99-101 North Street, Belfast, Co. Antrim, BT1 1NL

99-101 North Street is a symmetrical gable-fronted three-bay three-storey commercial block with attic, built around 1896 on the north side of North Street in Belfast City Centre. Rectangular on plan, it is abutted by a flat-roofed single-storey return to the rear.

The building is constructed of masonry and stuccoed throughout the principal elevation, displaying well-balanced neo-classical proportions and devices. The pitched natural slate roof runs perpendicular to the street with a red brick chimneystack to the east. The roof is concealed behind a raised verge to the south gable-fronted elevation, which is treated as a pediment with a dentilled cornice beneath a half-roundel motif at the apex. Historic photographic evidence from around 1922 shows that the pediment originally featured profiled and projecting capping, which has since been removed. Parapet gutters with uPVC hoppers and downpipes break through to the rear (north) elevation.

The principal south elevation comprises a shallow breakfront across all floors. Openings are largely segmental-headed with a wider opening to the central bay. Those on the south elevation are flanked by stuccoed pilasters with fluted capitals rising to impost level, carried on continuous projecting sill courses. First floor windows are square-headed and flanked by full-height pilasters rising to a plain entablature, the cornice of which forms the sill course of the second floor windows. Second floor windows are set within shallow segmental-headed recesses with keyed hood mouldings sprung from pilaster capitals. The attic level features a two-stage breakfront; the outer sides have square-panelled mouldings whilst the centre contains three window openings surmounted by a dentilled pediment. Pilasters flanking the attic windows have Corinthian-style capitals with hood mouldings and scalloped keystones above. Windows throughout are replacement multi-paned fixed timber casements with top-hinged lights to upper-central panes.

The ground floor shopfront is modernised with a square-headed opening currently concealed behind a steel roller-shutter, with a painted masonry fascia and vinyl signage above. The shopfront is framed by painted cast-iron pilasters with fluted lower sections and Composite-style capitals, rising to fluted consoles with foliate motifs to round-headed pediments flanking a moulded masonry cornice. These decorative cast-iron pilasters are of particular note.

Regularly arranged openings occur to the first and second floors, whilst those to the attic level are more tightly grouped. The rear (north) elevation is gable-fronted and comprises machine-made red brick walls with segmental-headed window openings to the second and first floors, featuring brick voussoirs and projecting masonry sills. A single square-headed window opening occurs to the left side of the first floor level. Openings are now blocked with concrete blocks. The west elevation is largely abutted by the neighbouring building at Nos. 103-105; the roof to the left side is partially concealed behind a red brick parapet. The east elevation is largely abutted by the neighbouring building at Nos. 95-97, with the right-side wall exposed comprising machine-made red brick walling extending to a matching parapet.

Built around 1896, the building was first shown on the fourth edition Ordnance Survey map of 1901-02. Prior to construction, the plot comprised two houses owned by James Birch and occupied by haberdasher Jane Browne and leather merchant Thomas Frazer. These houses were removed around 1895 and replaced with the present building in the following year. Originally occupied by tailors and clothiers Craig & Co., the premises were given a rateable value of £180 in the Annual Revisions of 1896 and comprised a shop, workroom and rear yard. The company remained on these premises until at least the 1930s. Contemporary maps indicate that the footprint of the main building has remained largely unaltered except for a flat-roofed addition added to the rear.

Although there has been some loss of detailing and historic fabric, particularly the profiled and projecting capping to the original pediment, the historic architectural character is largely retained. The building remains a good example of small commercial premises representative of the expansion of commerce within the city during the turn of the 20th century and provides a significant reminder of Edwardian architecture within this section of the city centre. It forms part of a wider group of similarly dated commercial buildings, including Nos. 95-97 to the east and Nos. 103-105 to the west, all street-fronted on the north side of North Street.

The building is currently vacant, with a retail unit on the ground floor and associated offices and storage space on upper floors. The rear yard is bound by a steel fence and a single-storey flat-roofed building to the north, beyond which is a public car park.