Historic Building Details

HB Ref No:
HB26/36/003

Address :
North Belfast Working Men's Club 32 Danube Street Belfast Co Antrim BT13 1RT

Townland:
Town Parks

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Survey 2:
B1

Date of Listing:
21/08/2015 00:00:00

Date of De-listing:

Current Use:
Recreational Club

Former Use
Recreational Club

Conservation Area:
No

Industrial Archaeology:
No

Vernacular:
No

Thatched:
No

Monument:
No

Derelict:
No

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OS Map No:
130/9 SW

IG Ref:
J3234 7538

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Owner Category

Exterior Description And Setting

A symmetrical three-bay two-storey-with-attic gabled red-brick Working Man’s Club with Gothic detailing; built 1894 to designs by W.J Gilliland and completed in 1909 to designs by Hill and Kennedy. Rectangular on plan with two-storey lean-to brick extensions (1909) to east and west and large double-height bow-roofed red-brick hall extension (1909) to rear. Pitched natural slate roof with blue/black angled ridge tiles and copper cupola to centre of ridgeline; raised sandstone verges to gables with castellated corner pinnacles to northeast and northwest. No rainwater goods to original building; plastic to remainder. Walling is Flemish-bonded red-brick on a chamfered plinth with sandstone dressings; ashlar sandstone to apex of gable at attic and sandstone platbands to each floor; ornately carved floriated string-course between ground and first floor, carved trefoil roundels above entrance doors at north; cement render to gables. Windows are a variety of pointed-headed timber casements in chamfered surrounds with flush sandstone sills (unless otherwise stated); large five-paned casement windows to first floor surmounted by moulded sandstone hood moulds; that to centre rises to a decoratively carved pinnacle; windows boarded to south gable. The principal elevation faces north and is symmetrically arranged, three openings wide, divided vertically by slender pointed brick course with decoratively carved sandstone capitals at impost level to ground and first floor. Central bay rises to pedimented gable inscribed 1909 with three slender windows to attic. Three inscribed sandstone panels under first floor windows read “NORTH BELFAST” / “WORKING MENS”/ “CLUB.EST 1893”. Three identical sets of doors to pointed-headed openings at ground floor, all in chamfered reveals with moulded archivolts. Double-leaf panelled-and-glazed timber doors with fixed timber tympanum over containing two-leaded and stained glass oculi with cinquefoil to centre (larger). Central entrance door has glass panel over cinquefoil with painted lettering reading “NORTH /BELFAST/WORKING MENS/ CLUB”. The east elevation has three small windows at first floor left (partially brick infilled); abutted at far left by the lean-to brick extension, lit at first floor by a 1/1 timber sash window and with modern entrance door at ground floor. The south (rear) elevation is abutted by the double-height hall extension (1909) with felt roof and stepped parapet to east. The south elevation was originally nine openings wide; all openings now partially infilled and three to far left entirely infilled. Replacement glazed timber entrance doors to right of centre, accessed by a set of concrete steps. West elevation of extension is blank; east elevation abutted to centre by slated lean-to shed and with four openings with brick infill. The west elevation has three window openings to first floor right, all with concrete block infill; three timber boarded square window openings to ground floor right. Abutted at far right by the lean-to brick extension. Setting: Street-fronted and situated in a residential area south of Crumlin Road, surrounded by twentieth-century red-brick terraced housing. To rear of building is a bowling green; red-brick pavilion building (1909) with corrugated tin roof to east side of lawn, now housing modern bar. Roof: Natural slate Walling: Flemish-bonded red-brick with sandstone dressings Windows: Timber-framed casements RWG: Plastic

Architects

Historical Information

North Belfast Working Men’s club was partially constructed between 1893 and 1894 to designs by W J Gilliland (ground floor) and completed by Hill & Kennedy in 1909 (upper storeys). Contractors for the first phase of work were McLaughlin and Harvey. The building was the first working men’s club to be constructed in the north of Ireland and is first shown on the third edition OS map dating from 1901. The foundation stone of the club was laid on 16th September 1893 by Lady Harland, wife of Sir Edward J Harland, the MP for North Belfast. Although a small number of working men’s institutes and halls had been established from the mid-1860s onwards in Belfast and Dublin, the North Belfast club was seen as a ‘new departure’ for Belfast’s civic life. The intention was to provide ‘healthy recreation’ for the artisan classes and their wives and sisters and, inspired by developments in Britain, it was hoped that this would be the first of many such clubs in Belfast. The club was to be non-political and non-sectarian, without any connection with trade unions, and it was hoped would lead to the intellectual and social advancement of working men (Belfast Newsletter). The idea was initiated by Gerald B Snape, a factory inspector who had seen the benefits of such clubs in England and had sought support for an establishment along similar lines after moving to Belfast. A decision was taken to initiate the scheme in North Belfast due to the high numbers of linen mills and factories in this part of the city and generous subscriptions were made by local employers such as Ewart’s, Lindsay, Thompson & Co, Edenderry Spinning Company, Brookfield Linen Company, Combe, Barbour & Combe and Harland and Wolff. A site was chosen for the building with open ground to the rear in order to secure quiet for reading and games and ample lighting. The three doorways on the ground floor were to give separate access to the reading and billiard rooms; a large hall, chess room and caretaker’s apartments over these rooms and to the recreation grounds to the rear. A refreshment bar on the ground floor was to serve only non-alcoholic drinks and a bowling green was to be built in the rear courtyard, together with a quoit alley, ball alley, gymnasium and skittle alley. One of the club buildings was badly damaged by a serious gale in December 1894 and was not rebuilt for some time due to lack of funds (Belfast Newsletter). The building as designed by Gilliland was to cost £3,000 but only a portion of the plan was carried out initially and the Belfast Revaluation of 1900 records the building as one storey high with a felt roof and the cost of construction as £1,900 including furniture. The valuation was £50 and a plan is given of the building showing the hall and rear extension with a boundary wall encircling the bowling green area. When the façade was finally completed in 1909 a modified design was used by the architects Hill & Kennedy, without the oriel window that was originally projected for the upper storeys (Belfast Newsletter; www.dia.ie). The building remains in use as working men’s club with bowling green and pavilion to the rear. References Primary Sources 1. 3. PRONI OS/6/1/60/3 Third Edition OS Map (1901) 2. 4. PRONI OS/6/1/60/4 Fourth Edition OS Map (1920-31) 3. 5. PRONI OS/6/1/60/5 Fifth Edition OS Map (1920-38) 4. 6. PRONI VAL/7/B/11/6 Belfast Revaluation 1900 5. Belfast Newsletter 17th September 1893 Secondary Sources 1. 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

Historic Interest

X. Local Interest Y. Social, Cultural or Economic Importance

Evaluation

A symmetrical three-bay two-storey-with-attic gabled red-brick Working Man’s Club with Gothic detailing; built 1894 to designs by W.J Gilliland and completed in 1909 to designs by Hill and Kennedy. Much historic fabric and detailing of quality survive. Proportions and detailing are typical of the late-Victorian period, characterised by Gothic design features such as the pointed-arch and castellated pinnacles. The early twentieth-century additions to rear add to the historic interest of the building, illustrating the changing taste in architecture at the dawning of the new century. The building has an important social history, as the first Working Man’s Club in Ulster, and is of significant interest to the surrounding community.

General Comments

Date of Survey

10 April 2013