Historic Building Details

HB Ref No:
HB26/50/295

Address :
5 Donegall Quay Belfast County Antrim BT1 3EA

Townland:
Town Parks

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Survey 2:
B2

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

Date of De-listing:

Current Use:
Shop

Former Use
Warehouse

Conservation Area:
No

Industrial Archaeology:
No

Vernacular:
No

Thatched:
No

Monument:
No

Derelict:
No

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OS Map No:
130-13SE

IG Ref:
J3434 7439

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Owner Category

Exterior Description And Setting

Terraced three-storey with attic over concealed basement rendered commercial building, built c.1850, converted for use as a restaurant with modern shopfront inserted to the ground floor, c.2000. Rectangular on plan facing east and located on the west side of the Lagan. Pitched slate roof with roll-moulded terracotta ridge tiles, central wall-head dormer window with the rear pitch abutted by four-storey flat-roofed extension. Replacement moulded metal guttering on timber bargeboard and metal downpipe. Painted rendered walling with the first and second floors framed by slender pilasters having cable mouldings and capital mouldings spanning the entire facade as a cornice. Square-headed window openings with architrave surrounds, painted masonry sills and replacement windows. Front elevation is two windows wide with a replacement shopfront inserted to the ground floor comprising a triple-light fixed-pane timber display window and a hardwood glazed entrance screen surmounted by timber fascia and flanked by slender rendered pilasters having moulded capitals. Applied raised lettering to the front elevation stating; ‘SHIP CHANDLERS’ to the base of the dormer and ‘SAIL & TENTMAKERS’ between first and second floors. Replacement single-pane timber sash windows to the second floor, uPVC to the first floor. Single round-headed window opening to the attic dormer with moulded archivolt rising from impost mouldings, masonry sill and single-pane timber sash window. South side elevation abutted by adjoining building No.3-4 Donegall Quay. Rear elevation abutted by four-storey flat-roofed extension, built c.1985. North side elevation abutted by adjoining building No.6 Donegall Quay (HB26/50/296), with a single square-headed attic window to the extension and uPVC windows. Setting Located on the west side of the Lagan overlooking the river as part of three remaining original structures on Donegall Quay. Fronting onto a slip road called Oxford Street running parallel but at a lower level to Donegall Quay. Roof Slate Walling render Windows timber & uPVC RWG metal

