Conway Mill, 5-7 Conway Street, Belfast, BT13 2DE

Conway Mill is a 19th and early 20th century flax spinning mill complex situated on the east side of Conway Street, a short distance from its junction with Falls Road in Belfast. It comprises two brick-built mills of different heights, linked by engine houses, a boiler house, and a short overhead covered passage, and represents an increasingly rare survival from Belfast's great industrial textile era. The complex is now subdivided into units for community and commercial use.

THE NEW MILL

The newer of the two mills is a five-storey, 24-bay brick building facing west directly onto Conway Street. Its west elevation has walls of red brick, painted over at ground floor level up to window head height, with a projecting brick base at ground floor, moulded brick cornices over the first and fourth floors that serve as continuous window sills to the floors above, and a further moulded brick cornice at the top floor surmounted by a plain blocking course with oversailing copings. The roof, hidden behind the parapet, is clad in modern pressed metal sheeting with parapet gutters. At the second and third storeys there is a narrow arched recessed panel at the left-hand end. Windows are set in recessed panels between double-storey brick pilasters with moulded bases, string courses, and cornices. The window openings are segmental arched with plain reveals, except at the third floor where there are raised keystones of painted stone or concrete linked by a continuous brick drip moulding. Window sills throughout are of painted stone or concrete, except at ground floor where they are of painted cast iron. The windows themselves are timber-framed with nine-pane divisions, apparently originally comprising a central three-pane fixed light with a three-pane bottom-hung vent above and below, though most are in poor condition or have been altered.

At ground floor level many of the windows have been partly blocked by steel sheeting over the bottom vent, fitted with later steel shutters, partly closed with concrete blockwork, or elongated to form later rectangular doorways partly dressed in smooth cement render. The first floor windows have all been blocked up. Second floor windows are mostly intact but some glazing bars have been removed. Third floor windows are blocked or temporarily closed with plastic sheeting. Fourth floor windows are all blocked except one lying open. The four doorways along the west front contain, from right to left: a pair of glazed modern doors; a pair of modern ledged pine doors behind a modern steel shutter; a pair of steel-sheeted doors; and a pair of modern flush timber doors with small glazed panels.

At the second and third window bays from the end there is a large original vehicular opening, segmental arched, with a rendered keyblock, moulded stop-chamfered reveals to the jambs, and conical cast iron wheel guards without maker's inscription at each side. This opening contains a moulded timber frieze and cornice, now fire-damaged, surmounted by a fanlight blocked with brickwork; damaged steel shutter door framing is inset, and the opening is closed by a pair of steel security gates. The entry through this opening leads to the rear yard. The side walls within the opening are of plain brickwork; the south side contains a large vehicular opening closed with a modern steel shutter. The ceiling is formed by three bays of brick jack arches linked by tie rods. There is a small derelict brick-walled chamber in one corner that was a valve house, and a large rectangular opening in the rear wall leading directly to the yard, with rounded jambs and a deep steel girder over.

The south elevation comprises the end of the main mill block, five windows wide, with the stairwell set slightly back to the right and two windows wide. The mill walling here is of white glazed brick with red brick quoins at the left-hand extremity of the ground and first floors, and a red brick border returning from the west elevation, set back slightly at the left-hand end of the upper three floors. Moulded cornices, string courses with keystones, and pilaster strips are present as on the west elevation, but without a moulded plinth; sockets and breaks in the cornices indicate where downpipes once ran, though the downpipes are now missing. Windows are as on the west elevation, with the third opening from the left on the top floor being a blind original feature, closed with white glazed brick. The fourth opening from the left at ground floor has been elongated, with the top portion closed with concrete blockwork and a steel beam inserted to form a later doorway containing a pair of modern rectangular glazed timber doors set in a tongued-and-grooved sheeted surround, in cement-rendered reveals with a steel shutter outer door. Ground floor sills are of cast iron; upper floor sills are of stone. The stairwell walling is of plain white glazed brick with no decoration other than a plain oversailing coping to the parapet; its windows are similar to those of the main block, with ground floor windows blocked in white-painted smooth cement render and first floor windows boarded up. Ground floor sills are cast iron; upper floor sills are stone.

