12-14 Lower Garfield Street, Belfast, Co Antrim, BT1 1FP

A two-storey-with-attic red-brick building in the Queen Anne Revivalist style, designed by Graeme Watt & Tulloch and constructed around 1896. The building is rectangular on plan with a curving elevation along Lower Garfield Street, forming the western end of a larger terrace that extends west and embraces the corner at the junction with North Street. It comprises a public meeting hall on the upper floor, accessed via No.12, and a ground floor shop unit within the chamfered corner at No.14. The entire building group is currently vacant and derelict, with the exception of No.8, which forms part of the adjoining terrace.

The roof is steeply pitched with slate covering and terracotta ridge-tiles. A red-brick parapet extends above the eaves on all elevations except the rear, interrupted at the west elevation by a large gable containing a pair of small segmental-headed windows in plain surrounds. Rainwater goods are generally aluminium ogee mounted on a moulded projecting eaves course, with uPVC fittings mounted on plain timber fascia to the overhanging eaves of the rear.

The walling is red brick laid in Flemish bond with stucco dressings. The principal first-floor windows, now blocked, are tall and narrow, set in moulded stucco architraves with lugged bases and scrolled keystones, linked by a continuous cill course except where otherwise stated. Remaining windows have plain surrounds, segmental heads, projecting stone sills and generally contain 1/1 timber sashes. A heavily moulded cornice and entablature above the ground-floor units is supported on panelled timber pilasters which separate each unit. A similar motif of plain brick pilasters rises from corbels at first-floor window head level, extending through the cornice to the parapet. Ground floor units are completely boarded and blocked up.

The principal elevation faces north and is asymmetrical and concave, comprising two openings wide with an additional chamfered bay to the far right side. The cornice over the ground-floor chamfered bay is curved and surmounted by a projecting stucco balustrade. The right side of the ground floor contains a large tripartite multi-pane window, while the left side features a scrolled and broken pediment to the cornice above the now-blocked doorway, which is framed in modern tiles.

The east elevation is abutted by the adjoining terrace. The south (rear) elevation is convex, devoid of parapet or ornamentation. The roofline at eaves level descends from west to east, with much of the elevation abutted by various red-brick returns. The return to the right is monopitched with undertermined roof material, breaking through the eaves; a plain flat-arched window is positioned to the upper left and two pairs to the right; the view of the remaining elevation is obstructed by a boundary red-brick wall. A two-storey mono-pitched return to the left side abuts the south-west corner of the right return, with its elevation abutted by the boundary wall and two narrow timber sashes to its right side. The left side forms part of the west elevation and contains a camber-arched blocked doorway, two flat-arched openings and a pair of similarly detailed windows above; mouldings over the shop unit extend across this right side.

The west elevation contains a single commercial unit to the ground floor with a large bricked-up opening over a continuous polished granite cill. The first floor is blank except for a single camber-arched 1/1 sash to the far right side.

The building addresses the south-eastern end of Lower Garfield Street with its concave curve and forms part of a large terrace in conjunction with the adjoining premises Nos.2-10 Lower Garfield Street and 56-60 North Street. This portion features a chamfered north-west corner with an alley running south, parallel to the west elevation, which separates the structure from the neighbouring building to the west. The building group constitutes an important element of the townscape in an area that has lost many historic buildings in recent decades, its roofscape being visible for some distance. It relates to the Deer's Head on the opposite side of Lower Garfield Street and to the North Street Arcade, located a short distance to the north-east. Lower Garfield Street is pedestrianised, and a single-storey brick wall bounds the perimeter to the rear of the building, which addresses a large open area used for car parking.