Historic Building Details

HB Ref No:
HB26/50/014

Address :
56-58 Donegall Place Donegall Square North Belfast County Antrim BT1 5BB

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:
Shop

Former Use
Shop

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:
J3385 7411

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Owner Category

Commercial

Exterior Description And Setting

Corner-sited asymmetrical multi-bay six-storey with attic sandstone former linen warehouse, built c.1888, to the designs of Young & Mackenzie. L-shaped on plan with its principal elevation fronting west onto Donegall Place and secondary elevation fronting south onto Donegall Square with a curved corner surmounted by a clock tower with cupola and further copper-domed turrets framing both elevations. Flat roof with natural slate mansard-type pitches to attic-storey on both principal elevations having natural slate and lean-to lead-lined dormers set behind parapet. Concealed rainwater goods. To the curved corner is a sandstone drum housing a clock face surmounted by dentilled cornice and tempietto with slender round-headed openings flanked by engaged polished granite Corinthian columns in turn supporting a full dentiled entablature and copper-lined attenuated ogee dome with finial. Both elevations are terminated by octagonal turrets with slender round-headed window openings and a dentiled frieze surmounted by copper-lined ogee domes and set behind the parapet. Balustrade parapet with moulded coping punctuated by squat piers surmounted by segmental pediments, fluted frieze blocks and anthemion. To the centre of both elevations the balustrade incorporates carved sandstone lettering; ‘ROBINSON & CLEAVER’. Sandstone ashlar walling, channel-rusticated to the first floor surmounted by a heavy dentiled cornice over the fourth floor. Tripartite window openings framed by polished granite columns (Doric to third, fourth and fifth floors, Ionic to first and second floors) rising from continuous sill courses and having timber casement windows throughout. Square-headed to the fourth and fifth floors with bipartite arched central lights to the fifth floor. Round-headed to the third floor with fluted archivolts and keystones having a central balconette supported on figurative brackets framing a central carved panel. Square-headed to the second floor. First floor windows have a central round-headed light flanked by square-headed sidelights surmounted by a cornice supported on ancons with a central broken pediment and ball finial. Window bays are framed by full-height pilasters, those to the first floor having decorative panels and busts, fluted to the second floor with garlands, channel-rusticated to the third and fourth floors, all corresponding to the squat piers at parapet level. South elevation is six windows wide with a curved corner returning onto the east side elevation and set back from the street with an advanced ground floor surmounted by a balustrade punctuated by squat piers having decorative carved cartouches. Series of retail units to the ground floor having delicate timber framed glazing surmounted by polished granite fascia with incised lettering; ‘ROBINSON & CLEAVER Ltd’. Shopfronts flanked by polished granite pilasters with fluted capitals and rising to a full-span dentilled cornice to the base of balustrade above. Entrance bay to the right with mid-twentieth-century brass-framed glazed entrance screen. Both principal elevations are joined by the curved corner which projects beyond the south elevation and having curved window openings at each level corresponding to the central window openings on each level including a curved display window to the ground floor. West elevation is four windows wide with alternating shallow canted bays. Window openings detailed as per above. Shopfront to the right detailed as per above, those to the remainder having replacement late twentieth-century shopfronts while retaining the polished granite pilasters. North side elevation abutted by early twenty-first-century infill building. Functional east side elevation has an advanced central section with ceramic tiled walling and segmental-headed window openings with masonry sills and some timber sash windows. The curved corner has tripartite window openings, as per south elevation, flanked by a sidelight (one to the south elevation and one to the east elevation) repeating the decorative treatment of the south elevation and a further pair of square-headed window openings to the east elevation with unadorned surrounds. Setting Located on a prominent corner site at the junction of Donegall Square North and Donegall Place opposite Belfast City Hall (HB26/50/001A). Steel gates enclose the east side elevation providing vehicular access. Roof : Flat/natural slate RWG: Concealed Walling: Scrabo sandstone ashlar Windows: Timber