The east elevation shows the main east wall of the mill, twelve windows wide, with the stairwell projecting forward at the left-hand end and the end bays of the main wall set back at the right. The walling is of plain white glazed brick throughout, without plinth or mouldings, and the downpipes are missing. Two derelict toilet stacks project from the ground and first floor levels, originally full-height as evidenced by wall markings above. These are narrow projecting rectangular bays in white glazed brick: the southern one has been extended to one side in modern concrete brickwork, the northern one incorporates an iron-framed extension to one side, and each has cast iron downpipes. Windows to the main wall are as on the west elevation; ground floor windows are blocked with concrete blockwork, first floor windows are covered with corrugated iron, and some upper floor windows are lying completely open. The east wall of the stairwell is of plain white glazed brick with the corner to the north chamfered and a conical cast iron wheel protector at the base. At ground floor there is a segmental arched doorway with rounded edge to the head, containing a pair of modern steel grille gates set in steel-covered reveals. Above this there is one window to each landing, similar to those elsewhere, except the one at second floor level, which has been broken out to accommodate a short enclosed link passage rising on an incline from the adjoining old mill. This link passage has a reinforced concrete slab floor, red brick side walls each containing a glass-brick window, and a corrugated sheet roof. The north side of the stairwell also has white glazed brick walling with one window to each half-landing, smaller than those on the main elevations; the ground floor window is boarded up with a cast iron sill, while upper level sills are of stone.

The thirteenth bay of the main east wall angles back and contains one window to each floor; beyond a short end wall is a derelict set-back bay, glazed at the top two floors with timber fixed lights but lying open below, with iron-framed landings and ladder access. To the right, projecting forward, is the three-storey boiler house in red brick. The section of the east elevation of the main block beyond the set-back to the north end has the ground, first, and second floors of the first six window bays abutted by the boiler house. The walling here is red brick with a parapet at the top, and the windows are segmental arched timber-framed as elsewhere, though those at the third and fourth floors are closed with concrete blockwork. Wall markings indicate a previous fire escape stairway at the last two bays from the north end, now removed. The third bay from the north end has a small toilet projection at first, second, and third floor levels, of poor-quality construction. The north elevation is a plain red brick wall with a parapet at the top, later cracked and then strengthened with modern tie bars, with one small crudely formed opening created in the wall at high level.

THE OLD MILL

The old mill is a four-storey, 15-bay brick building standing parallel to and immediately behind the new mill. A lower engine house projects forward at one end and an entrance bay with stairwell is set slightly back at the other end. The main entrance faces west.

The west elevation of the main block has a roof of Bangor blue slates laid in regular courses, with seven flush rooflights — two of which are original three-pane examples, the rest reglazed with single panes. At the left-hand end is a small gabled dormer with a slated roof, gablet, and slate-hung cheeks, with a tongued-and-grooved sheeted rectangular timber door to the front. PVC gutters and downpipes serve the main block. The wall is of red brickwork with painted rhyolite quoins at the right-hand end; the brickwork has been whitened at first, second, and third floor levels, and rendered with a wet dash at ground floor, the render spalling in places. Rectangular cast iron tie-beam cramps are set between most windows at first and second floor levels. A steel-framed fire escape stairway with cast iron steps and old tubular metal railings is positioned at the second bay from the left, where original window openings have been partly blocked with render to accommodate modern flush timber doors.

Windows to the upper floors are rectangular nine-pane timber frames comprising a lower six-pane fixed light surmounted by a three-pane opening top light, set in plain reveals with flat brick arches to the heads and projecting stone sills. At ground floor two windows survive; the other openings are either blocked and rendered over or enlarged to form doorways, the remaining windows containing modern replacement timber fixed lights with a central opening vent, and with sills cut back flush with the wall. The four ground floor doorways, from left to right, contain: a pair of flush timber doors recessed in smooth rendered reveals; a pair of steel-plated doors set in a steel frame with concrete blockwork filling the top of the original window opening above; a pair of modern flush timber doors set in a broad timber surround in smooth rendered reveals with a steel shutter door over; and a pair of iron-plated doors recessed in smooth rendered reveals.

