WOOLWORTHS AND BURTON BUILDINGS

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

A large-scale four-storey steel-framed building in the Art Deco-style, built c.1930 as separate commercial premises for Woolworth’s and Montague Burton, to the designs of the construction department of F.W. Woolworth & Co Ltd, Liverpool. Roughly rectangular on plan, having a substantial mid-to-late 20th century red-brick extension to the rear. Located on a corner site in the centre of the city’s commercial district, the two main fa?ades address both High Street and Cornmarket.

Flat roof of undetermined material; concealed behind heavy corniced parapet, to principal elevations, enriched with stylized leaves. Rainwater goods are hidden from view except for cast-iron downpipes to east elevation. Structure is steel-frame; faced in artificial stone cladding and adorned with Art Deco ornamentation, which displays classical influences. Principal fa?ades are curtain glazing to frame construction with vertical emphasis; windows are symmetrically arranged metal-frame tripartite. Giant pilasters, embellished with Egyptian-style capitals, separate window bays, stemming from the first floor cill course and rising three storeys to carry the cornice at eaves level. Window bays horizontally divided at each floor level by metal panels, enriched with rosettes and anthemions on the third floor. Ground floor of north and west elevations comprises almost entirely glazed, modern shop fronts with a deep, plain fascia over, featuring large illuminated lettering of signage (no further interest). North-west corner is chamfered on ground floor with intersecting flat roofed porch added in recent years (of no interest).

Principal elevation faces north and is eleven window openings wide, symmetrically arranged in three sections which are each framed by a zig-zag motif. Central section has wider windows divided by mullions. Centre of eaves cornice is surmounted by a simple ornamental feature containing scrolled brackets and an anthemion peak. The sections to either side of centre each comprise five openings wide and topped by a Art Deco panel depicting their corresponding commercial trademark; the left side features ‘WOOLWORTH’S’ and the right contains ‘BURTON BUILDINGS’.

East elevation comprises three principal blocks; smooth rendered far right is abutted by adjoining terrace, with narrow passage running parallel to elevation. Middle block is set back, walling is generally red-brick with bifurcated windows in projecting painted surrounds symmetrically arranged. Similar windows across upper three floors of left block, which is ruled and lined rendered and painted at ground floor and contains a doorway and four blocked wide-openings over a continuous plinth (formerly windows).

View of south elevation is obstructed by neighbouring buildings; comprises red-brick walls laid to English bond. Right-side abutted by multi-storey red-brick extension, comprising linear flat-roofed blocks extending to tertiary façade on Ann Street. This concrete-faced elevation is five-and-a-half storeys high with symmetrically arranged metal frame windows over a modern glazed shop front (of no further interest).

West elevation is similarly detailed to the north; left section is five openings wide with ‘BURTON BUILDINGS’ over centre; middle section is three openings wide with bipartite windows; the far-right proportion matches this but is angled slightly toward the south-east.

Setting

Located within the commercial core of Belfast on a prominent corner site, the
setting and large-scale of the structure ensure the building dominates this corner, particularly when viewed from Castle Place. The primary elevations directly line the southern side of High Street and the eastern side of Cornmarket. The extension to the rear provides secondary access from Ann Street to the south, while the left –side of the rear elevation is abutted by a lower terrace of late 20th century commercial buildings. The narrow passage of Crown Entry, links High Street to Ann Street and the east elevation of the building forms the western side of this alleyway.

Roof: Flat
Walling: Artificial stone
Windows: Metal
RWG: Cast-iron

Historical information

Nos. 1-15 High Street, the former Woolworths and Burton Buildings, a four-storey eleven-bay Art Deco department store was constructed between 1929-30 replacing a previous commercial warehouse that had stood on the site since the 1860s. The Irish Builder notes that Thomas Jackson constructed a warehouse for Forster Green, a local tea merchant, between 1865 and 1868; the original building was constructed in a classical style consisting of plinths, pilasters and columns of Newry granite and elements incorporating Dungannon stone (Irish Builder, p. 33). The 1918 Belfast Street Directory notes that the site of the current department store, nos 1-9 High Street (1918 street numbering), originally consisted of Forster Green & Co. Ltd (nos 1-3), Simpson Bros., shirtmakers (No. 3), the King’s Dining Rooms (No. 5), F. W. Woolworth & Co. Ltd (nos 5-9) and the Crown Dining Rooms at No. 11 (Belfast Street Directory - 1918).

Woolworths had first occupied premises on High Street in c. 1915; however in 1929 the F. W. Woolworth & Co. Ltd. Construction Department of Liverpool began construction of a new department store designed to accommodate both Woolworths and Montague Burton Ltd., the men’s clothes store. The Dictionary of Irish Architects notes that a Mr. W. R. Priddle was employed by Woolworths to design the new department store; Priddle was a London-based architect who also carried out alterations to Woolworth’s store in Grafton Street in 1930. The Annual Revisions note that the building was constructed in two stages between 1929 and 1930. Forster’s former commercial warehouse was demolished and the western elevation of the building was the first to be erected; Woolworth’s continued to occupy their original premises during this initial construction phase and photographs of the construction process show Woolworths had occupied a three-storey Victorian building which possessed a Gothic-style façade (Pollock & Parkhill, p. 69; Dictionary of Irish Architects).

