3 Donegall Street

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

A terraced four storey, with attic, Italianate building with Mannerist decoration, designed by William Hastings, 1876, sitting hard on the pavement to the east side terrace of Donegall Street.

The mansard roof of modern metal sheeting with square dormer windows sits behind a stone framed parapet with iron arcading within openings. Walls are stucco with moulded decorations: circles to attic, string courses, window architraves with base stops and blocked keystones. The front elevation is divided by articulated pilasters defining each bay with varying decoration to each floor level: topped by ball finials, to the parapet a moulded scroll with guilloche motif; third floor a slender pink granite column on tall base with varying foliate capitals; to second floor an inverted steeply tapering pilaster with geometric motif; to first floor foliate imposts and motifs; ground floor is a plain rendered fascia and window surrounds. Window openings to the third floor are square headed; the second floor are segmental arches; the first floor have round arches. The dormer windows are single pane metal, all others are replacement 1/1 timber sashes, ground floor has full height glazed openings. A fire exit door is of flush timber.

The west elevation is symmetrical, 4 windows wide with a fire exit door in the left bay.

The north elevation is abutted and obscured by a 5 storey building of equal height.

The east elevation is partially obscured by a modern building adjoining at ground floor level. The original rear elevation has a four storey return, the walls are brick with segmental arched window openings with replacement windows.

The south elevation is abutted and obscured by HB26/50/246.

Setting

The building sits on the east side of Donegall Street near a major intersection in the Cathedral Quarter defined by listed buildings, HB26/50/245 adjoining to the south, facing across Donegall Street the Northern Bank (Old Assembly Rooms) (HB26/50/61) and on the other side of Waring Street the Northern Whig (HB26/50/60).

Roof: metal cladding
Walls: stone
Windows: timber
RWG: not seen

Historical information

No. 3 Donegall Street, a four-storey Mannerist building, was constructed in 1876 and was originally designed to accommodate a ground floor shop unit with office space above. The 1877 Belfast Street Directory records that when the building was first completed the ground floor shop was occupied by a Mr. William Heaney who was employed as a confectioner (Belfast Street Directory – 1877). William Heaney owned the building outright and in 1877 had leased the upper offices to a number of companies including Cronhelm, Son & Tobias (a solicitors firm) and Hugh Robinson who was an agent for the Norwich Equitable Fire Insurance Company; however, by 1878 these firms had been replaced by W. J. Jefferson of the Queen’s Insurance Co. and the offices of David McGonigle, a local solicitor. The Annual Revisions did not fix the rateable value of the new building until 1878; in that year the total rateable value of the building was set at £156.

William Heaney continued to occupy the ground floor shop until his death in 1883; the valuation source for the period 1882-1896 was damaged making it unclear who occupied the ground floor retail unit after Heaney’s death; however it is known that the upper offices continued to be leased by the Queen’s Insurance Co. throughout the period. Upon Heaney’s death, No. 3 Donegall Street was purchased by a Mr. Edward Johnston, who operated a printing bookbinding and general stationary business.

By the 1900 Belfast Revaluation Edward Johnston had occupied the ground floor shop whilst the upper offices were occupied by a Mr. Sandy A. Johnston, a commission agent, and Samuel Gunning, a stock and share broker. Under the revaluation the total rateable value of No. 3 Donegall Street was decreased to £139; in that year the valuer noted that the entire lower length of Donegall Street had been depreciated due to the commercial redevelopment of the Royal Avenue area in 1880-81: ‘retail trade has consequently suffered and the street for wholesale purposes has not been improved by the development of the Bedford Street area.’ Prior to these developments Donegall Street had been one of the chief textile centres in the town of Belfast, however with the granting of city status in 1888 and the subsequent commercial redevelopment of the above mentioned areas, Donegall Street lost much of its trade to areas that had once been residential in character (Royal Avenue, Bedford Street, Donegall Place etc.).

Edward Johnston continued to run his stationary business from the ground floor shop of No. 3 Donegall Street until his death in 1930 (PRONI Wills); by 1911 the value of the building was further decreased to £117 10s. when one of the upper offices was occupied by a Mr. William Orr, who utilised the space as a manufacturing business and warehouse; by 1918 William W. McBride & Co., a Blouse manufacturer also took possession of one of the offices and remained there until the end of the Annual Revisions in 1930 (Belfast Street Directory - 1918).