Architects

Hems, Harry Young & Mackenzie

Historical Information

Robinson & Cleaver’s department store, a six-storey late-Victorian building executed in white Scrabo sandstone upper floors and red Scottish granite for the ground floor units, was constructed in 1886-88 to designs by Young & Mackenzie. The firm, which was formed by Robert Young (1822-1917) and his former student John Mackenzie (1844-1917) in 1867 or 1868, was one of the most successful architectural companies in Victorian Belfast. The Dictionary of Irish Architects states that the firm ‘received some of the most important commercial commissions in the city;’ aside from Robinson & Cleaver’s, the partnership also designed Anderson & McAuley’s department store at the opposite end of Donegall Place (HB26/50/032), the Ocean Building on Donegall Square East (HB26/50/016) and the Scottish Provident Building on Donegall Square West (HB26/50/012). The Irish Builder records that the department store, which was originally constructed as a linen store known as the Royal Irish Linen Warehouse, was erected at a cost of almost £50,000 and was completed in the spring of 1888. The builders contracted to carry out Young & Mackenzie’s design were H. & J. Martin a local Belfast-based firm, whilst Harry Hems (1842-1915), an English sculptor, was enlisted to create the many carvings of the linen firm’s patrons that grace the façade of the building (Irish Builder, p. 68; Dictionary of Irish Architects). In 1888 the newly completed Linen warehouse was included in the Annual Revisions which valued the building at £1,100 noting that the site was leased to Robinson & Cleaver by the estate of Lt. Col. John Francis Ferguson; the site was originally utilised by Ferguson as his private dwelling prior to his death in 1879 (one of the last private residences to be demolished on Donegall Place). When originally completed, the Donegall Place façade of the Royal Irish Linen Warehouse only consisted of the first three bays; the fourth bay was added in c. 1890 when land became available with the demolition of an earlier building on the site. The work had been completed by 1890 (as a photograph from that year shows the fourth bay) and as a result of the additional construction work the total value of the building was increased to £1,450 by 1894. Under the Belfast Revaluation (1900) the value of Robinson & Cleaver’s warehouse was greatly increased to £2,700. The value of the Royal Irish Linen Warehouse remained unchanged by the end of the Annual Revisions which were cancelled in 1930 and under the First General Revaluation of property in Northern Ireland (1935) the value of the store was increased to £4,800. Due to the disruption of the Second World War there was no general valuation carried out on property in Northern Ireland until the second revaluation commenced in 1956; as a result of the general international downturn of the textile industry in the interwar years, by the 1950s Robinson & Cleaver’s had re-established itself as a general department store, no longer dealing solely in linen and drapery but also possessing clothing, homeware and perfume retail departments (to name but a few). In 1956 the building consisted of individual commercial shop units and storerooms, whilst its upper floors had been converted into office space; by the end of the second revaluation in 1972 the total value of Robinson & Cleaver’s department store stood at £9,440. Robinson & Cleaver’s linen warehouse is recognised as one of the most significant commercial buildings of the Victorian period and the crowning achievement of the architectural firm behind the design, Young & Mackenzie. Prior to the erection of the building at the corner of Donegall Place and Donegall Square North, Young & Mackenzie were almost exclusively known for their ecclesiastical work; the construction of the Scottish Provident Building in 1878 was their largest and most successful contract prior to 1886. Brett states that Robinson & Cleaver’s enormous department store was the firms ‘breakthrough into the commercial field.’ Upon its completion the Irish Builder recorded that 30,000 cubic feet of sandstone, 6,000 cubic feet of concrete, 4,300 square feet of polished Scottish granite and 30,000 square feet of polished teak and mahogany wood was utilised in the initial construction of the building; the Irish Builder noted that the building’s ‘style selected is undoubtedly what may be defined as Victorian’ (Irish Builder, p. 68; Brett, p. 47). Robinson & Cleaver’s was established by Edward Robinson and John Cleaver in 1874; the pair set up their first premises on Castle Place in that year predominantly selling Irish Linen and Tweed. Patton states that the huge demand for their product was such that in 1887 one-third of all packages leaving Belfast were from Robinson & Cleavers. As a result of the unprecedented success of the Belfast firm, the expanding