1 Donegall Street, 4-6 Waring Street

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

A terraced four storey, with attic, Italianate building, 1872, designed by Thomas Jackson and Son, turning the corner of Waring Street and Donegall Street in the Cathedral Quarter of Belfast.

The mansard roof of modern metal sheeting with square dormer windows sits behind a stone parapet. Walls are lined render with decorative mouldings, polished black granite columns to windows and grey granite columns with rendered bases to ground floor. Decoration includes moulded cornice, string courses between each floor and window architraves and hoods, motifs to blocked keystones, foliate imposts; the elevation is framed by pilasters varying at each level: foliate caiptals and acroterian to parapet level; moulded insets to second and third floor level, rusticated to first floor. Windows to third floor are square headed tri-partite; to second floor are bi-partite with segmental arches and a central slender column; first floor matches the second but with round arched heads. The ground floor has square columns (central, right to south elevation is new) with plain capitals supporting a plain frieze and dentilled cornice. Windows to dormers are single pane metal, to upper floors are replacement 1/1 timber sashes and to ground floor are modern shop windows. The corner entrance with modern double doors is recessed behind two cast iron columns.

The south elevation is three sets of windows wide with one set of windows curving round the corner to the west. The ground floor has 7 columns (1:3:3).

The west elevation matches the south except for the ground floor which has 4 equally spaced columns.

The north elevation is abutted and obscured by HB26/50/245.

The east elevation is abutted and obscured by a 5 storey modern rendered building of equal height.

Setting

The building forms a corner of a major intersection in the Cathedral Quarter sitting directly on the pavement on the north side of Waring Street, turning in to Donegall Street where it adjoins HB26/50/245. On the other side of Waring Street are HB26/50/259 and Northern Whig HB26/50/60, facing across Donegall Street is the Northern Bank (Old Assembly Rooms) HB26/50/61.

Materials:
Roof: metal cladding
Walls: render
Windows: replacement timber sash
RWG: within construction.

Historical information

No. 1 Donegall Street, a four-storey stucco building (also incorporating nos 4-6 Waring Street), was constructed in 1872 and replaced a previous building that had stood at the corner of Donegall Street and Waring Street since the late-18th century; in 1868 this former property was occupied by the British & Irish Magnetic Telegraph Co. Who were the last tenants of the site prior to its demolition in c. 1870 (Belfast Street Directory – 1868). The current Italianate corner building was erected in 1872 to designs by Thomas Jackson & Son, a Belfast-based architectural firm which carried out a large number of contracts in the town centre and had then recently completed an extension to the Ulster Bank Buildings at nearby No. 33 Waring Street in 1869-70. The Irish Builder records that construction of the four-storey building commenced in the spring of 1872 and that the builder contracted to carry out the design was William McCammond of Antrim Street (Irish Builder, p. 133; Dictionary of Irish Architects).

Thomas Jackson & Son were commissioned to design the four-storey building for James and Greer Malcolmson, brothers who operated the London Tea House; grocers and wine merchants. The Malcolmson Bros. Owned No. 1 Donegall Street outright and were recorded as the lessors in the Annual Revisions, however they operated their business from their main property at no's 24-26 Castle Place. When completed, the new property at the corner of Donegall Street and Waring Street consisted of two retail units at ground level (the largest situated on Donegall Street and a smaller unit faced onto Waring Street) whilst the upper offices were let out to a number of private firms and companies.

The Annual Revisions note that the largest retail unit was first occupied by Joseph Wright & Co., a grocer and tea merchant who operated the Overland Tea House from the property; the ground floor unit on Waring Street was utilised as an office and in the 1870s was let by Edward Reilly, a flax merchant who traded between Belfast and Rotterdam. The upper offices were occupied by a variety of firms and organisations most of which were engaged in the textile industry; others included an accountancy and insurance agency, the offices and rooms of the Ulster Liberal Society, a solicitors firm and the offices of the Irish Educational Newspaper Co. Ltd. (Belfast Street Directory – 1877). In 1872 the Annual Revisions set the total rateable value of the building at £433.

