French Connection, 26-28 Corn Market, Belfast, County Antrim, BT1 4DD

French Connection, 26-28 Corn Market, Belfast

A three-storey commercial building with attic, located on Cornmarket at the junction with Ann Street. Built around 1882 in Italianate Neoclassical style, it retains its historic character through simple, strong stucco detailing, though it has been compromised by extensive alterations and is not among the finest examples of the type.

The building features a mansard hipped roof of natural slate with lead ridges set behind a parapet topped by metal rails. A corner dormer has lead cladding to its sides and a stucco front with a moulded pediment on brackets flush with the building's face. A pedimented dormer to the east sits behind the parapet. Rainwater goods are concealed.

The walls are painted stucco with a deep moulded cornice featuring a dentilled frieze. Giant order pilasters on faceted plinths divide the facade into bays, decorated above the capitals with guilloche moulding. Decorated apron panels at second-floor level and moulded strings provide further ornamentation. Second-floor windows are arched with moulded archivolts, fluted bracket keystones, and fretted floral aprons. First-floor windows are square-headed with fluted bracket keystones. The attic window is two-paned; remaining windows are original three-paned timber casements with overlights, with corner windows of curved glass. The main south elevation is three windows wide with a curved corner window to the west. The parapet has an upstanding pier to the second pilaster. The secondary west elevation is two windows wide. The north and east elevations are abutted by adjoining buildings. The ground floor has been substantially altered with a modern fascia and plate glass windows between rendered piers.

The building was constructed as a shop and offices by the solicitors' firm H & W Seeds, first appearing on large-scale maps of Belfast from 1883-4. Upper-floor offices were valued at £140, while the ground-floor shop was sublet to George McAfee, a military bootmaker, valued at £80. In 1886, the solicitors' firm George McIldowie and Sons purchased the building for £980 and occupied the upper floors until the 1970s. The 1901 census records David York, a caretaker, living on the third floor with his wife Rose, who worked as a housekeeper. George McAfee ran his bootmaking business from the ground floor, advertising "ladies' boots and shoes, evening shoes and slippers, tennis and seaside shoes" in the Belfast Newsletter. McAfee's business continued until the 1920s, when it was taken over by Stephens and Bourke, who remained military bootmakers and court shoemakers on the premises until the 1960s. Since around 1970, the shop has been occupied by various clothing retailers, and the upper floors appear to have been incorporated into the retail premises.

The corner building sits on the east side of pedestrianised Cornmarket as it turns into Ann Street, north of Arthur Square.