Set back slightly at the right-hand end is a five-storey flat-roofed entrance bay in the angle with the circular stairwell, which projects from the south gable; both the entrance bay and stairwell project above the height of the main mill block. The walling is red brick with a projecting brick dentil cornice at the top, surmounted by a smooth cement rendered blocking course; the ground floor is partly rendered with a wet dash and has a smooth rendered plinth. The ground floor doorway contains a pair of modern panelled doors set in a steel frame in smooth rendered reveals. One window to each floor above is rectangular, timber-framed, set in plain reveals with brick flat arch heads and projecting stone sills; the first floor window retains a top sash of six panes with horns, though the lower sash is boarded up. The second floor window has been broken out to accommodate the inclined overhead link passage to the new mill. The third and fourth floor windows are six-pane fixed lights surmounted by a three-pane opening top light.

The south elevation of the main block is largely obscured by the projecting stairwell and entrance bay, though quoins are visible at the left-hand end and a blank red brick gable lies to the right of the stairwell. The curved front face of the stairwell has a brick dentil cornice matching the corner bay to its left, with part of the ground floor rendered in wet dash. There is one large window to each half-landing and a smaller one to the top level. The lower two windows are canted timber six-pane two-light fixed replacements; the third window from the bottom is small-paned and curved in plan to follow the line of the wall; the top window is a rectangular timber six-pane fixed light with a three-pane opening top vent. All windows are set in plain reveals with brick flat arches, with the lower two rebuilt, and stone sills curved to follow the wall, the bottom one fractured. Below the lowest window, in the rendered portion of the wall, is a small rectangular tongued-and-grooved timber sheeted hatch door in a timber surround. Above the curved stairwell and set slightly back is a curved addition in newer red brick housing the lift mechanism. To the left is the rectangular corner bay in red brick with a brick dentil cornice at the top and wet-dash render to part of the ground floor, which appears to be a later addition as the brickwork is not tied in with the curved stairwell. One window to each floor: rectangular timber in plain reveals with brick flat arches and projecting stone sills, except at ground floor where the window is in plain reveals without a sill and contains a modern metal fixed-light casement with a top-hung vent. The first and second floor windows are rectangular timber sliding sashes, originally six over six panes with horns, though the lower sash of the first floor example has been replaced by two panes. The two top-level windows are smaller, with six-pane fixed lights and three-pane bottom-hung top lights opening inward, all set in plain reveals with brick flat arches and stone sills. There is a PVC downpipe. The east side of the stairwell has four windows, one to each level above ground floor, in similar openings: the first floor window is a later nine-pane timber fixed light; the second and third floor windows are multi-paned fixed lights with similarly paned opening top lights; the fourth floor window is a six-pane fixed light with the original three-pane opening top vent now missing.

The east elevation of the main block is of similar character to the west elevation, with a slated roof and PVC rainwater goods. The walling is red brick with quoins at the right-hand end; portions of the ground floor have been limewashed, some areas rendered with a dry dash of white limestone chippings, and other parts smooth cement rendered. Rectangular cast iron tie rod clamps are present between windows at the first and second floors, and there are cast iron soil pipes. At the fifth bay from the left there is a later full-height projecting toilet stack added in 1904, comprising a brick front and right side wall with patches of red and yellow chequerwork patterning, a steel-framed bay to one side filled with panelling (originally specified as slate slabs) and corrugated perspex, standing on a concrete plinth. Windows to the main wall are as on the west elevation, though some at the top floor have reveals rebuilt in new red brick. Two first-floor windows have been shortened and later blocked with brickwork at the bottom. Some ground floor windows are blocked and smooth rendered; some contain smaller modern rectangular timber fixed lights; others have been elongated to accommodate modern rectangular doorways with steel shutters or modern timber doors. The fourth, fifth, and sixth openings from the right-hand end have large semi-circular arches with projecting stone sills, but the openings are now bricked up to contain smaller windows.