By the mid-1880s Joseph Wright & Co. Had vacated the ground floor property when T. Edens Osborne’s cycle and hardware business, the Pneumatic Tyre Co., occupied the unit; similarly in 1886 Edward Reilly vacated the Waring Street office which was acquired by the metal foundry company Coombe, Barbour & Coombe. Operators of the Falls Foundry which supplied machinery for the booming textile industry, Coombe, Barbour & Coombe utilised the unit on Waring Street as central business offices for their factory which was based on North Howard Street off the Falls Road (Belfast Street Directory – 1880).

In 1900 the building was greatly decreased in value to approximately £282 15s. Under the Belfast Revaluation; 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.).

In 1901 No. 1 Donegall Street and nos 4-6 Waring Street was known as Overland House (in reference to the former occupant, the Overland Tea House). By 1906 the Donegall Street shop had passed to P. Mullan & Sons who operated a hairdressing salon from the site until 1911; Coombe, Barbour & Coombe continued to operate from the Waring Street office until c. 1910 when F. J. Preece & Co., wholesale woollen and trimming merchants came into possession of the site (Belfast Street Directories). In 1911 Crotty & Aiken, estate agents and property auctioneers occupied the Donegall Street unit and converted the shop and an office into an auction market room; the firm had previously held offices in the Commercial Buildings across Waring Street (for Northern Whig see HB26/50/060) and continued to operate from Overland House until at least the 1940s. By the end of the Annual Revisions, which were cancelled in 1930, the total rateable value of the building had once again decreased to £252 5s., following the downward trend shared by the rest of the buildings in the street (including the adjoining No. 3 Donegall Street – HB26/50/245).

By the First General Revaluation of property in Northern Ireland (1935) the Waring Street shop had been occupied by a Mr. William Johnston who converted the retail unit back into office premises; under the revaluation the value of Overland House and its upper offices was increased to £383, still a minor increase compared to other increases in the city centre at the same time. There was no further revaluation for over two decades due to the disruption caused by the outbreak of the Second World War; Overland House fortunately only received superficial damage during the Belfast Blitz of 1941 which severely damaged the neighbouring Northern Whig building and many of the nearby structures on Bridge Street, Waring Street and High Street. The 1943 Belfast Street Directory notes that during the war Crotty & Aiken continued to operate from Overland House, however by the 1950s the Donegall Street ground floor unit had been occupied by William McCalla & Co. Ltd., who utilised the space as offices (from 1958 McCalla also occupied the Waring Street unit); by the end of the second revaluation (1956-72) the total value of Overland House had been set at £833.

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 Donegal Street, in respect to the Marquis of Donegal, 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).

Patton states that the former building on the site was constructed prior to 1782 when it was occupied by a schoolmaster, David Manson; in the early decades of the 19th century the former dwelling was utilised by the Commercial Bank prior to its amalgamation by the Belfast Banking Co. In 1827. No. 1 Donegall Street and no's 4-6 Waring Street, known as Overland House for much of its history, was constructed in 1872 when Donegall Street was still recognised as a centre of the textile industry in Belfast and many of the early occupants of the building were associated with the expanding linen industry. However, by the late-19th century the building was predominantly utilised as office space for solicitors, estate agents and other firms. Between c. 1897 and 1930 the architectural firm E. & J. Byrne also operated from one of the upper offices.

By 1993 the ground floor of Overland House had long been converted into a restaurant known as the ‘Cornerhouse Restaurant.’ In that year the site lay vacant and the First Survey Image (1995) records that the ground floor was boarded up, the entire building, as well as the adjoining No. 3 Donegall Street (HB26/50/245) having fallen into a state of disrepair.T he 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. Irish Builder, Vol. 14 (1 May 1872)
10. Belfast Street Directories (1868-1918)
11. First Survey Image – HB26/50/246 (1995)
12. Ordnance Survey map 130-13NE (1959-60)

Secondary Sources

1. 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

X. Local Interest
V. Authorship

Evaluation

A four storey corner building designed by Thomas Jackson and Son 1872. Although only the original façade remains after reconstruction in the early 21st century it displays fine Victorian Italianate styling, with elaborate detailing. The building represents the changing commercial history in this area of the early city and the work of an architect of note.

General comments

Possible renumbering as HB26 50 246A with HB26 50 245 as 246B