18 Donegall Pass, Belfast, BT7 1XA

18 Donegall Pass, Belfast

This is a purpose-built diocesan lodge for the Girls' Friendly Society (GFS), constructed around 1906 to the designs of Birmingham-born architect William Roome (also recorded as WJW Roome). It is a three-storey brick-faced reinforced concrete-framed building with a dormer-attic level and basement, situated on the northern side of Donegall Pass, south of Belfast city centre. The building is irregular U-shaped on plan and was later remodelled for use as a police station during the latter half of the 20th century; it has been vacant since the PSNI vacated it around 2014.

Architectural Overview

The structure employs the patented Hennebique system of reinforced concrete columns, beams and floor slabs — a pioneering construction method at the time — concealed behind a conventional red brick facade. The principal south elevation faces Donegall Pass and is five bays wide and symmetrical. Walling throughout is machine-made red brick laid to English garden wall bond, with an offset basecourse and moulded stringcourses marking each storey. The east, west and north elevations are finished in painted roughcast render.

The flat roof is hidden behind a parapet with bull-nosed brick coping, a steel perimeter rail, and red brick chimneys to the east and west fitted with yellow clay pots. Dormers at the central and end bays of the south elevation break through eaves level and are flanked by projecting brick piers running down to ground level; these dormers are surmounted by scalloped parapets with moulded sandstone coping. Mono-pitched natural slate roofs span between the central and end bays on the south elevation. Rainwater goods here are ogee-profile cast iron with decorative hoppers, though uPVC downpipes are mounted over modillioned eaves cornices.

Windows and Doors

Window openings on the principal south elevation are square-headed with flush concrete lintels, cavetto brick reveals and red sandstone sills. The windows themselves are bipartite 1/1 timber sliding sashes with horns and timber mullions; wired glass is fitted to ground floor openings. On the east, north and west elevations, windows have thin painted rendered architraves and concrete sills, and have been replaced throughout with uPVC casements.

The central ground floor bay of the principal elevation contains a round-arched door opening with brick voussoirs and a moulded architrave, currently concealed behind recent timber boards. Flat-roofed dormers flank this central bay at attic level, with ogee rainwater goods; all attic-level windows are bipartite uPVC casements with wired glass.

The west elevation is largely blank, with its lower two storeys abutted by a neighbouring flat-roofed building of around 1960 (formerly linked internally with No. 18), which has painted rendered walls and metal-framed side-hung casement windows.

The rear north elevation features projecting blocks at the end bays. The ground floor is largely obscured by late 20th century additions and a full-height modern fire escape stair to the west, all of which are of little historic interest. An early to mid-20th century red brick coal shed with a concrete roof abuts the building to the north-west. There is a plainly detailed square-headed door opening to the left cheek of the western projection with a modern flush timber door, and a possible former segmental-headed door opening to its right. The east elevation is largely blank except for two window openings, with its lower two storeys abutted by a flat-roofed extension of around 1960; the ground floor walls of this extension are painted brick while the first floor is painted roughcast render, suggesting the first floor and projecting eastern bay were added later. This eastern extension was once interconnected with No. 18 but is now separate. Its windows are uPVC, currently concealed behind timber boards, with a plainly detailed square-headed door opening.

Interior

The interior has seen considerable alteration during the building's use as a police station. However, the main staircases and terrazzo flooring survive.

Setting

The building is street-fronted on the northern side of Donegall Pass. To the rear and east is a bitmac yard largely enclosed by an early to mid-20th century red brick wall with concrete coping and a modern wired fence above (parts of the brick wall have been rebuilt in recent decades); a modern steel fence lines the southern perimeter of the yard. The yard is accessed via a modern steel gate to the south-east on Donegall Pass. A former vehicular entrance on Pakenham Street is marked by brick piers with a flush concrete band, though the opening is now infilled. The yard is largely vacant except for a single-storey recent red brick flat-roofed outbuilding in the north-east corner.

