Belfast Education and Library Board

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

A three storey red brick former warehouse sitting on the north side of Academy Street. Built by Samuel Stevenson 1899-1901.

The roof materials are varied: pavilion tower roofs are of Westmoreland slates surmounted by a lead roofed timber lantern with wrought iron finial; between the towers the roof is pitched natural slate with two hipped dormers with wrought iron finials; the remaining roof is flat covered by aggregate faced insulation slabs. Rainwater pipes are square uPVC. The walls are red brick laid in English garden wall bond with a black brick plinth; shallow brick piers rise full height, open arched balustrade to parapet, moulded brick cornice with dentilled machicolations under both with ball-flower decoration; moulded brick string over ground and first floor window arches; moulded stone and brick string with ball-flower to first floor cill level; sandstone corbels and copings to octagonal corner tower turrets, corbel to oriel window, sandstone Dutch gable with flattened arch over oriel window framed by octagonal piers with foliate carved corbels, arched machicolations, moulded strings, '1901' under shell in pediment. Windows to attic have round arches with bullnosed surrounds, exaggerated sandstone keystones and connecting moulded brick string; windows to second floor are round arched, bullnosed surrounds, sandstone cills; first floor are segmental arches with moulded brick string over, bullnosed surrounds, moulded brick string cills; windows to ground floor are segmental arches with connecting brick strings over, stepped bullnosed surrounds, exaggerated sandstone keystones, splayed grey granite cills. The entrance door is framed by polished and carved stone detailing; the secondary doorways are segmental arches similar to window openings. The windows are uPVC. The entrance door is replacement plate glass, the secondary doors replacement timber.

The front southeast elevation is symmetrical 23 windows wide. The central entrance under the oriel window and Dutch gable is flanked by bays of 3 windows with a secondary door and one window to the ground floor, adjacent is a bay of 2 windows with tower over and vehicular access doors to ground floor, and towards each corner three bays of 2 windows each to upper floors, one to ground floor. The entrance door is framed by polished red granite columns with Ionic capitals and polished grey granite plinths, a blocked moulded sandstone archivolt with carved monogram to keystone (obscured by modern sign); the canted oriel has a curved copper roof and dentilled cornice over replacement bay on stone corbel.

The side southwest elevation is 18 windows wide matching the southeast elevation; each bay has 2 windows to upper floors, one to ground floor; the second opening to the right on the ground floor is a doorway.

The rear northwest elevation has three brick piers to each corner, the remaining is flat brick. The second floor windows have flat lintels, the first floor segmental arches, the ground floor are segmental arches infilled with concrete lintels. The light well is painted brick with four modern infill towers of corrugated metal sheeting. The windows are generally segmental arches except those to the second floor northwest wall which are round arched, and the southeast wall which are flat arched.

The side northeast elevation is 18 windows wide in bays matching the west elevation. The second floor has 4 arched windows to the south, the remaining are square headed; the first floor match the southwest elevation; the ground floor match the northwest elevation with the exception of the segmental arched window on the south corner.

Setting

The building sits in the block bounded to the east by Academy Street, the north by Great Patrick Street, the south by Curtis Street and the west by Coar’s Lane. It faces 81-87 Academy Street(HB26/50/302), to the south of which is open car park which allows a clear view of St. Ann’s Cathedral. Adjacent on Curtis Street, across the narrow Coar’s Lane is The Calvary Christian Centre (HB26/50/308) and on the other side of Curtis Street is the modern University of Ulster.

Schedule

Roof: natural slate, flat unseen.
Walls: red brick
Windows: uPVC
RWGs: uPVC

Historical information

The present buildings in Academy Street were constructed in 1900-01 as offices and warehouses for the distillers Kirker, Greer & Co. Designs were prepared by Samuel Stevenson, a chiefly industrial and commercial architect, with offices in Royal Avenue. Mosaic work and wood block flooring was carried out by Ebner of London and the monogram of the company appears in the keystone of the main door (Irish Builder; www.dia.ie). The contract price was £15,000 and the building is first shown on the third edition OS map of 1901-2 (Valuation Records).

Kirker Greer, whose most well-known product was ‘The Shamrock Whisky’, had begun as Kirker & Co soda water manufacturers at number 24 Academy Street in 1870 (Patton). By 1880, Kirker Greer & Co were established as distillers and wine and spirit merchants trading from numbers 30-34 and in the Belfast Revaluation of 1900 the company are listed as owning almost all of the property on the west side of Academy Street from number 14 to number 62. In 1946 the company went into liquidation (PRONI) but the premises in Academy Street had been taken over some years earlier in 1917 by Brown, Cobbett & Co Ltd, distillers and blenders (Street Directories).

During the Second World War the building was taken over for use as Air Raid Precautions headquarters for Belfast and a reinforced concrete bomb shelter was constructed within the building, since used as the boiler room (Street Directories; Specify).

After the war, in 1947, the building passed to the Belfast Education Authority for use as the central clinic for their school health services. By 1960 several departments of the Belfast Education Authority (which became the Belfast Education and Library Board in 1973), including architects and further education had moved to the building. In May 1985, BELB vacated the building due to health and safety concerns and a £1.3m refurbishment took place to designs by Ferguson & McIlveen. The contractors were Gilbert Ash NI Ltd. The building was stripped internally of all non-load-bearing elements and doors, windows and roof were replaced (Specify). The building continues in use as the offices of the Belfast Education and Library Board.

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/7/B/9/16 Belfast Revaluation 1900
4. PRONI COM/40/1/K/21B Liquidator’s Accounts 1946
5. Street Directories 1900-1995
6. Irish Builder 15th April 1900
7. Specify, March 1988

Secondary Sources

1. Patton, M “Central Belfast: An Historical Gazetteer” Belfast: Ulster Architectural Heritage Society, 1993
2. www.dia.ie

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

A. Style
B. Proportion
C. Ornamentation
D. Plan Form
I. Quality and survival of Interior
K. Group value

Criteria for listing: historic interest

V. Authorship
X. Local Interest

Evaluation

A large three storey red brick former warehouse occupying a block on the northwest side of Academy Street, built 1899-1901 to designs by Samuel Stevenson. The building is of impressive scale with a strong articulation of the roofscape and rhythm of solid and void. Its historic character and detailing of brick and stone mouldings survive. Although it has been refurbished extensively significant historic detail and fabric survive. It is a good example of the type of major commercial warehousing and property that once characterised this part of Belfast and represents the work of a noteworthy local architect.