Historic Building Details

HB Ref No:
HB26/50/039

Address :
Masonic Building 13-14 Arthur Square Belfast County Antrim BT1 4FF

Townland:
Town Parks

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Survey 2:
B+

Date of Listing:
26/06/1979 00:00:00

Date of De-listing:

Current Use:
Hall

Former Use
Hall

Conservation Area:
Yes

Industrial Archaeology:
No

Vernacular:
No

Thatched:
No

Monument:
No

Derelict:
No

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OS Map No:
130-13 SE

IG Ref:
J3400 7425

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Owner Category

Masonic Lodge

Exterior Description And Setting

Corner-sited multi-bay four-storey rendered Masonic Hall, dated 1870, to the designs of Lanyon, Lynn & Lanyon, restored c.2007. Wedge-shaped on plan with its principal elevation fronting onto Arthur Square, secondary elevation fronting onto Ann Street and a chamfered single-bay elevation between. Hipped natural slate roof with clay ridge tiles and several decorative rendered chimneystacks with clay pots and disc mouldings. Ogee moulded cast-iron guttering to overhanging eaves with quatrefoil panels supported on series of decorative brackets rising from a string course and framing ventilation discs. Painted ruled-and-lined rendered walling with continuous sill and impost mouldings. Replacement sandstone clad walling to ground floor with replacement polished granite plinth course. Stepped stop-chamfered pointed-headed window openings with hood mouldings and timber casement windows with fixed-pane overlights. Principal west elevation has diminished fenestration to the third floor arranged in groups of three having deeply set cusped heads with the outer pointed-heads springing from squat colonettes having stiff-leaf capitals. Those to the right are largely blind with a large circular panel to the left end framing a star motif set within a cinquefoil. The second floor windows are arranged in pairs and a single group of three also having slender banded colonettes. The first floor windows repeat the second floor configuration with chevron enrichment to the impost moulding, label-stops to the hood mouldings, stiff-leaf details to the stop-chamfered reveals and paired colonettes to the arched heads all resting on a continuous deep moulded sill course framing the ground floor. Over the principal entrance is a single cusped-headed window opening set within a pointed-headed opening springing from colonettes with French doors opening onto a replacement stone balcony on plain brackets scribed; ‘FOR THE BENEFIT OF ALL WHO ENTER’ supporting replacement railing with Masonic motif. Recessed principal entrance set within a round-headed opening having double-leaf hardwood doors with raised-and-fielded panels and semi-circular fanlight with gilt lettering and a polished granite frame. The far right bay houses the stairhall with smaller paired window openings; shouldered to the upper level with decorative reveals, a single colonettes, a plain hood moulding and a rectangular panel depicting the Freemason motif and raised lettering; ‘5870 / AD1870’. Segmental-headed openings below with stepped reveals and a single colonettes, square-headed over the ground floor with bowtel moulded heads and stepped stop-chamfered reveals. Pointed-headed door opening to the ground floor, door obscured by advertising. The replacement ground floor has a series of round and pointed-headed door and window openings with continuous hood moulding and Freemason carvings to the spandrels. Chamfered single-bay corner detailed as per above. Secondary elevation is three windows wide with a single window to the centre, paired to the right and arranged in groups of three to the left, all detailed as per principal elevation. Gabled east elevation abutted by central chimneystack. Setting Located at the junction of Arthur Square and Ann Street overlooking a pedestrianised civic space at the entrance to Victoria Square shopping centre. Roof: Natural slate RWG : Cast-iron Walling: render Windows: timber