Prior to its completion, the Annual Revisions valued the building at approximately £2,419 and noted that it would also include a restaurant and a hairdressing saloon as well as commercial stores. The Annual Revisions were cancelled in 1930 soon before the completion of the Woolworths and Burton Building; however in 1935 the government undertook the First General Revaluation of property in Northern Ireland which set the value of the completed building at £7,482. The Art Deco department store survived the 1941 Belfast Blitz unscathed and in the aftermath of the conflict the building was revalued under the second general revaluation which commenced in 1956. By the 1950s both Burtons and Woolworths continued to occupy their respective sides of the building; Burtons occupied the western five bays whilst Woolworths possessed the eastern five; by the end of the revaluation in 1972 the value of the Woolworth and Burton Building stood at £7,480.

Patton states that the Woolworth and Burton Building occupies the position of the original 17th century Market House which was constructed in 1639 ‘of small red bricks’ and, prior to the erection of the Assembly Rooms on Waring Street, was Belfast’s first public hall, utilised as a market, a court house and a jail. In 1798 the leaders of the United Irish Rebellion, including Henry Joy McCracken, were executed on gallows in front of the market house and their heads placed on spikes above its walls. The Methodist Evangelist John Wesley preached from the building on his first tour of Ireland in 1747 and on 1st January 1801 the first Union Flag in Ireland was hoisted on the flagpole of the market house after the carrying of the Act of Union.

A building of huge significance to the political and civic development of Belfast in the 17th to 19th century, the Market House was leased by Adam McClean in 1802; Brett states that Adam McClean, a local landowner who possessed many plots and leases in the centre of Belfast, accumulated his holdings from the Donegall family in the 1820s and that ‘it appears he was one of those who sought to benefit from the second marquess’s financial difficulty by acquiring good, long leases at low rents which he then built up’ (Brett, Georgian Belfast, p. 60). McClean demolished the Market House in 1812 and constructed two houses in its place, however in the 1860s the site was acquired by Forster Green who established his Tea warehouse on the plot in 1865-68 (Patton, pp 185-86).

The current steel framed department store is one of a small number of buildings in Belfast executed in the Art Deco style, an architecturally modern movement which was popular in the interwar period and was characterised by ornamentation, eclecticism and stark geometric shapes; unlike its predecessor Art Nouveau, which was concerned with the natural aesthetic, Art Deco was an expression of the modern mechanical world. Although the design is indeed Art Deco, the design is less stark than other neighbouring examples such as Sinclair House (HB26/50/186) and the Bank of Ireland on Royal Avenue which include geometrically bold fa?ades; Larmour states that ‘the application of a kind of classical order and a stepped up parapet does not disguise the fact that this is a modern steel framed building underneath’ (Larmour, p. 83).

Patton described the Woolworth’s and Burton Building as a ‘four-storey eleven-bay Art Deco building in artificial stone with tripartite metal windows. Giant order pilasters with faintly Egyptian capitals rise full height to support cornice of stylised leaves and simple central feature with anthemion peak; window bays divided by fluted metal panels at floor levels with rosettes and anthemions at third floor level. Cornice carries trademarks of Woolworths and Burtons’ (Patton, p. 185).

The Woolworths and Burton Building was listed in 1994. In recent years the formerly divided building has been occupied by Dunnes Stores who have converted the premises into a single commercial property; despite the change in occupant the trademarks located in the cornice continues to read ‘Woolworths’ and ‘Burtons.’

References

Primary Sources

1. PRONI OS/6/1/61/4 – Fourth Edition Ordnance Survey Map 1931
2. PRONI OS/6/1/61/5 – Fifth Edition Ordnance Survey Map 1938
3. PRONI VAL/12/B/43/C/40-44 - Annual Revisions 1924-1930
4. PRONI VAL/3/B/3/13 – First General Revaluation of Northern Ireland 1935
5. PRONI VAL/4/B/7/40 – Second General Revaluation of Northern Ireland 1956-1972
6. Irish Builder, Vol. 10 (1 Feb 1868); Vol. 72 (18 Jan 1930)
7. Belfast Street Directories (1901-1918)
8. First Survey Record – HB26/50/232 (1993)
9. Ordnance Survey Map – 130-13SE (1959)

Secondary Sources

1. Larmour, P., ‘Belfast: An illustrated architectural guide’ Belfast: Ulster Architectural Heritage Society, 1987.
2. Patton, M., ‘Central Belfast: An historical gazetteer’ Belfast: Ulster Architectural Heritage Society, 1993.
3. Pollock, V. & Parkhill, T., ‘Britain in old photographs: Belfast’ Gloucestershire, Sutton Publishing Ltd, 1997.

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
J. Setting

Criteria for listing: historic interest

V. Authorship
X. Local Interest
Z. Rarity

Evaluation

A largely symmetrical, four storey Art Deco constructed c.1930 to designs by W. R. Priddle of London. Built for the department stores of F.W. Woolworth and Montague Burton, the imposing steel-framed building is characterised by the application Art Deco-stylized, Graeco-Egyptian decorative motifs. Much historic fabric an detailing survive and the building remains an important example of the modernist Art Deco movement on a grand commercial scale. The history of the site id also of interest, reflecting the expansion and changing character of commerce in Belfast from the mid Victorian era to the mid 20th century.