The north gable of the main block is partly obscured by a later canted engine house projecting from it. The gable itself is brickwork with rusticated quoins at the left-hand end, unquoined at the base, with cast iron soil pipes and two circular cast iron tie bar cramps. Three original flat-arched openings are present, all later bricked up, with one stone sill still projecting. An original ground floor window opening has been elongated to form a modern rectangular doorway containing a steel-plated door set in smooth rendered reveals with a modern concrete lintel.

THE NEW ENGINE HOUSE

The new engine house is a three-storey red brick building presenting a four-storey elevation, with a canted face to the north-east corner, projecting from the north gable of the old mill in the angle between it and the original engine room. It was built in 1891 to designs by architect Samuel Stevenson. The roof is of Bangor blue slates in regular courses; the walls are of plain red brick with parapeted gables coped with sandstone. The entrance faces east.

The east elevation has a PVC downpipe, and at ground floor a small doorway with a brick flat arch containing a modern steel-plated door, surmounted by a small projecting cast iron landing from a doorscreen above. The doorscreen is partly boarded up with plywood but originally had a glazed fanlight and panelled sidelights, parts of which remain visible. The door head is of brickwork supported on an iron flat, rendered over but spalling. Two large windows above, one to each level, are rectangular timber small-paned fixed lights in plain reveals with rendered lintels and projecting concrete sills. The canted north-east corner wall has an asymmetrical gable with a shaped sandstone kneeler to the left and sandstone copings, and the wall breaks forward at the right-hand end with a narrow pier above a broader canted projection. Two windows at each of the three upper levels and a blank ground floor area are present here; the windows are rectangular timber fixed lights with bottom-hung top vents, three over six panes, except where reglazed; first floor windows are partly boarded up; all are set in plain reveals with brick flat arches and concrete sills.

The north elevation is four storeys high and one window wide, with brickwork tied into that of the original engine house to the right. There is a raking parapet gable at the top with a shaped sandstone kneeler to the right and sandstone copings, and some blue brickwork to the lower storeys. The ground floor contains a rectangular doorway with a concrete lintel, now blocked with concrete blockwork. The first floor contains a large pair of derelict rectangular timber glazed and sheeted doors set in rendered reveals with a rendered lintel, all in poor condition. The second and third floor windows are similar to those on the canted north-east face. A steel girder projects from the wall above the second floor window. The west elevation is plain red brick walling extending above the height of the adjoining original engine house.

THE ORIGINAL ENGINE HOUSE

The original engine house is a brick building presenting a three-storey elevation with a narrow frontage to both north and south. It projects from the north end of the west wall of the old mill, abutted on one side by the new engine house and on the other by the boiler house. The entrance faces north.

The north elevation is of red brick with a deep moulded stone cornice surmounted by a blocking course; the left-hand wall is keyed in blocks into the newer brickwork of the new engine house. A water tank sits on the flat roof behind the parapets. At ground floor there is a small rectangular doorway now closed with concrete blockwork. Above this is a tall semi-circular arched window surmounting a doorscreen that gives onto a steel platform supported on a stanchion and brackets, with tubular railings. The window opening has a four-course arch of brick headers and contains a semi-circular headed timber multi-paned window with radial lights to the top and horizontally pivoting lights to the bottom, all now derelict. The doorscreen contains a rectangular timber panelled and glazed door with arched head, flanked by similar sidelights. There is a large cast iron downpipe.

The south elevation is three storeys high, of red brick partly whitened, with rusticated painted rhyolite quoins at the left-hand end and a deep moulded stone or rendered cornice. A small ground floor opening is now closed with concrete blockwork. Above it at first floor level is a large tall semi-circular arched opening comprising a four-course arch of brick headers, now closed with concrete blockwork. At the top floor a rectangular opening with a brick flat arch is also closed with concrete blockwork. A later steel and cast iron fire escape stairway is attached across the south elevation and continues upward to give roof access. The quoins and cornice return to the short west face, which contains a tall full-height opening containing derelict recessed timber fixed lights.

THE BOILER HOUSE

The boiler house is a three-storey, three-bay building abutted on one side by the original engine house and on the other by the new mill. The main entrance faces north.

