Historic Building Details

HB Ref No:
HB26/50/030

Address :
25-27 Donegall Place Belfast Co Antrim BT1 5AB

Townland:
Town Parks

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Survey 2:
B2

Date of Listing:
05/12/1979 00:00:00

Date of De-listing:

Current Use:
Shop

Former Use
House

Conservation Area:
Yes

Industrial Archaeology:
No

Vernacular:
No

Thatched:
No

Monument:
No

Derelict:
Yes

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OS Map No:
130-13 SE

IG Ref:
J3380 7420

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Owner Category

Exterior Description And Setting

Terraced three-storey stucco-fronted former house, built c.1790, with replacement shopfront inserted to the ground floor. Rectangular on plan facing east onto Donegall Place. Pitched natural slate roof with moulded cast-iron guttering to dentilled eaves course and cast-iron box hopper and downpipe. Painted rendered walling with string course over the second floor and a single console bracket to the north. Square-headed window openings with architrave surrounds, painted masonry sills and single-pane timber sash windows. East front elevation is three windows wide with a continuous sill course to the second floor and decorative heads to the first floor only. Fluted friezes with central rosettes surmounted by pediments, triangular to the central window, segmental to the outer windows. Stone-clad glazed shopfront inserted c.2000 with a square-headed door opening to the right having aluminium glazed door providing access to the top floor. South side elevation abutted by adjoining building (HB26/50/228A). Rear elevation abutted by full-height flat-roofed rendered extension. North side elevation abutted by adjoining commercial building (HB26/50/197). Setting: Located on the west side of Donegall Place and forming part of a terrace of commercial buildings of various heights and dates. The rear of the site is occupied by an early twentieth-century industrial red brick building, now occupied by Queens Arcade (HB26/50/228B). Roof: Natural slate RWG: Cast-iron Walling: Painted render Windows: Single-pane timber sash

