26/50/225A which continues the same roofline, rhythm, materials and details. The building faces HB26/50/032, HB26/50/153, HB26/50/106, HB26/50/107 which are in line across Royal Avenue.

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

Historical information

Nos 1-19 Royal Avenue, a five-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 (see HB26/50/225A) and nos 7-19. Nos 7-19 Royal Avenue comprises the northernmost seven-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 7-19 Royal Avenue originally consisted of six ground floor retail units and four upper floors which were utilised as office space; in 1882 the Annual Revisions set the total value of the building at £511 but noted that not a single part of the building had been occupied one year after its completion.

By 1901 the ground floor commercial units had been occupied by R. G. Bolster & Co. (glovers and outfitters), James Tate (a pharmaceutical chemist), W. J. Fletcher (a watchmaker and jeweller), A. P. Dazell (a hat maker), the Rankin Bros. (watchmakers, jewellers and opticians), and Milligan & co. (steamship owners and coal importers); at the same time the four upper floors were occupied as office space for F. G. Robb’s Solicitors firm and storage space for A. P. Dalzell’s store. Over the following two decades the occupants of the upper floor remained unchanged, however in 1907 a Mr. Thomas Brown (jeweller) and a linen merchant named D. Lyle Hall took over two of the ground floor units; by 1918 only one occupant had changed when a Mr. David W. Corry (a goldsmith) opened up a shop on the ground floor (Belfast Street Directories – 1901-1918).

The Annual revisions note that in 1929 the first two ground floor units (nos 7 and 9) were converted into a single premises for James Tate’s chemists; the total value of the building was increased to £1,440 by the First General Revaluation of Property in Northern Ireland (1935) which also noted that the linen merchant, D. Lyle Hall (who had originally occupied the ground floor unit at No. 19) had purchased the entire building and was recorded as owner of nos 1-19 Royal Avenue. In 1935 the building continued to be occupied by Tate’s chemists, Corry’s goldsmiths shop, Dalzell’s hatters shop (and upper floor stores), and the linen and tailors shop of D. Lyle Hall, however by that year a watchmaker, named Sydney Hanna, had also come into possession of a ground floor unit.

There was no further revaluation of the building carried out for over two decades due to the outbreak of the Second World War. By second revaluation in the 1950s, Tate, Corry, Dalzell and Hall all continued to operate from the site whilst the upper floors of nos 7-19 Royal Avenue were occupied by a variety of organisations including H. J. Coutts & Co. Ltd. (a merger and acquisition firm), offices for the Northern Ireland Ministry of Commerce and the Loyalist Charity & Benevolent Pool Club (a political social club who also occupied the adjoining nos 1-5). By the end of the second revaluation (1956-72) the total rateable value of nos 7-19 Royal Avenue stood at £3,852.

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).

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 [sic] 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 ... One original doorcase survives at no. 13, with a fork-bearded gentleman and a lady with an empty pail perched on either side of a cartouche; semicircular pediment supported by broad scrolled consoles.’ Patton states that there had originally been a second corresponding doorcase, with different figures, at nos 1-5 Royal Avenue, however this had been removed by at least the First Survey Image in 1977 which did not depict a second doorcase. Patton also noted that Tate’s chemist, which had occupied the building from at least 1901, had only vacated nos 7-9 Royal Avenue in c. 1990 after occupying the site for almost a century (Patton).

Field inspection finds that the ground floor commercial units of nos 7-19 Royal Avenue are currently occupied by a jewellery store, two mobile phone warehouses, and a fast food outlet; the upper floors, accessed by the ornamental doorcase, are currently occupied by the offices of Diamond Heron Solicitors.

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
D. Plan Form
H-. Alterations detracting from building
K. Group value

Criteria for listing: historic interest

X. Local Interest
V. Authorship

Evaluation

A five storey ten bay building built 1881 to designs by David Salmond. It matches the Italianate style, roofline, rhythm, materials and details of the adjacent building to the south (HB26/50/225A) 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.