Frames Snooker Hall

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

A distinctive and well proportioned red brick Edwardian commercial building, located in the Scotch and Cathedral Quarter. Standing in a pivotal triangular site, it is very visible from between the Central Library and the Belfast Telegraph offices on Royal Avenue. It stands between four and five stories in height - its long sides being flanked by Little Donegall Street and Library Street, with Union Street to the rere. Externally, the building can be divided into three parts, namely the dramatic eastern curved frontage with its four storey conical tower commanding a view of the Royal Avenue-Library Street junction; behind this the main central three-and-half storey section and behind this to the rere, a five-storey block backing onto Union Street.

The Turret and its Rere Elevations: The four-storey red-brick turret on the east side has a French-style a conical slated roof crowned by a wooden octagonal lantern. To the rere of the turret and architecturally forming an integral part of it on both the Library Street and Little Donegall Street elevations, are two additional bays of three storeys in height.
The ground floor and first floor of the turret have glazed ‘shop front’ windows, with five large panes, whose wooden vertical glazing bars have cast iron columns behind – a relic of the Edwardian period when these were furniture showrooms. The present wooden glazing bars are modern on both floors, as is the large wooden shop facia with the word ‘frames’ emblazoned in large capital letters. The ground floor windows sit on a low outward sloping polished stone base. Both the third and fourth floors of the turret each contain five windows, all with sliding sash of one over one. The third floor windows have cambered heads; those on the fourth floor have straight heads, while all have brick label-mouldings which link to one another as a string course. The sill of the fourth floor windows also forms part of a moulded brick string course. Decorative brick roundels (patera), four in all, are placed between the window labels of the third floor. Immediately above the label moulding/string course of the fourth floor windows runs a machicolated cornice of moulded brick. Above this are outward stepped eaves, while the conical slated roof above has a slight sprocket.
Surmounting the roof is a wooden octagonal lantern (currently painted white but originally a brown colour) with leaded hipped roof and light decorative metal finial. The lantern sides each contain a dummy window (painted black), each with depressed or three-centred heads, recessed architraves and false spandrels, the latter to give the impression from below that they contained windows. Between each of these false windows, projecting into the roof, are stepped diagonal buttresses with scrolled coping.
To the rere of the turret and architecturally forming an integral part of it are two additional bays of three storeys in height. Both these elevations (Library Street and Little Donegall Street) have a solid brick parapet surmounted by moulded brick coping. Below this parapet lies a moulded brick eaves and below this a machicolated cornice of moulded brick – both of which run the full nine bays of the central block (see below). As with the other bays of this central block on both sides, the two bays behind the turret are divided from one another by pilasters surmounted at top, just below the eaves, by a false-buttress coping. The three pilasters behind the turret, unlike the other pilasters of the central block (see below) are broken by capitals on both the ground and first floors, with plinths at their bases. The pilasters on the Little Donegall Street elevation are however, very much broader on both the ground and first floors than those on the Library Street front, because they flank the main entrance here.
The second floor (third level) elevations behind the turret each contain three cambered-headed windows, all identical to, and on the same level as the windows of the turret itself. All have label mouldings running as string coursing (as on the turrets) and all the windows have sliding-sashes of one over one. Two of these window openings are placed within one bay. The moulded brick sills of these second floor (third level) windows are part of a string course running around the turret.
The bay immediately adjacent to the turret on both street elevations is occupied by a large glazed shop window; that on Library Street has three small panes and a facia above. On the Little Donegall Street elevation the adjacent bay at this level contains another large glazed window with facia board above, while on the Library Street elevation this bay is occupied by two cambered headed windows, each with sliding sashes of one over one. The two ground floor bays on the Library Street front are currently plain cement-rendered and red painted walls, while on the Little Donegall Street elevation the two ground floor bays contain the main entrance and a picture window, the latter subdivided into three units with top-hung sashes. The entrance itself, set back behind the pilasters, is through a pair of modern double wooden doors, each with glass panel, with large glass panes over.

The Central Block Elevations: The central part of the building, three-and-half stories in height, is of seven bays on the Library Street elevation and eight bays on the Little Donegall Street front. On both elevations the bays are surmounted by a machicolated cornice below a brick eaves; each bay is divided from each other by plain pilasters; these are surmounted at top, just below the eaves, by a false-buttress coping. Unlike the bays behind the turrets (above) these pilasters are not broken by capitals and have no plinths. All the windows on the Little Donegall Street elevation, on the first and second floor, have plain cambered surrounds, with sills that occupy the area between each pilaster; the windows on the Library Street front are the same, save that in one bay they have been replaced by pairs of modern windows on both floors; the windows in the bay at the west end, four storeys in height, light the staircase. The bays on the ground floor are all rendered with cement and currently painted red on both elevations. On the Library Street front there are four cambered headed windows and two doorways, while a further bay, formerly a window, now contains two small openings, one with a ventilation box.
The ground floor on the Little Donegall Street elevation contains two doors, three windows (lighting the ‘Library Bar’), a blank bay (formerly with a window) and one bay containing a steel roll-and-shutter opening for vehicle access to the interior. Immediately above this at the very top of the building there is a brick tower with prominent eaves, built adjacent to the Union Street Block (see below) c.1930, to faciliate a lift shaft. The attic floor originally relied upon skylights to light rooms.