Architects

Not Known

Historical Information

Nos 25-27 Donegall Place, a three-storey building sandwiched between the much larger Queens Arcade (HB26/50/228A-B) and Fountain House (HB26/50/197), is the sole surviving building of the Georgian period to remain on Donegall Place; all the other buildings along the street date from the late-Victorian period (the only earlier building is the slender two-bay No. 12, a fragment of the much larger Castle Buildings which was constructed in 1846 and mostly demolished in c. 1986). Nos 25-27 Donegall Place was once part of a terrace of similar houses which were constructed in c. 1790; the building was originally constructed as a private dwelling, the façade of which did not possess the pediments and other features that were added in the Victorian period. The c. 1850 Hodges & Smith survey maps, included in Brett’s Georgian Belfast, 1750-1850, records that the plot of nos 25-27 Donegall Place (No. 9 in c. 1850) was leased from the 5th Earl of Donegall in 1786 by a Mr. William Stewart who had the current building constructed shortly afterwards. Little is known of the early history of nos 25-27 Donegall Street; the lack of a town plan for Belfast makes it difficult to determine with certainty the value of the property in the Townland Valuations of the 1830s. By the 1850s the street number of the building was No. 9 Donegall Place; if this number had been set as early as the 1830s the Townland Valuations note that No. 9 was a house valued at £161 and occupied by a Mr. John Sinclair, a local merchant. However, Patton states that nos 25-27 Donegall Place was constructed as part of a terrace of three similar buildings making it more likely that the building was one of nos 3-7 Donegall Place which were similarly valued between £74 and £94; it is certain that the current property lay within this row of buildings. By 1852 No. 9 Donegall Place was no longer utilised as a private dwelling but was occupied by Moses Staunton who operated a wholesale wallpaper, carpet, damask and furniture warehouse from the site. The upper floors of the building were utilised as office space for William Benn, a commission agent, and Robert & Alfred Cassidy, local solicitors (Belfast Street Directory – 1852). Griffith’s Valuation noted that Moses Staunton had purchased the lease for No. 9 Donegall Place by 1860 when the building was valued at £75; in that year Staunton’s warehouse was operated by his relative Richard Staunton, whilst Staunton’s partner Charles Coates, a merchant, occupied an office in one of the upper floors. By 1868 Samuel McLorn & Co., shirt manufacturers, and Robert Carswell, a book binder and account book manufacturer, had occupied the upper floors of the building which had been increased in value to £90. By 1877 nos 25-27 Donegall Place was solely occupied by Carswell who had expanded his business; the street directory for that year described Carswell as a wholesale stationer, book binder, account book manufacturer, lithographer, engraver and paper bag manufacturer who operated a printing press from the site. Carswell continued to occupy nos 25-27 until c. 1889 when the building was purchased by a Mr. William Wallace. Under Wallace the building was improved and the current Victorian features to the façade were added resulting in a large increase in the rateable value of the building to £240. In 1889 Robert Carswell was replaced as occupant by Lowry & Co., Silk merchants and fur manufacturers (Belfast Street Directories). In 1900 the Belfast Revaluation more than doubled the value of nos 25-27 Donegall Place to £575; however it is not clear why such a sharp increase was recorded only a decade after the earlier rise in value. The valuer noted that the building was installed with electric light and consisted of seven office rooms and two attic spaces. Lowry & Co. continued to operate from nos 25-27 until 1912 when the building was converted into a restaurant known as the Carlton Café and Restaurant by F. W. Henry, the managing director. The Carlton Cafe extended back and included nos 30-32 Fountain Street to its rear; the conversion resulted in a further rise in the value of the building to £790. In 1927 a stained-glass canopy was installed to the façade of the building, valued at £3 5s; by the cancellation of the Annual Revisions in 1930 the total value of nos 25-27 Donegall Place had been further increased to £911 5s. The Carlton Café continued to occupy nos 25-27 in 1935 when the First General Revaluation of property in Northern Ireland increased the rateable value of the restaurant to £1,892 10s. There was no further valuation of the property for two decades due to the disruption caused by the Second World War, however in 1956 the second revaluation noted that the Carlton Café had vacated the site in the intervening years. By the 1950s nos 25-27 Donegall Place was occupied by Saxone Shoes & Co. Ltd who continued to operate from the site until at least the 1970s; by the end of the second revaluation in 1972 the building was valued at £2,105; by 1972 the 2nd and 3rd floors of the property was utilised as club rooms for staff of the Irish Bank Officials Association, however the club had vacated the site by the First Survey Image in 1976 which recorded that the uppers offices were to let. Donegall Place was originally the location of Belfast Castle gardens prior to the building’s destruction in 1708; in the 1780s the current street was laid out providing a link, from the