Complete Entertainment Exchange

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

A symmetrical, three-storey three-bay steel-framed building of the Art Deco movement. Built c.1933, as commercial premises for Montague Burton, to the designs of Harry Wilson and located on Ann Street, at the corner of Telfair Street. Largely rectangular on plan, having faience clad panels to primary elevations with ornate decorative motifs and a lower three-storey red-brick return to rear.

Flat roof of undetermined material, concealed behind parapet, with stepped faience-clad solid parapets to northern portion and red-brick parapets to southern end. Concealed rainwater goods with some uPVC elements and replacement metal down pipes to south block. Walling is generally clad in panels of faience across upper floors of principal elevations; remainder are red-brick laid to English garden wall bond. Main facades embellished with variety of ornate panels displaying variegated influences including classicism, the zigzags of Cubism and most notably, a pair of stylized elephant heads. Windows are generally recessed, multi-pane timber framed arrangement of frosted glass, with a panel containing zigzag motif separating the first and second floors and heavily moulded continuous cill course to first floor windows. Ground floor of main north proportion has been entirely shopped having aluminum framed windows and door with modern plastic fascia and signage over.

Principal elevation faces north, three openings wide with the central windows having narrow windows on each side. Windows vertically separated by moulded piers either side of centre which extend from above fascia, rising to lintel of second floor; each is topped by a stylized elephant head. Similar panels with an interlinking zigzag motif flank the outer side of the central windows, linked by a horizontal panel which extends across the central bay. Arrangement is surmounted by a blank elongated panel having triangulated motifs to outer edges; stepped parapet above with a decorative motif to centre. Ground floor is shopped (of no interest).

East elevation has a stepped parapet; remaining elevation is blank and abutted by adjoining building.

South elevation is three-storeys, blank red-brick with recessed section to far-left side. Vestiges of previous abutting building remain.

West elevation has faience clad left-side with single window on upper floors (similarly detailed as principal elevation but devoid of vertical elements); ground floor is shopped (of no interest). Remainder is red-brick (some painted) with plain window openings having reconstituted stone lintels (painted) and projecting cills. Left-of-centre is two openings wide with irregular window arrangement; right-side is three openings wide; all windows are blocked except for those on second storey.

Setting

Located on the southern side, at the centre of Ann Street, the building is situated at the junction of Telfair Street, which was formerly a street but now a passageway with no through access. The building is abutted to the east by a lower three-storey red-brick building, with further three-storey commercial premises sited on the opposite side of Ann Street and Telfair
Street.

Roof : Flat roof (undetermined material)
RWG : metal and uPVC
Walling: Faience panels/brick
Windows: timber/metal

Historical information

The current premises were built in 1931-3 to designs by Harry Wilson of Leeds as a branch of Montague Burton, tailors (Patton). Harry Wilson was the company architect during the 1920s and 30s, a period of enormous growth for the company, and designed branches in Dublin as well as the current branch (www.dia.ie). The construction of the Belfast branch appears to have been supervised by Conway & Conway, who are credited with the design in the Irish Builder (www.dia.ie).

Burton was founded by Montague Burton, a Lithuanian who emigrated to England in 1900 and had opened five men’s tailoring shops in the north of the England by 1913. By 1929 Burton could boast four hundred shops and a number of factories and mills and a knighthood followed in 1931 for services to industrial relations (Oxford Dictionary of National Biography). Burton continues to be one of the larger UK high street retailers.

The building enters valuation records in 1934 as a shop (ground floor) valued at £260 with offices on the first and second floors, valued at £150 and £100 respectively which were initially sublet and accessed by a separate entrance in Telfair Street. Valuer’s notes of the 1930s give a plan of the building and note that it had a wooden block floor and electric lighting. It was a ‘lofty shop’, about 14 feet high with central heating and had a good modern shop front in ‘typical Burton style’. The plan shows a central entrance with fitting rooms to the left of the shop and stairs to the right. In 1937 the first floor was partially incorporated into the tailor’s shop with a consequent rise in valuation, but the second floor was let to Gardner Dance Studio from the 1930s to the 1970s. The ground/first floor shop was a branch of Burton’s until c1990 when it was taken over by Cassidy’s Menswear. The building is currently in use as a second-hand electronics store.

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 OS/6/1/61/7 – Seventh Edition OS map of 1938
4. PRONI VAL/3/C/24 – First General Revaluation (1933-57)
5. PRONI VAL/3/D/3/1/J/96 – First General Revaluation (1933-57)
6. Street Directories (1938-95)

Secondary Sources

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

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

Not listed

Criteria for listing: historic interest

Not listed

Evaluation

A three-storey, three-bay faience-clad commercial building erected in 1933, to designs by Harry Wilson. Art Deco stylistic influences and ornamentation. Constructed as a commercial building for Burton’s Department Store, for whom a similar style structure was built nearby in 1929 (the Woolworth’s & Burton Buildings at 1-15 High Street HB26/50/232)this is a more compact example. Although of interest as one of few buildings of the early 20th century in this style, it is not among the best examples of the type and has been compromised by alterations and loss of historic fabric and detailing.