1 Victoria Square

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

Attached corner-sited four-storey (with attic) red brick commercial building, built c.1893, to the designs of W.J. Gilliland, with red sandstone pub shopfront spanning the entire ground floor. Redeveloped c.2006 as part of the development of Victoria Square shopping centre. Rectangular on plan facing south with an octagonal plan corner tower and gabled five-storey east side elevation fronting onto Upper Church Lane.

Pitched natural slate roofs with flat-roofed dormers set behind arcaded terracotta balustrade and large gabled wall-head dormers. Red brick walling laid in Flemish bond with terracotta cornice to the base of the parapet and over the first floor having Giant Corinthian order red brick pilasters to the second and third floors. Single-pane timber sash windows throughout.

Principal south elevation is fifteen windows wide with windows arranged in pairs. Deeply set gauged brick segmental-headed to the first floor, square-headed with red sandstone lintels to the second floor, gauged brick round-headed to the third floor. Shopfront comprises series of large display windows framed by large stop-chamfered red sandstone ashlar piers with foliate stops and decorative incised details supporting full-span painted fascia with dentilled cornice over.

Full-height octagonal plan corner tower, detailed as per south elevation, corbelled out over ground floor level with decorative terracotta courses and panels. Terracotta festoons span the capitals of the pilasters while the tower is surmounted by a tapered slate roof and topped by a lead domed finial.

Gabled east side elevation, detailed as per front elevation.

Painted rendered rear elevation within Victoria Square shopping centre and abutted by steel glazed stair.

Red brick west side elevation within Victoria Square shopping centre having steel I-beam lintels to fixed-pane glazing and glazed entrances to first and third floors.

Setting
Located at the junction of Victoria Street and Upper Church Lane and framing the east entrance to Victoria Square shopping centre.

Roof : Natural slate
RWG: Not seen
Walling: Red brick / red sandstone
Windows: Single-pane timber sash

Historical information

The present building was constructed in 1893 to designs by W J Gilliland as a warehouse for T & J McErvel, seed merchants and is first shown on the fourth edition OS map of 1901-2. The building was extended in 1897 and alterations were carried out in 1932 (www.dia.ie). The building is the only original structure to have survived the recent redevelopment of the area and has now become incorporated into the Victoria centre, with restaurants within the centre being housed in its upper floors. The ground floor is now the Kitchen Bar which was formerly located in premises nearby. Patton notes the carvings of ‘strawberries, plums, apples, pears, grapes, marrows, roses, primulas, lemons etc’ on the piers between shopfronts (Patton).

The building enters valuation records in 1894 as a shop, warehouse and yard on the site of 36-40 Waring Street, valued at £200 and leased from Lady Cowan by T & J McErvel. Following the extension of the warehouse over the site of number 42, the valuation was raised to £360 in 1899. T & J McErvel remained in the premises until the 1970s, although from the 1930s the building was shared with tenants such as the Pigs Marketing Board and the Canadian Government Emigration Department. Alterations were made to the building in 1932 to designs by Stephen A Orr but the nature of these is unclear (www.dia.ie). From 1980 the offices and shops were occupied by a succession of businesses and organisations including the Northern Ireland Council on alcohol (Street Directories).

During the 2004-8 redevelopment of the area, the former Kitchen Bar which had stood at number 18 Victoria Square was demolished and the bar relocated to the McErvel warehouse. The former Kitchen Bar, which dated back to 1872, was the haunt of artistes appearing at the Empire Theatre of Varieties at numbers 2 to 14 (Patton).

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/7/B/9/39 Belfast Revaluation 1900
4. PRONI VAL/12/B/43/C/1-45 (1863-1930)
5. Street Directories 1870-1995

Secondary Sources

1. Patton, M “Central Belfast: An Historical Gazetteer” Belfast: Ulster Architectural Heritage Society, 1993
2. www.dia.ie – Dictionary of Irish Architects online

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
J. Setting

Criteria for listing: historic interest

V. Authorship
X. Local Interest

Evaluation

Attached corner-sited four-storey (with attic) red brick seed warehouse built c1893 to designs by W J Gilliland. Red sandstone pub shopfront spanning the entire ground floor. Although compromised by extensive refurbishment during the redevelopment of the area, this High Victorian building exhibits an array of decorative terracotta and red sandstone elements to the exterior and the industrial framed structure and flooring surviving on (virtually) its original plan. This is a good and robust example of the warehouses developed in the late Victorian era as the City continued to flourish in all sectors. It is also an example of the work of an architect of note.

General comments

Previously 36-40 Victoria Square