8 - 18 CASTLE PLACE

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

Attached asymmetrical multi-bay four-storey faience Art Nouveau former department store, dated 1905, built to the designs of Blackwood and Jury, extended to the east in 1907, with replacement shopfronts inserted to the ground floor. Wedge-shaped on plan, fronting north onto Castle Place.

Pitched slate roofs set behind decorative curvilinear parapet with drum to the east at attic level. Rainwater goods not visible. Front facade articulated as five vertical sections flanked by engaged octagonal piers rising from second floor to parapet level, those to either end surmounted by cartouche yielding dragons. Three alternating sections topped by semi-circular gablets with pale green faience Art Nouveau cartouches. To the inner east section the drum has a large shouldered elliptical-headed window opening with corbelled out balconette and green faience spandrels over, flanked by octagonal piers topped by cartouches and interrupting a full-span modillioned cornice (cement rendered to remainder of drum). The inner west section is topped by a decorative curvilinear gable with slender octaogonal pilasters surmounted by finials and framing date plaque with raised digits; ‘1905’ and an oculus below with radial keystones. Coursed faience walling to the upper two floors, largely glazed to the ground and first floors with red faience piers framing each section to the first floor surmounted by cartouche panels. Square-headed window openings with faience architrave surrounds and original hardwood casement windows, replacement hardwood fixed-pane display windows to ground and first floors.

North front elevation is five windows wide with three replacement shopfronts inserted to the ground floor surmounted by a full-span replacement fascia. Large square-headed display window openings to the first floor of each section also surmounted by replacement fascae and full-span red faience trim. Large semi-circular window openings to the second floor spanning each section with architrave surround punctuated by green faience keystones embellished with Art Nouveau motifs and matching spandrel panels. The second floor is topped by a full-span faience architrave and frieze, modillioned to the three gableted sections and having corbelled out balconettes to the remaining two sections. Diminutive square-headed window openings to the third floor, detailed as above, with decorative iron balconettes to the gabled section and the drum section.

East side elevation abutted by adjoining mid twentieth-century building.

Rear elevation abutted by extensions to buildings fronting onto Castle Lane and Castle Arcade.

West side elevation abutted by adjoining building No.20-22 (HB26/50/097B).

Setting

North front elevation fronting onto Castle Place in the commercial centre of Belfast City Centre.

Roof : Natural slate
RWG : Not visible
Walling: Glazed ceramic (Faience)/brick
Windows : timber

Historical information

The Castle Buildings (nos 8-18 Castle Place), a four-storey Art Nouveau building was constructed in two phases; the symmetrical central bays were the first to be constructed in 1904-05 and were designed by Blackwood & Jury. An architectural partnership formed in c. 1901 by William Blackwood and Percy Morgan Jury, Blackwood & Jury practised under this name until 1973 making the Castle Buildings one of the firm’s earliest contracts. The Irish Builder records that the Castle Buildings were designed for Crawford McCullagh & Co., who the Belfast Street Directories note were merchants of silk and fancy drapery (Irish Builder, p. 884; Dictionary of Irish Architects). Upon its completion the Castle Buildings were valued at £1,700 in the Annual Revisions.

In 1907 the Castle Buildings were extended to the east when No. 8 Castle Place, a cutlery and silversmith shop owned by a Mr. Thomas McClelland, was demolished and the easternmost bays of the building were erected. The extension incorporated a circular drum tower at the fifth floor and was also designed by Blackwood & Jury in the same style as the earlier sections. No. 8 Castle Place was once again occupied by Thomas McClelland who had operated his business from the previous building on the site; the Annual Revisions valued the extension separately from the rest of the Castle Buildings at £390; the total value of the Castle Buildings therefore stood at £2,090 by 1907. There was no alteration to the value of the structure until the end of the Annual Revisions in 1930 at which time the total rateable value of the site had been increased to £2,610. This increase was partially attributable to alteration work being carried out in 1927-28 to McCullagh & Co.’s property; the alterations were executed by Samuel Stevenson & Sons, one of the family firm’s earliest commissions (Irish Builder, p. 148).

Under the First General Revaluation of property in Northern Ireland (1935) the value of the Castle Buildings was further increased to £3,810. The Castle Buildings escaped major damage during the 1941 Belfast Blitz when bomb damage levelled many of the buildings on neighbouring High Street and Bridge Street; the 1943 Belfast Street Directory notes that by that time Thomas McClelland had vacated No. 8 Castle Place which was occupied by the jewellery firm, H. Samuel Ltd; by that year the western retails units, formerly occupied as a single department store by McCullagh & Co., were individually occupied by a number of private businesses. In 1943 nos 10-12 Castle Place was occupied by a clothing store known as Castle Buildings Ltd, whilst the adjoining nos 14-16 was the premises of Swears & Wells Ltd., local furriers; the final retail unit (No. 18) was occupied by Wallis & Co. in 1943, the clothing firm continued to occupy the site until at least the late-20th century (Belfast Street Directory – 1943).

In the aftermath of the Second World War the Castle Buildings were included in the second revaluation (1956-72) which greatly increased the total value of the site to £7,392. In 1958 Wallis’ acquired the adjoining Nos 20-22 Castle Place (see HB26/50/097B) and extended its clothing store into the Victorian warehouse which is more than 50 years earlier that its Art Nouveau neighbour. The extension work resulted in the increase in the individual value of No. 18 to £3,424 raising the total value of nos 8-18 to £8,936 by the end of the revaluation in 1972.