Architects

Lanyon & Lynn

Historical Information

The Masonic Hall in Arthur Square was designed by Lanyon, Lynn & Lanyon and built between 1868 and 1870. Brett states that the design has been attributed to Charles Lanyon himself but contemporary newspaper reports are clear that the designer was his son, John Lanyon. (Brett; Belfast Newsletter) The building first appears on the large-scale plan of Belfast dating from 1871-3. By the late eighteenth century, five lodges were meeting in Belfast, comprising over 200 members. The lodges generally met in licensed premises or in other public buildings and by the 1860s the masons were seeking dedicated premises. The freemasons of Belfast were, immediately prior to the building of the hall, meeting in four separate premises – two in Donegall Place, Weir’s in Divis Street and the Ulster Hall. In 1863 it was decided to erect a building for all the masons of the town to meet under one roof and fundraising was undertaken towards this end. Share were issued at one guinea each and an attempt was made to buy the music hall in May Street for conversion but the masons’ offer was refused. Advice was sought from masons in England and Scotland about the accommodation to be offered and the best way to go about raising funds. A joint stock company was set up, the Belfast Masonic Hall Company Ltd’ in 1865. At the time Belfast had 15 lodges and thousands of masons but no dedicated hall. The intention was also to establish a Masonic Club as well as a Hall where brethren from town and country could dine, as at a first-class restaurant and ‘where opportunities may be found for forming Masonic friendships’. The building was to have shops/offices on the lower storey in order to bring in an income supplementary to the rents paid by the lodges and it was for this reason that a central location was necessary. Leighton’s history of the Hall carries a picture of the former buildings on the site, a three-storey terrace terminating in a octagonal toll-house which collected tolls from County Down travellers who had passed over the Long Bridge (Patton) The foundation stone was laid on 24th June 1868 ‘with full Masonic ceremonial’ by Sir Charles Lanyon. The lower portion of the building to the first floor windows and the dressings were executed in sandstone from the Cookstown area and the remainder of the building was to be faced with white brick. The architect was ‘Brother John Lanyon’ of Lanyon, Lyn and Lanyon and the contractor Thomas McKeown of Belfast. The estimated cost was £8,000. (Leighton; Belfast Newsletter; www.dia.ie; Brett) After the laying of the foundation stone a banquet of 500 brethren took place in the Ulster Hall, followed by a ball in the Music Hall attended by brethren and their ‘lady friends’ and with music provided by a string band. Leighton notes that ‘it was a gala day for the Freemasons of the city and neighbourhood and notable in the history of the Craft’. (Leighton) The masons moved into the new hall in April 1870 and the Masonic Buildings first appears in the valuation records c1870 as a number of separate holdings. The ground floor was divided into six shops, valued at over £100 in total, one of which was let as a ‘hair cutting room’, and the larger corner shop, number 21, to Tyler and Sons, boot manufacturers. The premises which faced onto Ann Street was let to R S Barry & Co, hardware merchants (Valuation records; Street Directories). The remainder of the building, known as ‘Masonic Chambers’ was divided into offices, (let to solicitors and insurance companies), and masonic clubs and lodge rooms. The first floor (valued at £132), was let as offices and a billiard room. The second floor (valued at £77) was divided between caretaker’s rooms and billiard and reading rooms belonging to the Donegall (from 1878) and Belfast Masonic Clubs. The Masonic Hall and lodge rooms were on the third floor and were initially valued at £180 but reduced to £50 on appeal. The caretaker in 1901 was Agnes Spence, a widow from Scotland who lived in the six caretaker’s rooms with her two daughters. (1901 census) Even when the building was completed in 1870 it could not accommodate all the lodges under one roof and lodge number 7 continued to meet in the Ulster Hall. The increase in the numbers of freemasons in the city eventually led to another hall being built in the Crumlin Road and several others were later built in outlying areas of the city. (Leighton) Unfortunately, as a business the Masonic Hall Company Ltd did not prosper and the building fell into the hands of the Belfast and Provincial building society, from whom the Lodges , clubs, firms and shops rented their rooms. In the late 1880s, following the liquidation of the building society which meant that the masons were likely to be evicted, the brethren made the decision to purchase the hall outright, using money raised by subscription and mortgage, and it became their property on 1st February 1889. The shops on the ground floor were, in 1901, A McNerney, oyster dealer (where, according to Patton, could be seen little model ships made of chicken bones by French prisoners