Historical Background

The site previously contained a terraced row of houses known as Albert Place, as shown on the fourth edition Ordnance Survey map of 1901–02, and No. 18 first appears on the sixth edition map of around 1931. The lodge was added to the valuation records in 1908 with an initial rateable value of £82, reduced to £50 on appeal. The valuer's notebook of 1908 recorded that the lodge contained bedroom accommodation for 39 girls across 20 bedrooms (some single rooms), 4 sitting rooms, a lecture hall, a kitchen and an enclosed rear yard. The total building contract amounted to approximately £4,000.

The previous GFS lodge in Belfast had been housed in an existing building at Nos. 9–11 Clarence Place, which provided 50 beds but had fallen into poor condition by the late 19th century. The need for new premises became pressing: at the Annual General Meeting of 1902, Lady Dufferin stated she was "not satisfied with the actual house that holds us… it is old and inconvenient and we greatly want a new building." A building fund was established, with subscriptions from parishes collected chiefly by Lady Dufferin herself.

The valuer noted that the purpose of the home was to provide suitable accommodation for girls — largely GFS members — coming to the city for work who might otherwise have to enter lodgings of questionable reputation. Charges were as follows: 2 shillings per bed per week, 5 shillings for full board per week, 18 shillings for sharing a room for more than one month, or £1 for a single room. Charges for non-members were slightly higher, and non-members were accepted only on suitable recommendation. In 1933 a total of 183 visitors were recorded, including the Belfast Philharmonic Orchestra.

By 1939, as recorded in the Belfast Street Directories, the GFS had vacated the lodge, which became a barracks for the RUC, who had previously occupied premises across the road at No. 7. During the latter half of the 20th century a range of successive extensions were added to the rear and east, though the footprint of the original building has remained largely intact throughout.

Other GFS lodge buildings in the north of Ireland included No. 15 College Street in Armagh and Nos. 26–28 Bishop Street in Londonderry (constructed around 1910), though none of these are believed to have been purpose-built as lodges. The Victoria Home in Rostrevor, built around 1899 as a place of rest for sick and weary GFS members, was renamed the Queen Victoria Home after royal permission was obtained in 1901. It closed after the Second World War, later reopened as the Glencairn Guest House, and has since been restored and extended into a large private house.

The Girls' Friendly Society

The GFS is the oldest Church of Ireland organisation established for girls and women. It was founded in England in 1874 by a Mrs Elizabeth Townsend and rapidly spread to Ireland, the USA and Australia. By 1881 there were 15 branches in Ireland; by 1900 this had risen to 157 branches with a total of 14,962 members. The society aimed to provide support, accommodation and skills training for girls coming from the countryside to work in the city, complementing the work of the Young Women's Christian Association (established 1855). Although the GFS headquarters was located in Dublin, Belfast's importance as a key industrial city meant the Belfast lodge was of great significance to the organisation.

The Hennebique Structural System

Architect William Roome is credited with introducing the Hennebique ferro-concrete construction system to Ireland through his earlier work on the Somerset Linen Factory at Marcus Ward Street in Belfast, built around 1904–05. The Hennebique system was developed by François Hennebique, who began producing reinforced concrete floor slabs in 1879, having been inspired by Joseph Monier's horticultural concrete troughs reinforced with iron mesh, which he had seen at the Paris Exhibition of 1867. Hennebique developed these slabs into a complete building system using reinforced concrete columns, beams and floor slabs, which he patented in 1892. Although reinforced concrete had been introduced to Britain in the late 19th century, Hennebique's patented concrete-framing system was not employed in Britain until 1897–99, when seven concrete-framed buildings were commissioned using his system; by 1908 this figure had risen to 130. Between 1897 and 1908 only approximately six buildings were constructed using the Hennebique system in the north of Ireland, of which No. 18 Donegall Pass is one, making this a rare surviving example of the type.