18 May Street, Belfast, County Antrim, BT1 4NR

18 May Street, Belfast

This is a three-storey, mid-19th century Georgian-style terraced townhouse in red brick, one of a group of four (numbers 14 to 20 May Street) sitting directly on the north side of May Street. Built around 1855 — it first appears on the second edition Ordnance Survey map for Belfast in 1858 — the building is a good example of the type of residence constructed for Belfast's professional classes during the city's rapid mid-19th century expansion. Though compromised by some later alterations, a substantial amount of historic fabric and detailing survives. The building is now used as office space by a local solicitors' firm.

Architectural Description

The front elevation is built in red Flemish bond brickwork. The roof is pitched and covered in natural slate, with two modern rooflights. A moulded metal gutter sits on a bracketed timber gutter tray, and there is a round cast iron downpipe. Decorative stucco details include an eaves fascia, a string course at first-floor cill level, and a rusticated stucco plinth beneath the ground-floor cills. Window openings have painted stucco reveals and flat brick arches, and retain their original 6-over-6 sash windows with horns. Steel roller shutters have been fitted within the ground-floor window openings.

The entrance doorway is set to one side and has a segmental arch with a moulded stucco surround, inset with an Ionic doorcase. Above the door is a plain fanlight, and a replacement six-panelled door has been fitted. The entrance is approached by two concrete steps. Cast iron railings on a low stone kerb run across the full width of the frontage.

The south (front) elevation has the entrance to the west side with two adjacent windows; the first and second floors each have two windows. The west elevation abuts the adjoining mirrored terrace. The east elevation abuts the next property in the terrace. The north rear elevation has a two-storey modern extension with a pitched roof, grey brick walls, two metal windows at first-floor level, a vehicular opening with roller shutters, and an adjacent pedestrian door at ground-floor level.

Architectural Significance and Context

Nos 14 to 20 May Street were built during an intermediate phase of Belfast's architectural development. The Flemish bond red brick construction and the building techniques are characteristic of the early Victorian period, but the overall design is conservative and deliberately echoes the formal Georgian townhouse tradition, incorporating pillared doorcases with fanlights and — on the end properties, numbers 14 and 16 — quoins bookending the terrace. The architectural historian Patton described the group as "Flemish bond redbrick houses with small-pane sashes and arc-headed doorcases with slender edge mouldings and plain fanlights, and recessed Ionic columns supporting plain entablatures; corbelled gutter on rendered wallhead."

Few examples of this pre-Victorian formal townhouse style survive in Belfast city centre. The three-storey terraces on the neighbouring Joy Street and Hamilton Street, and the early-19th century townhouses at numbers 18 and 19 Donegall Square East, are among the last remnants of the original Georgian character of the May Street area. Nos 14 to 20 May Street are therefore a notable survival.

Historical Background

May Street was named after the May family. Edward May was an influential figure in Belfast's development who pioneered the reclamation of the Blackstaff River, opening up land to the south-east of the town centre. He acquired a large number of newly created leases from the Marquis of Donegall, who married his daughter Anna May. The street itself was mostly laid out in the early 19th century, partly over reclaimed land made available by the construction of Henry Joy's paper mill over the Blackstaff River. The eastern section was developed first; the western stretch, including this terrace, was not fully built over until the mid-19th century. The short section of May Street between Joy Street and Alfred Street — which includes nos 14 to 20 — was originally known as Clarendon Place, a name retained until around 1860 when the entire length of the street was permanently designated May Street.

No. 18 was first valued at £33 in Griffith's Valuation of 1859. At that time it had a more extensive stable block to the rear than its neighbours, accessed from Music Hall Lane. The property was leased from the estate of Sir Edward May by a Mr Hugh Hanna, who was employed as a County Land Surveyor. Hanna lived at No. 18 until his death in 1883, after which the house lay vacant. A Mr James McConville acquired the property in 1886, at which point the rateable value rose to £36.

The Annual Revision records for May Street between 1897 and 1905 are missing, but by 1900 the Belfast Revaluation records show the former private dwelling had been converted into a warehouse. It was revalued at £60 that year. Joseph Stevenson and Co., local linen merchants and manufacturers, had acquired the site in 1899. They continued to occupy No. 18 into the mid-20th century. By 1920 the upper floors had been converted into offices leased out to other companies, and by 1930 the total rateable value stood at £104 5s. At the First General Revaluation of Northern Ireland in 1935, the building was valued at £145 10s., with a note that the linen merchants had installed a shop on the ground floor. The terrace escaped the heavy bombardment of the Markets area during the Belfast Blitz of 1941.

By the 1950s the ground-floor shop was occupied by the Car and General Insurance Co. Ltd. Between 1963 and 1965 the entire building was taken over by the Northern Ireland Scout Council, who used it as their Belfast headquarters. The Scout organisation was still in occupation at the end of the second general revaluation in 1972, by which time the rateable value stood at £372. The Scouts vacated around 1978, after which the building stood empty — a survey image from 1978 records the ground-floor shop boarded up. No. 18 May Street was listed in 1988. In more recent years the modern shopfront was removed and restoration work returned the red brick façade to its original appearance.

Setting

May Street is a busy central thoroughfare running from Oxford Street to Donegall Street South, passing to the rear of the City Hall. May Street Presbyterian Church stands directly opposite. Adjoining the group of four terraced houses to the east is the building occupied by John Ross and Co.