in the old Ann Street prison), Thompson Bros, dyers and cleaners with works at Drumbeg, Lennan, Son & Co Ltd, saddle and harness manufacturers and F Campbell tobacconist. In the corner shop remained John Tyler & Sons, boot warehouse, while in the shop facing onto Ann Street were Lennon Bros, fruit merchants, brokers and salesmen. The upper part of the building was by 1901 occupied entirely by masonic clubs and lodges. In 1892 the trust deeds of ownership having been settled, the committee began to improve the building with the addition of new furnishing, ventilation, lighting, painting and decorations. Electric light was installed to replace gas in 1897 and in 1905, new lodges having rapidly sprung up, a new lodge room, ante-room and refreshment room were constructed on the first floor and furnished at a cost of about £500. In 1909 the mortgage was paid off following careful management of the property using the income generated from the shops and lodge rents. In 1911 the Masons decided to erect new ‘modern type’ lavatories and sanitary buildings and to improve the caretaker’s apartments. William John Fennell was appointed architect and the contractors were Messrs Lowden & Co and Messrs Thornbury Bros, the cost amounting to £700. In 1913 W J Fennell supervised construction of an electric hoist, costing £655 and in 1914 improvements to ventilation and heating were made, again under the supervision of Fennell & Clarke. In 1915, three pianos were supplied by Messrs Crymble, one for each of the refreshment rooms. A fire broke out in the attics of the building in May 1918 and the roof and top floor were badly damaged by flames and water. The upper attics were subsequently rearranged on a new plan and ‘nests of presses’ for the lodges built in. The Lodge rooms and clubs were given new ceilings and Messrs Geo Morrow & Son engaged to paint and redecorate the building. Ventilating fans were introduced and electric top-lighting and fire escapes fitted. The porch was re-tiled, the front door glass panels and other windows fitted with ‘suitable and artistic decoration’. In 1919 some of the shops fell vacant and work was done to make them suitable for ‘better class tenants’. (Leighton) Tenants of the ground floor shops have included Italian ice cream makers, coal merchants, tailors and clothiers as well as shoe makers, tobacconists and oyster sellers. (Street Directories) In the early 1920s serious defects were found in the fabric of the building, a defective eave spouting and a crack in the front wall necessitating the repair of the outside of the building. The contract was completed by Thornbury Bros Ltd. (Leighton) A number of works of refurbishment were carried out in the 1970s and 80s including a completely new kitchen and modernised toilets. Lifts and carpets were replaced and a new floor laid in the banqueting hall. Ladies toilets were installed in the 1980s. Dining rooms were refurbished and all the paintings cleaned and restored. Fifty six lodges were based in Arthur Square by 1999 as well as thirty-five Royal Arch Chapters, a Council of Knight Masons and five Preceptories. (www.arthursquare.org) In 2006-7 the building underwent a thorough restoration internally and externally. The ground floor shop windows ,originally formed by rows of pointed headed arches having carved imposts, have been overclad with gothic arcading in a contemporary style. (Leighton) Primary Sources 1. PRONI OS/8/30/2-2A – Large-scale town plan of Belfast (1871-3) 2. PRONI OS/6/1/61/4 – Fourth Edition OS Map 1901-2 3. PRONI OS/6/1/61/6 – Sixth Edition OS Map 1931 4. PRONI VAL/12/B/43/D/1-22 Annual Revisions (1862-1930) 5. Street Directories 1870-1995 6. 1901 census 7. Belfast Newsletter 25th June 1868 Secondary Sources 1. Brett, C.E.B. “Buildings of Belfast 1700-1914” Belfast: Friar’s Bush Press, revised edition 1985 2. Leighton, S “History of the Masonic Hall, Arthur Square, Belfast” Belfast, 1927 3. Patton, M “Central Belfast: An Historical Gazetteer” Belfast: Ulster Architectural Heritage Society, 1993 4. www.arthursquare.org 5. www.dia.ie – Dictionary of Irish Architects online

Criteria for Listing

Architectural Interest

A. Style B. Proportion C. Ornamentation D. Plan Form I. Quality and survival of Interior J. Setting

Historic Interest

V. Authorship W. Northern Ireland/International Interest Z. Rarity

Evaluation

Corner-sited multi-bay four-storey rendered Masonic Hall dated 1870 to the designs of Lanyon, Lynn & Lanyon restored c.2007. Wedge-shaped on plan with its principal elevation fronting onto Arthur Square, secondary elevation fronting onto Ann Street and a chamfered single-bay elevation between. Extensively refurbished, this Lanyon building is an unusual exercise in a loose Gothic Revival style. Although there have been changes to the ground floor elevation, much original fabric and detailing survive and it is a good example of the type representing the development of the city centre and the work of a notable architectural practice. It is also of note with respect to the history of the Masonic Orders in Belfast.

General Comments

Date of Survey

03 October 2012