48-50 Fountain Street

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

A three storey, Victorian building, dated 1888, in Dutch style by Godfrey Ferguson situated on the east side terrace of Fountain Avenue in Belfast city centre.

Pitched natural slate roof behind a crow stepped gable with modern rooflights; round uPVC rainwater pipe to left side, square metal to right side. Wall of red brick mainly English Garden Wall bond with some herringbone panels; sandstone parapet copings, string courses and window-head arch panels to first floor; cast iron date 1888 fixed to gable, two digits to either side of uppermost window. Giant brick pilasters and curvilinear arched inset panels frame the bays of the first and second floors with a central oval window at the apex; second floor windows have round arched heads; first floor window heads are square with inset moulded arches over. The ground floor has the original four pilasters with 'roundel and triglyph' capitals, a modern fascia and original moulded cornice over. The apex window is multi-paned timber, first and second floor windows are uPVC, ground floor has modern shop windows flanking a modern doorcase and sliding doors.

The west elevation is symmetrical around the stepped pedimented gable with central circular window. The second floor has two windows with flanking brick panels; the first floor four windows; the ground floor has four pilasters, the central entrance bay is slightly wider than those to either side.

The north elevation is abutted and obscured by a four storey 20th century building.

The south elevation is now an internal wall with doorways leading to a corridor running full width on each floor. These corridors are accessed by a stair in the 1990s extension to The Linenhall Library (HB26/50/013).

The east elevation is abutted and obscured.

Setting

The building sits hard on the pavement to the east side of the busy pedestrianised Fountain Avenue. It has a 1990s link to the south connecting it with The Linenhall Library (HB26/50/013) beyond which is Scottish Provident HB26/50/012 which creates a visual stop to the end of Fountain Avenue.

Materials:
Roof slate
Walls brick
Windows timber and uPVC
RWG metal and pvc.

Historical information

Nos 48-50 Fountain Street, a three-storey redbrick building with crowstepped gable above, was constructed in 1888 (as the cast iron numbering on the gable ascribes). The building was first recorded in the Annual Revisions as a warehouse owned by Frederick Kinahan of Lyle & Kinahan, a wine and spirit merchant firm. Lyle & Kinahan had occupied the site at nos 48-50 Fountain Street from as early as 1861 and also had premises on Donegall Place near its western corner with Donegall Square. The Annual Revisions note that when it was first completed nos 48-50 Fountain Street was valued at £85 and was managed by a Mr. George Benson.

The Ordnance Survey maps note that nos 48-50 Fountain Street stretched back, and connected to, Lyle & Kinahan’s other premises located on Donegall Place. In 1897 the warehouse was leased by Lyle & Kinahan to the Prince’s Café who utilised the upper floors as dining space; as a result of the conversion, the value of the building was increased to £100 in that year. However, under the Belfast Revaluation of 1900, the three-storey former warehouse was further increased in value to £180; the valuer noted that the management of the Princes Café had paid £1,000 for the lease in 1897.

The Prince’s Café continued to occupy nos 48-50 Fountain Street for a number of years; however by 1907 the building lay vacant. In the following year the site was purchased by the stock and share brokers, Steen & Milliken, and was reoccupied by Dunn, Johnston & Co., who returned the property to its original use as a warehouse. Dunn, Johnston & Co. Was a wholesale supplier company and continued to utilise the site on Fountain Street until at least 1918. The Annual Revisions note that the firm only occupied the 1st floor of the building and that the ground floor store was valued along with No. 53 Donegall Place to its rear (No. 53 Donegall Place had formerly been Lyle & Kinahan’s property but by 1918 was known as City Hall Chambers and consisted of a number of offices). In 1918 the ground floor of nos 48-50 Fountain Street was occupied by a wartime charitable organisation, Lord Roberts’ Memorial Workshops for Disabled Soldiers and Sailors, which aimed to create employment for ex-servicemen in the aftermath of the First World War (Belfast Street Directory – 1918).

By 1930 the ground floor of nos 48-50 Fountain Street had been converted back into a café operated by a Ms. Edith Gray, whilst the upper floors continued to be utilised as stores and warerooms for other firms which included Vyse & Cons & Co. (a clothing firm), and Riddel’s Ltd., wholesale and hardware merchants (Belfast Street Directories); the total value of nos 48-50 stood at £208 by the cancellation of the Annual Revisions in 1930.

