41-51 Royal Avenue

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

A four storey building with attic, on the east side of Royal Avenue. Built c.1885 in an Italianate style.

The pitched roof is unseen behind a parapet. The walls are painted brickwork with moulded render cornices to each floor, staged pilasters, architraves and decorative end panels. The openings are square headed, the dormers paired and the remaining in triplets; at attic and third floor levels they have exaggerated keystones; second and first floor they have triangular and segmental arched pediments alternately over the central windows of each group of three. Windows are 2 pane 1/1 timber sashes. Door has been removed.

The west elevation has 4 dormers and is 12 windows wide (4 groups of three), pilasters frame each group and a narrower end blank bay with decorative panels.

The north elevation is abutted by a four storey building.

The east elevation is unseen.

The south elevation is abutted by HB26/50/226.

Setting:
41-51 Royal Avenue sits on the east side of the busy commercial street. To the south is HB26/50/226, opposite is Castlecourt Centre.

Schedule:
Roof: unseen
Walls: painted brick
Windows: timber sash
RWGs: unseen.

Historical information

Nos 41-51 Royal Avenue, a four-storey brick and stucco building, was constructed by 1882 as part of the Royal Avenue redevelopment and first appeared in the Annual Revisions in that year. The Annual Revisions note that the building (which abuts the adjoining nos 31-39 Royal Avenue (see HB26/50/226)) was owned by a Mr. William Carson and consisted of four ground floor retail units, whilst the upper floors were utilised as office space. According to the Annual Revisions, despite being completed by 1882, the units and offices of nos 41-51 Royal Avenue remained mostly vacant between 1882 and 1897; however both the Belfast Revaluation and the Belfast Street Directories note that the building was fully occupied by the turn of the 20th century.

Under the Belfast Revaluation (1900) the total rateable value of nos 41-51 Royal Avenue was set at £1,056 10s; in the following year the 1901 Belfast Street Directory recorded that the ground floor of the four-storey commercial building was occupied by three clothing stores, and a manufacturing firm called Harper & Co., whilst the upper floors were leased by a variety of solicitors firms (including the firm of William Carson – the building’s owner), insurance agencies and a stationery firm known as Potter & Co. (Belfast Street Directory – 1901).

There was little change to the occupants of the building over the following decade, however in 1912 Newell’s Ltd., a ‘costumiers and furriers’ store took over possession of two ground floor units (the firm took over a third in 1918), whilst the remaining unit was occupied by H. Wilson & Co., a military tailor (Belfast Street Directory – 1910-18). By the First General Revaluation of Property in Northern Ireland (1935) the value of nos 41-51 Royal Avenue had been increased to £1,723 10s., with Newell’s Ltd. Occupying the majority of the property. There was no further revaluation carried out in Northern Ireland for over two decades due to the outbreak of the Second World War, however the building was included in the second revaluation (1956-72). During the 1950s and 1970s Newell’s Ltd still occupied the majority of the ground floor units whilst the upper floors continued to accommodate the same variety of solicitors and insurance agents; the total rateable value of nos 41-51 Royal Avenue was set at £4,180.

Nos 41-51 Royal Avenue is one of many commercial properties erected on the newly created boulevard of Royal Avenue, 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).

Nos 41-51 Royal Avenue was listed in 1992; Patton, writing in 1993, described the site as a ‘four-storey building of brick and stucco, with panelled parapet broken up by flat-topped dormers, presumably altered from pedimented ones. Windows triplets with pediments over central windows at first and second floors, and separated by pilasters supporting cill courses at each level and dentilled main cornice; one dentilled stucco chimney survives; narrow bays at sides contain panels with ornamental rosettes and leafy ornaments top and bottom’ (Patton, p. 283).

Nos 41-51 Royal Avenue is currently unoccupied; at the time of the Second Survey the building is undergoing a refurbishment designed to increase the floorspace of the building to over 20,000 square feet by the erection of a three-storey rear extension (Future Belfast website).
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 (1880-1918)
11. 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. Future Belfast website - http://www.futurebelfast.com/41---51-royal-avenue.html

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

A. Style
B. Proportion
C. Ornamentation
H-. Alterations detracting from building

Criteria for listing: historic interest

X. Local Interest

Evaluation

A four storey commercial building with attic, on the east side of Royal Avenue built c.1885. Italianate stylewith a strong rhythm of articulated solid and void which contributes to the appearance of this major street in the heart of Belfast. Although compromised by modern alterations, much historic fabric and detailing survive The building constitutes one of the early examples of the initial phase of development along Royal Avenue. In conjunction with the adjoining terrace to the south (Nos. 41-51 HB26/50/226), the corresponding heights, dormers and cornice lines represent cohesive yet varied historic character and are indicative of the development controls enforced during the early development of the street.