business required larger premises and in 1886 construction of the new store commenced on the former site of three three-storey private residences that had stood at the corner of Donegall Place and Donegall Square North. Although recognised as one of the architectural gems of Belfast’s city centre, upon the completion of Robinson & Cleaver’s some took offence to the enormous size of the building; Patton records that the ‘gigantic structure … some people considered an ornament to Belfast, while other believed that it disfigured the corner of the street’ which, until the mid-Victorian period, had originally consisted of quiet residential dwellings (Patton, p. 107). The ornate features of the building attest to the success of Robinson & Cleaver’s firm in the late-Victorian and the Edwardian period; the façade, six-storeys in height and possessing a circular clock tower at the corner which rises to 150ft, had its stonework decorated by over 50 carved heads which represented the companies prominent regular patrons; the sculpted heads were designed by Harry Hems of Exeter who exported his work all around the world. The many carved likenesses included Queen Victoria, the German Kaiser, the Maharajah of Cooch Behar in India, George Washington (who was clearly not a patron but represented the export of the firms wares to America), and Lady Dufferin of Clandeboye (Brett, p. 47). A further extravagance was the construction of a marble grand staircase leading from the ground floor of the building; this staircase was of white Sicilian marble and possessed two statues (set on short Doric columns acting as newel posts) which represented Britannia and Erin (Patton; Pollock & Parkhill, p. 66). Robinson & Cleaver’s department store continued to operate from the premises on Donegall Place and Donegall Square North for a century. In 1963 the property was extensively renovated before the department store and former linen warehouse was listed in 1979; however due to the steady decline in the company's fortune the firm was forced to close in 1984. The building was renamed Cleaver House and was converted into individual shop premises in 1987 by Hobart & Heron, before being occupied by Next and Principles; the remainder of the property was leased out as office space. The ornate marble staircase which was formerly located on the ground floor of the department store was ripped out and is now in a private mansion (Larmour, p. 51; Patton, pp 107-108). Robinson & Cleaver’s former department store continues to be utilised as commercial and office space, although only some of the ground floor shop units on the Donegall Square side are currently occupied. 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/D/8-14 – Annual Revisions 1882-1896 6. PRONI VAL/12/B/43/C/17-44 - Annual Revisions 1897-1930 7. PRONI VAL/7/B/9/42 - Belfast Revaluation 1900 8. PRONI VAL/3/B/3/14 – First General Revaluation of Northern Ireland 1935 9. PRONI VAL/4/B/7/38 – Second General Revaluation of Northern Ireland 1956-1972 10. Irish Builder, Vol. 30 (15 Mar 1888) 11. Belfast Street Directories (1868-1918) 12. First Survey Record – HB26/50/014 (No Date) 13. First Survey Image – HB26/50/014 (1984) 14. Ordnance Survey Map – 130-13SE (1959) Secondary Sources 1. Brett, C. E. B., ‘Buildings of Belfast: 1700-1914’ Belfast: Friar’s Bush Press, 1985. 2. Larmour, P., ‘Belfast: An illustrated architectural guide’ Belfast: Ulster Architectural Heritage Society, 1987. 3. Patton, M., ‘Central Belfast: An historical gazetteer’ Belfast: Ulster Architectural Heritage Society, 1993. 4. 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 D. Plan Form H-. Alterations detracting from building H+. Alterations enhancing the building J. Setting

Historic Interest

V. Authorship X. Local Interest

Evaluation

Corner-sited multi-bay six-storey with attic sandstone former linen warehouse, built c.1888, to the designs of Young & Mackenzie. Built as the Royal Irish Linen Warehouse with an array of carvings by Harry Helms depicting the interests of patrons Edward Robinson and John Cleaver. It was later developed as a major department store from in the first half of the 20th century and became one of the prime locations in the city. Further changes resulted in extensive renovations in the late 1980s, with the loss of an impressive marble staircase and other internal fabric and detailing but the majority of the shopfronts and most external detailing have survived. Standing as one of the most prominent buildings on Donegall Square and Donegall Place, this exuberant commercial building reflects the wealth and power of Belfast in the late 19th century and, with its distinctive cupolas, forms one of its most prominent landmarks at the commercial heart of the City. It is a fine example of the mercantile development of Belfast and of the work of noteworthy architects.

General Comments

Date of Survey

18 August 2012