original 17th century centre of the town, to the White Linen Hall which was erected in 1783-85. Originally known as Linen Hall Street, the avenue was rechristened Donegall Place in c. 1810 when the area around the Linen Hall was renamed Donegall Square in honour of the Second Marquis of Donegall who resided at Donegall House (which formerly stood at the corner of the square and Donegall Place). Donegall Place was at the very edge of Belfast in the early-19th century and then consisted mainly of private dwelling occupied by the leading citizens of the town. Patton states that nos 25-27 Donegall Place is a surviving remnant of the Linen Hall Street development and was constructed as part of a terrace of three similar houses by Roger Mulholland (c. 1740-1818). A Belfast-based architect, Mulholland enjoyed the patronage of the 5th Earl of Donegall and during the 1780 and 1790s developed the streets around St. Anne’s Church whilst leasing ground and constructing his own properties (of which nos 25-27 Donegall Place is an example). Mulholland is believed to have been the likely architect of the White Linen Hall and also designed the First Presbyterian Church in Rosemary Street (HB26/50/054). Brett states that Mulholland’s terrace on Donegall Place was much plainer in design than his other known work in Dublin, Brett states that ‘none of them displayed the elegant fanlights, porticoes or commanded high rents’ (Brett, p. 7; Patton, p. 103; Dictionary of Irish Architects). During the 19th century the central location of Donegall Place, coupled with the expansion of the town and the granting of city status in 1888, resulted in the commercialisation of Donegall Place. Nos 25-27 Donegall Place, having been constructed in c. 1790, is the last surviving remnant of the Georgian streetscape which was originally characterised by grand domestic dwellings (Beckett, pp 28-29). Nos 25-27 Donegall Place was originally constructed as a domestic dwelling, however by the mid-19th century it had been converted into commercial premises. The Victorian alterations to the façade, including the pediments over entablatures, as well as fillets and central rosettes, were added in c. 1889 when the building was acquired by William Wallace (Patton, p. 103). Throughout the 20th century nos 25-27 Donegall Place was utilised as a café and a retail shop; the stained glass canopy, which was added for the Carlton Café and Restaurant, had been removed by at least the 1950s when Saxone Shoes & Co. Ltd. Took possession of the site and installed a modern shopfront. The First Survey image records that the shoe store (then renamed Freeman, Hardy & Willis) continued to operate from the premises until at least 1976. Nos 25-27 Donegall Place was listed in 1979 and by the time Patton was writing in 1993 the building had been taken over by Trueform. Nos 25-27 is currently occupied by Oasis, a clothing retailer and despite the loss of its original interior, the Georgian facade with Victorian alterations makes the building a significant structure in the history of Donegall Place and its commercial redevelopment in the mid-to-late-19th century. References Primary Sources 1. PRONI OS/6/1/61/1 – First Edition Ordnance Survey map 1832-33 2. PRONI OS/6/1/61/2 – Second Edition Ordnance Survey Map 1858 3. PRONI OS/6/1/61/3 – Third Edition Ordnance Survey Map 1901-02 4. PRONI OS/6/1/61/4 – Fourth Edition Ordnance Survey Map 1931 5. PRONI OS/6/1/61/5 – Fifth Edition Ordnance Survey Map 1938 6. PRONI VAL/1/B/720A+B – Townland Valuations c. 1830 7. PRONI VAL/2/B/7/4A – Griffith’s Valuation 1860 8. PRONI VAL/12/B/43/D/1-14 – Annual Revisions 1862-1896 9. PRONI VAL/12/B/43/C/34-42 - Annual Revisions 1897-1930 10. PRONI VAL/7/B/9/42 – Belfast Revaluation 1900 11. PRONI VAL/3/B/3/14 – First General Revaluation of Northern Ireland 1935 12. PRONI VAL/4/B/7/38 – Second General Revaluation of Northern Ireland 1956-1972 13. Belfast Street Directories (1852-1918) 14. First Survey Record – HB26/50/030 (1971) 15. First Survey Image – HB26/50/030 (1976) 16. Ordnance Survey Map – 130-13SE (1959) Secondary Sources 1. Beckett, J. C., ‘Belfast: The making of the city’ Belfast: Appletree Press, 1983. 2. Brett, C. E. B., ‘Buildings of Belfast: 1700-1914’ Belfast: Friar’s Bush Press, 1985. 3. Brett, C. E. B., ‘Georgian Belfast, 1750-1850: Maps, buildings and trades’ Dublin: Royal Irish Academy, 2004. 4. Patton, M., ‘Central Belfast: An historical gazetteer’ Belfast: Ulster Architectural Heritage Society, 1993. 5. Pollock, V. & Parkhill, T., ‘Britain in old photographs: Belfast’ Gloucestershire, Sutton Publishing Ltd, 1997. Online Resources 1. Dictionary of Irish Architects - http://www.dia.ie

Criteria for Listing

Architectural Interest

A. Style B. Proportion C. Ornamentation

Historic Interest

X. Local Interest

Evaluation

Terraced three-storey stucco-fronted former house, built c.1790, with replacement shopfront inserted to the ground floor. Rectangular on plan. Built as one of three terraced houses, this building is the sole survivor of the eighteenth-century building stock on the street. Although compromised by the loss of interior fabric and detailing, much historic character survives, with historic developments represented by the stuccoed facade dating from the late nineteenth-century. It is one of the few smaller commercial premises surviving and this, with its age, is of interest.

General Comments

Address revised to 25-27 Donegall Place.

Date of Survey

22 December 2012