By 1935 all of the occupants listed in the Annual Revisions had vacated No. 3 Donegall Street; with Johnston’s death in 1930 the ground floor retail unit was taken over by a Mr. M. F. M. Hinds who also utilised the the upper floors as office space. In 1935 the First General Revaluation of property in Northern Ireland increased the value of No. 3 Donegall Street to £177. No further revaluations took place over the next two decades due to the disruption caused by the Second World War and during this period No. 3 Donegall escaped major damage during the heavy bombardment of the surrounding area during the 1941 Belfast Blitz (the neighbouring Northern Whig building (HB26/50/060) was severely damaged in the attack). In the aftermath of the conflict No. 3 Donegall Street was included in the second revaluation which commenced in 1956; by the 1950s the ground floor shop had been occupied by W. J. McManus & Son Ltd., a shoe manufacturer and retailer, while the upper offices continued to be leased out to a variety of tenants. By the end of the second revaluation in 1972 the total rateable value of No. 3 Donegall Street had been raised to £290 10s.

Donegall Street can first be seen on 18th century maps of Belfast; it was depicted as ‘Linnenhall Street’ on the 1757 plan of the town (in reference to a former linen hall that had once stood near the current site of St. Anne’s Cathedral). By 1819 the street had been renamed Donegall Street, in honour of the Marquis of Donegall, and was fully developed on both sides. During the mid-Victorian period Donegall Street was characterised its many textile warehouses and local drapery businesses making the street one of the busiest retail districts of the town prior to the commercial redevelopment of the town centre in the latter part of the century (Patton, p. 122).

Larmour states that No. 3 Donegall Street was constructed in 1867 by William Hastings (1814-1892), however this appears to be a typing error as the valuation sources record that the building was completed in the 1870s. Hastings, a Belfast-based architect who was a surveyor of works for the Belfast Borough between 1849 and 1857, established an independent practise in c. 1860 but continued to take contracts from the town council and corporation until as late as 1879. Aside from being primarily known as an official architect to the Belfast Borough, Hastings also completed a large number of contracts for commercial premises in Belfast’s town centre; other surviving examples of his work include nos 17-21 Castle Place (HB26/50/152), and McCausland’s former warehouse (HB26/50/046), now the Malmaisson Hotel, at nos 34-38 Victoria Street (Dictionary of Irish Architects).

Commentators have remarked on Hasting’s distinct Mannerist design, not all in positive terms; Larmour states that No. 3 Donegall Street possesses ‘a High Victorian façade with a rather mannered treatment to some elements such as upturned consoles, over-large capitals on too-thin Colonnettes, and tapering flat pilasters.’ Patton similarly noted the ‘extraordinarily Mannerist decoration’ of the building but unlike Larmour who concluded that the building was ‘inelegant to say the least,’ Patton pointed out the ‘rather Celtic intertwining capitals at first floor, and slender red granite columns with massive Venetian capitals at third floor supporting fluted volutes that extend through the parapet to support ball finials’ (Larmour, p. 31; Patton, p. 125).

The First Survey Image records that by 1995 No. 3 Donegall Street was lying in a state of disrepair with several of the upper windows broken and the ground floor shopfront shuttered over. At some point, the interior of the building and that of the adjoining No. 1 Donegall Street (HB26/50/246), was lost. The building was listed in 1996 and c. 2006 the interiors of nos 1-3 Donegall Street, having lain vacant for at least a decade, were completely demolished with only the façades of the buildings being retained. As part of major project in c. 2008 new premisies wer built behind and supporting the original façades, which now front the Premier Inn Hotel; the ground floor of No. 3 forms part of the Four Corners Bar and Restaurant whilst the upper floors consist of hotel rooms.

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/C/1-44 – Annual Revisions 1863-1930
6. PRONI VAL/7/B/12/13 – Belfast Revaluation 1900
7. PRONI VAL/3/B/3/13 – First General Revaluation of Northern Ireland 1935
8. PRONI VAL/4/B/7/39 – Second General Revaluation of Northern Ireland 1956-72
9. PRONI Wills Catalogue (12 Feb 1883; 30 Jun 1930)
10. Belfast Street Directories (1877-1918)
11. First Survey Image – HB26/50/245 (1995)
12. Ordnance Survey map 130-13NE (1959-60)

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

Online Resources

1. Dictionary of Irish Architects - http://www.dia.ie

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

A. Style
B. Proportion
C. Ornamentation
J. Setting
K. Group value

Criteria for listing: historic interest

X. Local Interest
V. Authorship
Z. Rarity

Evaluation

A four storey building designed by William Hastings, 1876. Although only the original façade remains after reconstruction in the early 21st century it displays fine Victorian Italianate styling, with unusual exuberant Mannerist detailing. The building represents the changing commercial history in this area of the early city and the work of an architect of note.