Belfast Telegraph Offices

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

Attached multi-bay four-storey red brick corner office building, built c.1886. Square on plan at the junction of Library Street and Royal Avenue with a six-storey red brick extension to rear and a glazed extension abutting the north.

Pitched slate roof with several red brick chimneystacks set behind red brick parapet wall. Cast-iron rainwater goods and red brick wall laid in English garden wall bond. Battered red sandstone ashlar plinth course and deep moulded sandstone cornice supported on a series of sandstone console brackets and string course. Largely square-headed window openings with stop-chamfered red sandstone lintels, shared red sandstone sills and replacement metal windows.

Southeast elevation is articulated as five vertical bays framed by rusticated soldier quoin pilasters forming a Giant Ionic order to the second and third floors with Ionic capitals and voussoired sandstone arch surrounds to gauged brick round-headed window openings. Paired window openings to first and second floors with brick apron panels and continuous sill cornices to the first and second floors and topping a plain fascia to the ground floor windows. Decorative wrought-iron two-faced clock supported over the first floor with lettering stating; ‘Estd. / 1870 / Belfast Telegraph’

Chamfered corner bay has a shallow two-tier oriel window to the first and second floors built in red sandstone over a former round-headed door opening. Pair of round-headed window openings to the third floor with hood mouldings and opening onto the roof of the oriel with a blind arcaded balustrade/ parapet. Paired window openings to the oriel with continuous sill courses and blind panels to the canted sides. Oriel is corbelled out in sandstone over the doorcase with applied brass lettering; ‘TELEGRAPH’ and a series of corbels. Deep moulded polished black granite surround to round-headed door opening with stepped plinths, now filled with a replacement display window and replacement sandstone plinth wall. Door opening flanked by wall-mounted bronze cartouches, that to the left reading; ‘Belfast Telegraph / Newspapers Ltd / Registered Offices’ and to the right; ‘Belfast Telegraph / Offices’.

Southwest elevation is seven bays wide, articulated as per southeast elevation, with sandstone used in the first three bays (right) replaced with red brick to the left.

Southwest elevation extends at an angle as a six-storey red brick extension onto Little Donegall Street. The extension is six windows wide with bracketed cornice, sill courses and fascia continued from the main elevation. Generally gauged brick segmental-headed window openings with replacement steel windows. A further five-storey red brick extension abuts the northwest.

The rear and north side elevations are abutted by a large glazed and textured concrete system-built extension, built c.1975, as part of Belfast Telegraph.

Setting
Square on plan facing southeast onto Royal Avenue with a chamfered entrance bay and a secondary elevation fronting onto Library Street.

Roof : Slate
RWG: Cast-iron
Walling : Red brick / red sandstone
Windows: Replacement

Historical information

The current building was constructed as the office and printing works of the Belfast Telegraph in 1886 to designs by Henry Seaver and is first shown on the fourth edition OS map of 1901-2.

The Belfast Telegraph was established by brothers William and George Baird who had taken over the office of the former Belfast Mercury in Arthur Street in 1861. Initially the business was run as a job printing establishment but on 1st September 1870 the Baird brothers launched into the newspaper trade with the first issue of the Belfast Evening Telegraph. The paper was immediately successful and in 1886 the present premises were built to designs by Henry Seaver. The contractors were H & J Martin and the cost of construction £7,800 (Brodie; www.dia.ie).

On Monday 28th June 1886 the newspaper transferred to its new home in Royal Avenue (Brodie). The premises were originally entered through a doorway at the junction with Little Donegall Street and this doorway is emphasised with polished Castlewellan granite. Sandstone from Dumfries was used in the construction together with brick from the Ormeau brickworks. On the ground floor three of the bays along Royal Avenue were let out as shops with a deeply recessed porch giving access to the shops on each side and offices on the first and second floors, known as Telegraph Chambers. The printing presses, which could produce 40,000 copies per hour, were housed on the ground floor which was lit by a well light in the centre of the building. The machinery was powered by two 12 hp gas engines. The publishing department was found to the rear of the machinery room and a special entrance allowed the newsboys to procure their papers. A powerful hoist driven by a gas engine moved goods between ground and upper floors and electric bells and speaking tubes allowed communication between the various parts of the building. The young architect Henry Seaver was warmly praised in the Irish Builder for his design and supervision of the work and a brilliant career was predicted for him (Irish Builder).

The building was entered into valuation records in 1886 as the Telegraph offices, printing office and warehouse, valued at £360. Ground floor shops and offices were valued at £42, £32 and £48, while valuations for the offices in ‘Telegraph Chambers’ varied from £5 to £25. Early occupiers of the ground floor shops were Miss Milford, milliner, Thomas Hewitt, confectioner and the Royal Liver Friendly Society, while Henry Seaver, the architect of the building, took offices in Telegraph Chambers (Street Directories).

The building was extended to the rear several times during the 1910s and 20s, each addition being designed by the original architect Henry Seaver. In 1907 an extension of ferro-concrete on the Hennebique system was made by contractors McLaughlin & Harvey. James Hogg and Sons were the contractors for a further extension in 1911 and Seaver’s last addition was made in 1926. The ground floor continued to be let out as shops for many years and Brodie recalls Harry Moore’s chemist shop where Telegraph employees went for a ‘special magical elixir’ that cured hangovers (Brodie).

In 1982-3 a £6m investment was made in a substantial addition to the right of the present building which was commissioned from architects Ferguson and McIlveen. The extension allowed the Telegraph to update its press and publishing facilities and the building continues to fulfil its original function more than a century after it was first built (Specify).

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. Irish Builder Vol 28, 1 Jul 1886, 199-200
5. Specify March 1981

Secondary Sources

1. Brodie, M “The Tele – A History of the Belfast Telegraph” Belfast: Blackstaff Press, 1995
2. Patton, M “Central Belfast: An Historical Gazetteer” Belfast: Ulster Architectural Heritage Society, 1993
3. www.dia.ie

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

A. Style
B. Proportion
C. Ornamentation
J. Setting

Criteria for listing: historic interest

X. Local Interest
Y. Social, Cultural or Economic Importance

Evaluation

Attached multi-bay four-storey red brick corner office building built c1886 to designs by Henry Seaver. Square on plan with a six-storey red brick extension to rear and a glazed extension abutting the north. Although compromised by the loss of original windows and by internal alteration, much historic fabric and detailing survive and the use of ferro-concrete on the Hennebique system in the extension is of note. Its scale and detailing reflect the importance of Belfast’s 'premier newspaper' and the continuing expansion of the City centre in developments along Royal Avenue and in commerce. It is also among the first works of an architect of note.