The Castle Buildings are amongst the earliest buildings to have survived the demolition and commercial redevelopment of Castle Place which Patton described as ‘the hub of Victorian Belfast.’ Castle Place was originally part of High Street and the 1685 map of Belfast notes that it ran along the original flow of the river Farset; Belfast Castle (burned down in 1708) was located on the south side of the river and lent its name to the streets, lanes and entries of the immediate area. By 1791 the western portion of High Street was known as Grand Parade and was an area frequently utilised for military processions (in the late-18th century the Volunteers marched through the street as part of their Bastille Day celebrations). The thoroughfare was not renamed Castle Place until the early-19th century and the Castle Buildings lay on almost the exact location of the original Belfast Castle (Patton, p. 53).

The Castle Buildings, when originally completed in 1905, consisted of nos 10-18 (the three largest central bays); the symmetrical design was based on the Tudor style of the original Belfast Castle, however the circular drum tower added in 1907 bears no resemblance to the 17th century castle as depicted in historical illustrations. Although harkening back to Belfast’s origins in its resemblance to Belfast Castle, the Castle Building’s design was carried out in the modern Art Nouveau movement of the Edwardian period which advocated free flowing decoration and cheerful aestheticism incorporating a variety of international influences. Dixon states that the Castle Buildings incorporated ‘very free assembly of historical details [including] perhaps the most original and distinctive feature of Art Nouveau design, the ‘whiplash curve’ [which] is used in the relief decoration and balcony ironwork’ to designs by William Greer (Dixon, p. 178). Larmour described the Castle Buildings as ‘the most striking Art Nouveau façade in Ireland with well modeled frieze and spandrel panels of swirling pomegranates and foliage (Larmour, p. 74). Brett described the façade as an example of how ‘gradually, the new styles of the new century reached Belfast’ (Brett, p. 60). The extension, carried out in 1907, was undertaken by McLaughlin & Harvey; the official history of the architectural firm records that the building was finished in ‘Carrara’ ware faience, a popular material in the early-20th century, which was executed in ‘a soft cream colour, relieved by enrichments od the palest green’ (Watson, p. 115).

The Castle Buildings were erected for Crawford McCullagh (1868-1948) who, aside from being manager of McCullagh & Co. Silk Merchants, was also involved in politics, serving as High Sheriff of Belfast in 1911 and Lord Mayor of Belfast between 1914 and 1917; McCullagh served a lengthy second term as Lord Mayor between 1931 and 1946 prior to his death in 1948. It was during McCullough’s second term in office that nos 10-18 Castle Place, formerly a single department store, was subdivided into individual retail units and leased out to private businesses. The Castle Buildings were listed in 1979 and since that time have continued to be utilised as commercial premises; the original Art Nouveau shopfronts have been removed from all of the ground floor whilst the conversion of nos 18-22 Castle Place into a single property has resulted in the installation of a modern shopfront which connects the starkly contrasting Victorian and Edwardian buildings. Despite the alteration of the original ground floor retail units and the inappropriate connection between nos 18 and 20-22 Castle Place, the Castle Buildings remain one of the finest examples of the Art Nouveau movement in Northern Irish.

References

Primary Sources

1. PRONI OS/6/1/61/1 – First Edition Ordnance Survey map 1832-33
2. PRONI OS/6/1/61/2 – Second Edition Ordnance Survey Map 1858
3. PRONI OS/6/1/61/3 – Third Edition Ordnance Survey Map 1901-02
4. PRONI OS/6/1/61/4 – Fourth Edition Ordnance Survey Map 1931
5. PRONI OS/6/1/61/5 – Fifth Edition Ordnance Survey Map 1938
6. PRONI VAL/12/B/43/C/34-42 - Annual Revisions 1897-1930
7. PRONI VAL/3/B/3/14 – First General Revaluation of Northern Ireland 1935
8. PRONI VAL/4/B/7/38 – Second General Revaluation of Northern Ireland 1956-1972
9. Irish Builder, Vol. 48 (3 Nov 1906); Vol. 70 (18 Feb 1928)
10. Belfast Street Directories (1907-1943)
11. First Survey Image – HB26/50/097 (1977)

Secondary Sources

1. Brett, C. E. B., ‘Buildings of Belfast: 1700-1914’ Belfast: Friar’s Bush Press, 1985.
2. Larmour, P., ‘Belfast: An illustrated architectural guide’ Belfast: Ulster Architectural Heritage Society, 1987.
3. Patton, M., ‘Central Belfast: An historical gazetteer’ Belfast: Ulster Architectural Heritage Society, 1993.
4. Watson, F. G., ‘Building over the centuries: A history of McLaughlin & Harvey’ Mallusk: Nicholson & Bass, 2010.

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

R. Age
S. Authenticity
T. Historic Importance
V. Authorship
X. Local Interest

Evaluation

Attached asymmetrical multi-bay four-storey faience clad Art Nouveau former department store, dated 1905 and built to designs by Blackwood & Jury - extended to the east in 1907. Replacement shopfronts inserted to the ground floor. Often cited as the best Art Nouveau building in Ireland, this decorative structure has lost its original ground and first floor detailing but the upper floors survive, including the ornamental parapet, gables and drum. Although compromised by the loss of significant historic fabric and detailing, much survives and this is a highlight of early Twentieth-century architecture in Belfast and the work of a practice of note.

General comments

Previously HB26/50/097A - C