By the First General Revaluation of property in Northern Ireland (1935), both Riddel’s and Edith Gray had vacated their parts of the building; the ground floor was now utilised as a shop (although no details of it are known aside from the fact it was managed by a Mr. John Mawhinney). The total value of nos 48-50 was increased to £390 under the revaluation. Due to the outbreak of the Second World War, it was over two decades before nos 48-50 was next valued in the second general revaluation which commenced in 1956. By the 1950s the ground floor was, once more, converted into a café operated by a Ms. Masie Burrows, whilst the second floor continued to be utilised as a store for a local distribution firm, H. Morrow & Co. Ltd. The first floor of the building, formerly utilised as a warehouse, had been converted into a nightclub by 1956; in that year it was known as the Embassy Club but in 1959 the club vacated the property which was then occupied by Gorse-Lodge Enterprises Ltd., a garden ornament manufacturing company. By the end of the second revaluation the total value of nos 48-50 Fountain Street stood at £944.

Fountain Street, stretching between Wellington Place and Castle Street, was originally only the northern end of a longer street known as the Mall in the pre-Georgian period; however with the construction of the White Linen Hall in 1784 this was shorted and renamed Stable Lane for a short period, before being renamed Water Street in respect to the presence of at least two fountains on the street; by 1819 the name had been changed to Fountain Street (Belfast Street Directory – 1819; Patton, pp 150-51).

Nos 48-50 Fountain Street was designed by Godfrey William Ferguson (c. 1855-1939), a Belfast-based architect who had served as an apprentice to Charles Lanyon before establishing an independent practise in Belfast in 1883. Nos 48-50 Fountain Street was once of the earliest contracts completed by Ferguson recorded by the Dictionary of Irish Architects; later in his career Ferguson was the preferred architect of the Northern Banking Co. And also worked as a local magistrate, being appointed High Sheriff for Co. Antrim in 1935. Larmour states that Fergusons work was influenced by his travels in Northern Europe during the 1870s and by his time working under J. J. Stevenson and E. R. Robinson, two London-based architects at the forefront of the Queen Anne Revival. Larmour states that nos 48-50 Fountain Street expresses the early influences of Ferguson, designed as ‘a quaint brickwork gable, very Dutch in form, with a typical mixture of Queen Anne Revival motifs – modelled pilasters, cusped tracery windows, stepped gables copings and a miniature pediment on top’ (Larmour, p. 52; Dictionary of Irish Architects).

By 1994 Patton records that the ground floor of the building continued to be utilised as a café, in that year the café was known as Chalet d’Or. Field inspection finds that in the 1990s the building was linked at the first and second floors to the adjoining Linen Hall Library (HB26/50/013B); the upper floors were converted and are now utilised as lecture rooms for the library. Nos 48-50 Fountain Street was listed in 1997 and since that time the ground floor unit has continued to operate as commercial premises; until recently the ground floor had been occupied by a gift shop known as Past Times, however it vacated the site in c. 2010 but the retail unit continues to operate.

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/D/1-14– Annual Revisions 1862-1896
6. PRONI VAL/12/B/43/C/20-42 - Annual Revisions 1897-1930
7. PRONI VAL/7/B/9/44 – Belfast Revaluation 1900
8. PRONI VAL/3/B/3/14 – First General Revaluation of Northern Ireland 1935
9. PRONI VAL/4/B/7/39 – Second General Revaluation of Northern Ireland 1956-1972
10. Belfast Street Directories (1819-1918)
11. First Survey Image – HB26/50/273 (No Date)
12. 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.

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
I. Quality and survival of Interior

Criteria for listing: historic interest

X. Local Interest
V. Authorship

Evaluation

A three storey Victorian red brick building, originally a warehousse, designed in 1888 by Godfrey Ferguson. The building is in an unusual Dutch style with a well articulated elevation. Although compromised by extensive remodelling much historic fabric survives and this building remains one of the few nineteenth-century structures extant on Fountain Street. The highly decorative façade and its history represent an interesting phase in the development of commerce in the City.