4 Murray Street

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

Asymmetrical terraced six-storey brick and stone Jacobethan-style commercial building, dated 1910, as one of four similar warehouses to the designs of James Hanna. Rectangular on plan facing north and located in a cul-de-sac on the west side of College Square East.

Roof not visible behind red brick parapet wall with sandstone coping. Machine-made red brick walling laid in English garden wall bond. Square-headed transomed and mullioned window openings with sandstone frames, moulded sandstone sills and uPVC windows.

Asymmetrical front elevation is four windows wide with a three-tier canted oriel window to the left over the principal entrance and sandstone ashlar ground floor. Top floor is raised to the left bay having decorative corbels to the corners and an oval window formed in voussoired sandstone with keystones, that to the top having decorative scrolls. The central two windows are largely quadripartite, bipartite to the right bay with the fourth floor having a horizontal quadripartite window comprising a series of columns with cushion capitals resting on a single bracketed sill course with frieze and cornice over. Sandstone ashlar walling to the ground floor surmounted by a deep moulded cornice with a raised plinth course and three tripartite window openings. Round-headed door opening below the oriel to the left bay with the corbelled base having an acanthus moulding and carved digits; ‘1910’. Voussoired head with three keystones flanked by angled mouldings having foliate corbelled bases below impost level. Replacement double-leaf hardwood panelled doors with scrolled head and multi-paned overlight with a pair of hardwood panels to either side.

East side elevation abutted by adjoining infill building. Plainer red brick elevation extends southwards having flush concrete sills and lintel courses.

South rear elevation has glazed brick walling with windows to the right, largely blocked up.

West side elevation abutted by adjoining building No.5 (HB26/50/303B).

Setting

Located on the south side of Murray Street, a cul-de-sac to the west of College Square East overlooking the grounds to the Royal Academical Institution (HB26/50/023).

Roof :Not visible
RWG :Not seen
Walling: Red brick
Windows:uPVC

Historical information

Numbers 4-6 Murray Street and number 13-17 Grosvenor Road were constructed as four separate warehouses, three for handkerchief manufacturers (1908-10) and the fourth for a linen weaving company (1910-11) to designs by James A Hanna. The buildings are first shown on the sixth edition OS map of 1931.

Number four Murray Street was built to designs by James A Hanna in 1908-10 for the Belfast Linen Handkerchief Company. The building enters valuation records in 1911 as an office, warehouse and laundry valued at £500. The Belfast Linen Handkerchief Company remained here until the 1940s when the building passed to Richardson Sons J N Sons & Owden Ltd who were the occupiers until the 1970s. From the 1920s the premises were shared with governmental functions such as the Stationery Office, Record Office and the Ministry of Labour and by the mid-1980s the building was the offices of the Northern Ireland Housing Executive. According to Larmour, Hanna’s warehouses are ‘the most interesting of the Edwardian era and the years immediately following’(Larmour), although a photograph of the building dating from 1917 shows that it has been considerably altered since construction, principally at the roof line (Irish Builder 1917).

References:

Primary Sources

1. PRONI OS/6/1/61/4 – Fourth Edition OS Map 1901-2
2. PRONI OS/6/1/61/6 – Sixth Edition OS Map 1931
3. PRONI VAL/12/B/43/C/1-45 (1863-1930)
4. Street Directories (1900-1995)
5. Irish Builder 6th January 1917

Secondary Sources

1. “Industries of the North One Hundred Years Ago” Belfast: Friar’s Bush Press, 1986 (First published as ‘Industries of Ireland, Part 1. Belfast and the Towns of the North’ in 1891)
2. Larmour, P “Belfast, An Illustrated Architectural Guide” Belfast: Friar’s Bush Press, 1987
3. Patton, M “Central Belfast: An Historical Gazetteer” Belfast: Ulster Architectural Heritage Society, 1993
4. www.dia.ie

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

A. Style
B. Proportion
C. Ornamentation
D. Plan Form
H-. Alterations detracting from building
K. Group value

Criteria for listing: historic interest

X. Local Interest

Evaluation

Asymmetrical terraced six-storey brick and stone commercial building dated 1910 to designs by James A Hanna. Although the loss of original windows compromises the external appearance of this building, much historic fabric survives with decorative stone detailing, in a loosely Jacobethan idiom, repeated in the adjoining buildings. A major complex of buildings(HB26/50/303A-D) reflecting the growth in the textile industry in the early Twentieth century. The later changes in use to office and public administration are also reflective of the changing circumstances with respect to industry in the City centre .This group is the work of an architect of note and among the most interesting of the Edwardian era and the years immediately following.