Historic Building Details

HB Ref No:
HB26/50/302

Address :
81-87 Academy Street Belfast Co Antrim BT1 2LS

Townland:
Town Parks

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Survey 2:
Record Only

Date of Listing:

Date of De-listing:

Current Use:
Office

Former Use
Office

Conservation Area:
Yes

Industrial Archaeology:
No

Vernacular:
No

Thatched:
No

Monument:
No

Derelict:
No

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OS Map No:
130/13 NE

IG Ref:
J3398 7485

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Owner Category

Exterior Description And Setting

A three storey L-shaped building on the south side of Academy Street, backing on to Hector Street and round the corner into Exchange Street. Built in the 1950s in the Modernist style it was refurbished in 1991 by Lyons Architects. The front section on Academy Street has a flat roof unseen behind the parapet which is topped by a concrete coping and metal rail; the rear section roof is pitched with corrugated metal sheeting; the rear return is flat roofed with overhanging eaves and timber soffit. Rainwater goods are uPVC. The walls are red brick laid in stretcher bond. The windows are square headed, grouped together in a horizontal line with a raised painted render surround and a painted concrete lintel over; divisions between windows are of curved painted render. Windows are metal framed. The north elevation is 5 windows wide. The second floor windows have 6 panes with top hung lights, the first floor have 9 panes. A deep modern plastic fascia runs full width of the ground floor, the shopfront is obscured by shutters,. The east elevation is abutted by a late 20th century building. The south elevation is in two sections: to the east a gabled roof, to the west a flat roof with overhanging eaves. The gabled section ground floor is rendered. The first floor has six windows, 15 panes with central 6 pivot hinged, flush concrete cills; the ground floor has three windows (the eastern one is a later 9 paned casement); to the west is a shuttered door, to the east two double plank timber doors (one covered by metal sheet) with diagonal planked panels over. The flat roofed section has 4 windows on each floor matching those to the east, with projecting concrete cills and continuous concrete lintels. A flush timber door in the east bay. The west elevation direct onto street has a full height glazed uPVC window incorporating the glass door. It is flanked by rendered panels; the wider southern panel has a bull’s eye window with raised surrounds on each floor. The remaining elevation is a blank rendered wall previously abutted by a building, now forming a boundary to a car park. Setting This L-shaped building has its main frontage directly on Academy Street, it extends to the rear to form an elevation on narrow Hector Street and Exchange Street; to the west side of the building is now exposed as a boundary to a car park. On the opposite side of Academy Street is Belfast Education and Library Board (HB26/50/318). Schedule Roof: Unseen flat and corrugated metal sheeting. Walling: Brick Windows: Metal and uPVC RWG: uPVC.

Architects

Not Known

Historical Information

Nos 81-87 Academy Street, a three-storey redbrick building, was constructed in c. 1950, at least prior to the Second General Revaluation of Property in Northern Ireland (1956) and the current edition of the Ordnance Survey map (1959-60; 1987). Prior to the construction of the Modernist building nos 81-87 Academy Street was the site of a bonded store; the store was originally the property of Gallagher & Co., a local tobacconist company in the 1870s, however by the turn of the 20th century the bonded stores had passed to Murray, Sons, & Co. Ltd., also a tobacco company whose main factory was at the Whitehall Tobacco Works on the Linfield Road (see HB26/29/017). The Annual Revisions note that when Murray, Sons, & Co. Ltd. occupied the site, their store was valued at £100; contemporary Ordnance Survey maps note that the bonded store was a square-shaped building that occupied all the plots on Academy Street between Great Patrick Street and Little Edward Street (Belfast Street Directories – 1868-1910). Murray, Sons, & Co. Ltd. Continued to hold the stores until c. 1910 when the property passed to W. H. Milligan & Co., also engaged as tobacco and snuff manufacturers. The bonded store continued to change occupant over the following three decades; under the First General Revaluation of Property in Northern Ireland (1935) a Mr. William J. Graham was recorded as occupant of the stores; the valuer also noted that the value of the building had been increased to £280 by 1935. There was no further revaluation to the site carried out for over two decades due to the outbreak of the Second World War; however the Belfast Street Directories note that the building was unoccupied in 1943. The Victorian-era bonded store was demolished between 1943 and 1956; the current three-storey building (nos 81-87 Academy Street) was also constructed during the same period on a portion of the area covered by its much larger predecessor, however at the time of its construction the building did not possess the current glazing. The second revaluation (1956-72) notes that the new building was originally utilsied as a warehouse and storage space for Leacock & Co. (Belfast) Ltd., a linen firm originally based in London; in the 1950s and 1970s the building also possessed office space on the second floor for M. C. Logan architects. By the end of the second revaluation the total value of nos 81-87 Academy Street stood at £870. Patton states that nos 81-87 Academy Street was refurbished in 1991 at which time the current modern glazing and the southern entrance lobby was added to the building; the refurbishment was carried out by Lyons Architects of University Street, Belfast, for Nicholas McKenna & Co., a Ballymena-based firm that manufacture catering equipment (Patton, p. 1). Despite the renovation in 1991, nos 81-87 Academy Street is currently lying vacant. References Primary Sources 1. PRONI OS/6/1/61/2 – Second Edition Ordnance Survey Map 1858 2. PRONI OS/6/1/61/3 – Third Edition Ordnance Survey Map 1901-02 3. PRONI OS/6/1/61/4 – Fourth Edition Ordnance Survey Map 1931 4. PRONI OS/6/1/61/5 – Fifth Edition Ordnance Survey Map 1938 5. PRONI VAL/12/B/43/B/1-11 – Annual Revisions 1862-1881 6. PRONI VAL/12/B/43/C/32-45 – Annual Revisions 1906-1930 7. PRONI VAL/3/B/3/13 – First General Revaluation of Northern Ireland 1935 8. PRONI VAL/4/B/7/38 – Second General Revaluation of Northern Ireland 1956-72 9. Belfast Street Directories (1877-1943) 10. Ordnance Survey Map – 130-13NE (1959-60) Secondary Sources 1. Patton, M., ‘Central Belfast: An historical gazetteer’ Belfast: Ulster Architectural Heritage Society, 1993.

Criteria for Listing

Architectural Interest

Not listed

Historic Interest

Not listed

Evaluation

A three storey L-shaped brick building on the south side of Academy Street, backing on to Hector Street and round the corner into Exchange Street. Built in the 1950s, with the Exchange Street facade altered in 1991 by Lyons Architects, it is an example of a simple, unsophisticated Modernist style but not among the best examples of the type.

General Comments

Date of Survey

11 February 2013