Architects

Rush, James P

Historical Information

No. 5 Donegall Quay, a three-storey early-Victorian building situated along the western quay of the Lagan River was constructed in c. 1850 and has been continually occupied by Tedford & Co. for over 150 years (originally a ship chandler’s business but currently operating a restaurant from the site). The property was first depicted on the second edition of the Ordnance Survey map in 1858; however the adjoining buildings (nos 7-9 Donegall Quay – HB26/50/296-297) are thought to have dated from the mid-to-late-18th century. The 1858 map depicted the terrace situated between Marlborough Street and Ann Street and located close to the offloading Quays to the north of the Queen’s Bridge (which had been opened by Queen Victoria in 1849). The contemporary Griffith’s Valuation (1860) recorded that No. 5 Donegall Quay was occupied by James Tedford who leased the site from a Mrs. McCleery; the Belfast Street Directories note that Tedford was a ship’s chandler, sail maker and provision dealer, who had previously been recorded as a ship owner and coal and salt merchant in Donaghadee in 1843, but had moved his business to No. 5 Donegall Quay in Belfast by at least 1852 (a ship’s chandler was a supplier who specialised in provisions for ships including essential items such as rope, tools, lanterns, whale oil and galley foodstuffs to name but a few). Tedford operated his business from No. 5 Donegall Quay, which Griffith’s valued at £18; however in 1852 he resided at a separate dwelling on Chichester Street. James Tedford died at his residence at Chichester Street in 1867 at which time control of the Chandler’s business passed to his son, James Tedford Jnr. (PRONI Wills). Griffith’s Valuation also noted that Tedford occupied the adjoining No. 9 Donegall which he utilised as lofts and stores where ship sail canvas’s were sewn and laid out ready for sale (for more information on the adjoining nos 6-9 – see HB26/50/296 and 297). By 1882 the value of No. 5 Donegall Quay had been increased to £25, although the reason for this increase is not known (Tedford & Co. carried out a number of improvements to the buildings they occupied). There was no subsequent alteration to the value of Tedford’s shop until the Belfast revaluation in 1900 which recorded that ownership of the building had passed from Mrs. McCleery to a Mr. Frederick Kinahan (a local magistrate who was partner in Lyle & Kinahan, local wine and spirit merchants – 1901 Belfast Street Directory). The value of No. 5 Donegall Quay was increased to £42 as part of the revaluation, the valuer noting that Tedford had expended over £200 in improvements to his property for which he paid annual rent of £26 18s. 6d. James Tedford Jnr. died in 1893 at his permanent residence in Wellington Park leaving No. 5 Donegall Quay and effects of £6,416 to his son James Tedford III.; James took over his father’s business which he continued to operate until his own death in 1928 (PRONI Wills). No. 5 Donegall Quay was primarily utilised as commercial premises during this period and as a result was not included in either the 1901 or 1911 census of Ireland. There was no subsequent change to value of Tedford’s Chandlers shop by the end of the Annual Revisions which were cancelled in 1930. By the First General Revaluation of property in Northern Ireland in 1935 No. 5 Donegall Quay had been purchased outright by a Mr. David Tedford who had taken over the running of the business after James Tedford III’s death in 1928; under the revaluation the shop was more than doubled in value to £97 and, under the second revaluation undertaken after the end of the Second World War, the property was further increased in value, standing at £148 by the project’s completion in 1972. The first buildings erected along the river lagan, on what is now Donegall Quay, were constructed in 1715 as part of Isaac Macartney’s reclamation and development of a block of land where High Street (and the Farset River) trailed into the Lagan. The 1715 map of the development recorded that the Donegall Quay was then known as Hanover Quay and consisted of a number of merchant properties (Brett, ‘Georgian Belfast,’ p. 58). Brett states that No. 5 Donegall Quay was designed by a Mr. Alexander McAlister in 1855 (c. 1821-1897). McAlister was a Belfast-based architect who was originally born in Carlow but received his education in Belfast; the DIA notes that McAlister, along with Timothy Hevey (1846-1878), was one of the leading Catholic architects of the Victorian period in the city, his designs included St. Malachy’s Boys School (HB26/50/024) and the Convent of Mercy in Sussex Place (HB26/30/024) and according to the DIA’s list of confirmed works, Nos 5-7 Donegall Quay [sic] were amongst his first known independent commissions (Dictionary of Irish Architects). Brett described Tedford’s shop as ‘a pleasantly naive example of nautical architecture, executed in stucco, with vertical cable-mouldings running up the crude pilasters to the gable; a lifebelt on the walls; and a large sheaf-block for a shop sign’ (Brett, ‘Belfast: 1700-1914,’ p. 35). The current sign above No. 5 Donegall Quay states that the Chandler’s was established at the site in 1851 when Tedford presumably first moved his business from Donaghadee to Belfast; it was not until 1855 that Tedford commissioned McAlister to refront an earlier building on the site, resulting in the current Victorian edifice. James Tedford Snr. Was a sea captain who, upon retiring home to Ireland and setting up shop at Donegall Quay, expanded his enterprise into ship owning; upon his death in 1867 Tedford owned a number of merchant ships that traded with South America and the Caribbean and were often seen offloading their exotic cargoes along the wharfs at Donegall Quay (Patton, p. 108; History from Headstones website). James Tedford & Co. Ltd continued to trade from No. 5 Donegall Quay from c. 1850 until 1991 when the ships provisions company closed due to the decline of the port of Belfast; No. 5 was listed in 1979 whilst the adjoining nos 6-9 Donegall Quay were raised to listed status in 1992 (HB26/50/296 and 297). Patton states that the shopfront of No. 5 is ‘perhaps not great architecture, but a charming evocation of the nautical past of the area [and] despite its simplicity, must be one of the best known shopfronts in Belfast.’ Prior to its closure Tedford’s attempted to expand into new ventures, the site began to supply the tarpaulins for road transport firms, however this could not reverse the declining fortunes of the business which had depended on the success of the port. No. 5 Donegall Quay reopened in c. 1994 under new management; however in 2001 the site was converted into a restaurant and has since continued to operate under the name Tedford’s, maintaining the connection with Tedford’s Chandlers, one of Belfast’s lost industries. The building, along with the adjoining sail lofts and neighbouring buildings such as the Custom House (HB26/50/062) and Sinclair Seaman’s Church (HB26/50/093), is a rare surviving example of the port’s nautical past and stands as a memorial to the time when the quays along the river Lagan was bustling with mercantile activity (Patton, pp 108-109; ‘Belfast: An illustrated yearbook’). 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/2/B/7/2A – Griffith’s Valuation 1860 7. PRONI VAL/12/B/43/B/1-21 – Annual Revisions 1862-1930 8. PRONI VAL/7/B/9/34 – Belfast Revaluation 1900 9. PRONI VAL/3/B/3/13 – First General Revaluation of Northern Ireland 1935 10. PRONI VAL/4/B/7/38 – Second General Revaluation of Northern Ireland 1956-72 11. PRONI Wills Catalogue (19 May 1867; 12 Sept 1893; 5 Jul 1928) 12. Belfast Street Directories (1843-1943) 13. First Survey Record – HB26/50/026A (1976) 14. First Survey Image – HB26/50/026A (1974) 15. Ordnance Survey Map – 130-13SE (1959); 130-13NE (1959-60) Secondary Sources 1. Brett, C. E. B., ‘Buildings of Belfast: 1700-1914’ Belfast: Friar’s Bush Press, 1985. 2. Brett, C. E. B., ‘Georgian Belfast, 1750-1850: Maps, buildings and trades’ Dublin: Royal Irish Academy, 2004. 3. Larmour, P., ‘Belfast: An illustrated architectural guide’ Belfast: Ulster Architectural Heritage Society, 1987. 4. Patton, M., ‘Belfast: An illustrated yearbook’ Belfast: Appletree Press, 1990. 5. Patton, M., ‘Central Belfast: An historical gazetteer’ Belfast: Ulster Architectural Heritage Society, 1993. Online Resources 1. Dictionary of Irish Architects - http://www.dia.ie 2. History from headstones website - http://www.historyfromheadstones.com/index.php?id=754 3. Tedford’s Restaurant website - http://tedfordsrestaurant.com/restaurant.html

Criteria for Listing

Architectural Interest

A. Style B. Proportion C. Ornamentation H-. Alterations detracting from building J. Setting K. Group value

Historic Interest

Z. Rarity R. Age T. Historic Importance V. Authorship X. Local Interest

Evaluation

Terraced three-storey with attic over concealed basement rendered commercial building, built c.1850, with modern shopfront inserted to the ground floor. Its modest scale recalls the former character of the area. Although compromised by recent alterations and loss of historic fabric and detailing, as one of only three original structures remaining on this quay, the building represents the maritime history of the quay front and one of the last remaining links to the original Belfast harbour.

General Comments

This record has been renumbered. Formerly HB26/50/026.

Date of Survey

18 October 2012