The north elevation has a hipped roof of Bangor blue slates in regular courses with a coating of tar over them and dark-toned ridge tiles. A timber ventilator with a metal sheet roof covering rises above the roof. The wall is of plain brickwork with a projecting eaves course. PVC gutter and downpipe are to the right-hand end; a cast iron downpipe is to the left. At ground floor a deep steel joist runs across the full width supported on angled brackets on end posts; the inset ground floor area is filled with brick and contains rectangular openings, two blocked with concrete blockwork and one with a steel mesh grille, and a modern steel-plated door to the left. The two upper floors each have three windows: rectangular timber two-pane fixed lights with a top-hung vent, all broken, set in plain reveals with brick flat arches and projecting stone sills.

The east elevation is of plain brickwork and contains at first floor level a rectangular doorway with a rendered or stone lintel, leading onto a steel-framed platform connecting with the original engine house; the door is missing. There is a PVC gutter. Rising up behind the boiler house is a taller later block faced in painted asbestos panels with cast iron guttering. This block has a row of rectangular windows at the top level, level with the third storey of the new mill, containing modern timber fixed-light windows in poor condition.

The south elevation is a tall plain modern red brick wall with a recessed opening at ground floor where a deep full-width iron girder is supported on a brick pier and a single circular cast iron column with four flanges to the top. The walls within the recess are of brickwork. There is a small rectangular doorway to the right-hand side with the door missing. The raking steel joist above marks where a former additional building was once attached to this wall.

SETTING

The complex stands in a built-up area of the city on the east side of Conway Street. To the south is a modern office site; to the north an open area currently surrounded by high metal security fencing; and to the west, across the street, a modern urban residential area. The new mill faces directly onto the pavement, with the main gateway to the site adjoining it at the south gable. This gateway comprises a vehicular entrance with a small pedestrian gateway alongside, with modern red brick piers, modern steel gates, and modern steel front boundary railings on red brick walls extending to the south. Immediately inside the vehicular gateway, the cast iron surround of a weighbridge inscribed "Avery, Birmingham, England" is still visible in the yard surface. The side yard has a concrete and tarmac surface and leads to a narrow enclosed yard between the two mills surfaced in cement screed, and also to a rear yard on the south side, which connects to a further rear yard on the north side by a pedestrian passage immediately to the rear of the old mill.

In the rear yard to the south there are three conjoined buildings — one single-storey, one two-storey, and one three-storey — of no special architectural interest. The two-storey block to the south is of concrete brickwork; the two-storey block to the east is rendered with a dry dash and imitation half-timbering in smooth render; the single-storey block is similar. In the rear yard to the north, high metal security fencing forms the northern boundary. Along the north-east side of the yard to the rear of the old mill stand two two-storey buildings: a gabled and slated plain red brick building with modern fixed-light and top-hung vent windows, and a later red brick lean-to block on its south side with a corrugated roof. A further two-storey red brick building to the south has semi-circular arched openings to its west wall, some altered and partly blocked with brickwork, and brick jack arches to the ground floor.

HISTORY

The precise date of the complex's establishment is uncertain, but it appears to date from the early 1840s, when its owners, the Kennedy family, were recorded as flax spinners at Millvale, Falls Road, though the firm owned several buildings in the vicinity and the exact location of Millvale is unclear. Conway Street first appears in Henderson's New Belfast Directory of 1843 as the address of James Kennedy and Son, Flax Spinners. The complex was shown in fully developed form on the large-scale Ordnance Survey map of 1858, comprising a linen weaving factory to the front and a flax spinning mill to the rear — corresponding to what is now known as the old mill — together with the original engine house, probably also the present boiler house, smaller buildings in the present rear yard to the south, and a tall octagonal chimney that has since been demolished. A new engine house was added to the north end of the original mill in 1891, and in 1907 a new five-storey spinning mill was built in front of the old mill facing Conway Street to replace the earlier factory, both to the designs of architect Samuel Stevenson. Toilets were added to the east elevation of the old mill in 1904 by an unknown architect. Spinning and weaving operations ceased around 1970, after which the complex — extended to incorporate several buildings formerly belonging to an adjoining mill to the east in North Howard Street — was subdivided into units for community and commercial use. A two-storey office block that formerly occupied the south corner of the site next to Conway Street has since been demolished.