The Union Street Block: A five-storey block to the rere of the complex constitutes a visually separate unit. It was built about five years after the main block, but in an identical architectural style. The Library Street elevation is four bays, the rere elevation (along Union Street) is eleven bays, and the northern Little Donegall Street front is also four bays, the latter being linked to the Union Street façade by a curved junction, with door and tripartite window on each level above. The windows in the three central bays along Union Street are more widely spaced that the others and are flanked by downpipes, whose hoppers lie just below the cornice, where there are openings in the base of the parapet. There is a similar downpipe in the centre of the south front and another on the north elevation flanking the curved junction.
The elevations of the block are crowned by a castellated brick parapet, supported on a machicolated cornice of moulded brick, similar to that found elsewhere on the building. The upper top floor windows, eleven on the rere façade (Union Street), four on the south front (Library Street), three on the north front (Little Donegall Street) and a tripartite window in the curved junction, are all square headed and mostly contain side opening casements (all modern). The moulded brick label mouldings above all the windows are linked, as a string course around the block.
The windows of the third floor (fourth level) are taller than those above, have cambered heads (save the tripartite windows at the Little Donegall Street junction), no label mouldings and mostly contain modern sashes of one over one. On the second floor (third level) the windows also have cambered heads and no associated mouldings. At the south end (Library Street) there are two picture windows, and the at the south end of the Union Street façade there are also two picture windows – while the window frames here are new the openings are original.
The window sills of all the second floor windows are linked to form a plain projecting cornice. These are supported by wide brick pilasters, which frame the fenestration of the ground and first floors on the south and rere fronts. Below this cornice, the first floor windows on the Union Street façade comprise five picture windows, with only rectangular window (camber headed) in place. The south elevation similiarly has two picture windows (all original features), but on the north front (Little Donegall Street) there are three cambered-headed windows in place. On the first and second floors one of these has a modern metal balcony.
The first floor tripartite window at the Little Donegall Street junction have polished red granite pilasters, matching the pilasters that flank the door at ground floor level. These pilasters have plain cornices and plinths, but the original flanking window openings are now blocked and the former door is now occupied by modern double-doors.
The ground floor walls on the north, west and south sides have been cement rendered in recent decades and are currently painted red. The three former camber-headed window opening on the north side (Little Donegall Street) have been blocked. On the rere or Union Street elevation, all the original windows have also been blocked and the walls cement rendered; this wall contains three modern picture windows (protected by metal grids) and a centrally placed door. The original ground floor windows on the south elevation have also been replaced by a door flanked by two modern picture windows with metal grill protection.

Historical information

A remarkable surviving late Victorian and Edwardian furniture showroom and factory, designed by William Fennell for Watson
cabinet makers. Formerly known as 'Library House' it has been called 'Frames' since the 1970s.
The flat iron site occupied by 'Frames' had its origin around the 1770s expansion of Belfast. It is first shown on the 1791 map of the city - flanked by Little Donegall Street, Union Street and Mustard Street (later Library Street). The present development of this area followed the creation of the Royal Avenue in 1880-1 by Belfast Corporation - a grand late imperial urban statement which had a profound impact upon the surrounding area. The 'Library House', as this building was originally called, is part of a secondary wave of development following the completion of the Royal Avenue building in the 1880s and early 1890s. It is of red brick with internal cast iron supports (or possibly mild steel) and is of between four and five storeys in height. It was built in two phases from 1898 and 1907 - the rere five storey block adjoining Union Street being constructed about five years after completion of the centre block and tower. It is believed that the reason for the two phase construction lay in the former presence of a terrace of houses along Union Street, which first had to be acquired and demolished before the whole complex could be completed. The architect was William J. Fennell, a Scot, and the client was Robert Watson & Co, Cabinet makers and Upholsterers, who seems to have been based in Castle Place previously.
The building was designed primarily as a furniture showroom and a manufacturing furniture warehouse. There is a drawing of the building c.1898 showing it without the five storey block to the rere on Union Street. This drawing and an old photograph of about 1912-14, shows the large glazed windows on the ground and first floors of the tower with their metal supports; the facia obove the first floor window had 'Library House' emblazoned, while the ground floor had Robert Watson & Co on its facia. Watson's eventally went out of business after the war and in the 1970s it became an entertainment complex, having beent acquired (in a poor condition) by the present owners, Gracemount Enterprises. Initially, they made a double doored entrance into the centre of the tower bow with the letters 'Frames Snooner' over the door. In the 1980s the ground floor room, with its notable staircase, was converted into a café, while at this time a bar and lounge was made opening onto Little Donegall Street. By this period much of the building had been converted into snooker rooms and into areas for gaming machines. In the 1990s a tanning salon was installed on part the first floor.
References:
Irish Builder (1907), p358
City Hall Archives - plans and elevations (not seen)
Tohill, J.J (1990) Pubs of the North, p169-70.
Patton, Marcus (1993) Central Belfast, p212.
Belfast Telegraph, 13 June, 1989.
David Gordon. Belfast Telegrapgh, 9th January 2007.

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

A. Style
B. Proportion
C. Ornamentation
D. Plan Form
F. Structural System
I. Quality and survival of Interior
J. Setting

Criteria for listing: historic interest

V. Authorship
X. Local Interest

Evaluation

This building occupies an impressive location off Royal Avenue, and is undoubtably one of the best surviving examples in Belfast of a large commercial premises on an island site. Since it was completed in Edwarian times, it has changed comparatively little, both interally and externally. The elevations are well proportioned and incorporate good brick detailing. Internally, all the the original cast iron (or mild steel) columns and riveted beams have survived intact. It is the largest and best surviving example of an Victorian-Edwardian commercial furniture saleroom and factory in Ireland.