Historic Building Details

HB Ref No:
HB26/50/190

Address :
Imperial House 4-10 Donegall Square East Belfast County Antrim BT1 5HD

Townland:
Town Parks

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Survey 2:
Record Only

Date of Listing:
26/02/1990 00:00:00

Date of De-listing:
21/08/2015 00:00:00

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 SE

IG Ref:
J3394 7406

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Owner Category

Private

Exterior Description And Setting

A four storey building (with basement and diminished fifth floor) designed by Kendrick Edwards in 1935 in Art Deco style. It sits on the east side of Donegall Square facing City Hall. Flat roof unseen behind pediment and parapet. Rainwater goods are hidden. Walls of ashlar stone with the ground floor of marble facing. Shallow projecting flat cornice at eaves level with frieze of slightly raised squares of stone; giant fluted pilasters rise from second floor to pediment in central section; frieze over ground floor is plain except for squares set in central section. Window openings are flat lintelled; first floor have exaggerated keystones and stepped reveals. Windows are replacement timber frames, those on the main elevation being 12 paned, the remaining 2 paned. The ground floor shop fronts and door are all replacement metal frames. The west elevation is divided into three sections each 5 windows wide; the central section is slightly recessed with a triangulated pediment, the flanking sections have stepped pediments. The north elevation is 12 windows wide. It is tiled to the western part of the ground floor and the remaining is lined render; a concave reeded string runs at first floor level. An enclosed bridge extends from the third floor. The east elevation (partially seen) is brick with regular window openings with concrete lintels. The south elevation is abutted by HB26/50/019. Setting Imperial House, in the heart of the city, sits on the east side of Donegall Square opposite the City Hall (HB26/50/001) and gardens. Across the narrow lane to the north is HB26/50/016, to the south is HB26/50/019; many other listed buildings form the perimeter of the square. Roof: unseen Walls: stone Windows: replacement timber RWGs: unseen.

Architects

Edwards, Kendrick

Historical Information

Imperial House, a four-storey 15-bay building, located at nos 4-10 Donegall Square East, was constructed in 1935 to designs by Kendrick Edwards. Edwards (1874-1943), a Belfast-based architect and structural engineer, was originally born in England but established an independent practice in Belfast in 1907; prior to the erection of Imperial House, Edwards had designed Donegall Chambers on Donegall Place in 1932-33. Edwards designed Imperial House in a Neo-Georgian style utilising terracotta and faience which was a popular construction material of the interwar period. The builder contracted to realise Edward’s design was a Mr. Thomas McKee (Irish Builder, p. 7; Dictionary of Irish Architects). Construction having been completed towards the end of 1935, Imperial House was not included in the First General Revaluation of property in Northern Ireland which was carried out in the same year. When first completed Imperial House consisted of a number of ground floor retail units with the upper floors occupied as office space by a variety of firms and private organisations. The 1943 Belfast Street Directory notes that during the Second World War the ground floor units were occupied by W. B. McKee & Sons (an estate agents firm), the National Building Society, the Cable & Wireless Ltd. communication company, and the Royal Exchange Assurance. In 1943 the occupants of the upper floors of Imperial House included solicitors firms, the Imperial Chemical Industries Ltd. (from which the building gained its name), the Munster Simms & Co. General Importers firm, whilst offices on the second floor of the building were occupied by the Ministry of Supply, a department formed at the outbreak of the Second World War tasked with coordinating the transfer of equipment and supplies to the British armed forces (Belfast Street Directory – 1943). Under the Second General Revaluation of property in Northern Ireland (1956-72), Imperial House was valued for the first time. By the end of the project in 1972 the total rateable value of the building stood at £5,240 10s; under the revaluation Imperial Chemical Industries Ltd. continued to possess offices at the site whilst the ground floor retail units were occupied by the Abbey National Building Society, Insurance Corporation Ireland (which also possessed office space on the upper floors), offices of the Postmaster General of the United Kingdom (until the position was abolished under the Post Office Act of 1969), and offices for W. Erskine Mayne Ltd., a local publishing firm. Prior to the erection of Imperial House in 1935, nos 4-10 Donegall Square East was the site of three four-storey redbrick buildings with basements; photographs from the turn of the 20th century depicted the 19th century terrace between the Ocean Building (see HB26/50/016) and Donegall Square East Methodist Church (HB26/50/019). The Ordnance Survey maps and Belfast Street Directories note than the northernmost building along the terrace was known as the Linenhall Hotel; the hotel was the property of a Mr. P. Dempsey (Belfast Street Directory – 1918). Imperial House was one of the first steel-frame buildings to be erected in Belfast; when completed the interwar office block was described as ‘modern without being freakish and traditional without being imitative’ (Larmour, p. 90). Imperial House was listed in 1990; Patton, writing in 1993, described the 1930s office building as a ‘four-storey building in three five-bay units with shallow fluted pilasters carried up into rudimentary pediment; in faience with black marble ground floor’ (Patton, p. 116). The black marble ground floor has been replaced with modern metal frame shopfronts that sympathetically reflect the style of the upper floors, whilst the connecting bridge was installed between Imperial House and the adjoining Ocean Building between the current edition of the Ordnance Survey map in 1959 which did not depict it, and prior to the First Survey Image in 1989 in which it appears. Future Belfast states that plans in the late-1990s to add additional floors to Imperial House were shelved; however in 2003 the building was refurbished and renovated by Alan Cook Architects (Future Belfast website). References Primary Sources 1. PRONI OS/6/1/61/4 – Fourth Edition Ordnance Survey Map 1931 2. PRONI OS/6/1/61/5 – Fifth Edition Ordnance Survey Map 1938 3. PRONI VAL/3/B/3/13 – First General Revaluation of Northern Ireland 1935 4. PRONI VAL/4/B/7/39 – Second General Revaluation of Northern Ireland 1956-1972 5. Irish Builder, Vol. 79 (9 Jan 1937) 6. Belfast Street Directories (1918-1943) 7. Ordnance Survey Map – 130-13SE (1959) Secondary Sources 1. Larmour, P., ‘Belfast: An illustrated architectural guide’ Belfast: Ulster Architectural Heritage Society, 1987. 2. Patton, M., ‘Central Belfast: An historical gazetteer’ Belfast: Ulster Architectural Heritage Society, 1993. 3. 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 2. Future Belfast - http://www.futurebelfast.com/imperial-house.html

Criteria for Listing

Architectural Interest

Not listed

Historic Interest

Not listed

Evaluation

A four storey building built 1935 and designed by Kendrick Edwards in Art Deco style. The building underwent extensive refurbishment in the early 21st century. Although the proportions of solid and void have been retained, the replacement of the notable original façade finish of matt white terracotta tiles with stone has compromised the integrity of the original design and has lost the Art Deco external detailing. Similarly, historic interiors have been lost and the building no longer meets the statutory and policy tests as a building of special architectural or historic interest.

General Comments

Shell only, modern interior details - JS/26-02-2014

Date of Survey

11 February 2013