29-31 Waring Street, Belfast, County Antrim, BT1 2DY

A three-storey red brick commercial building on the corner of the south side of Waring Street and Skipper Street in Belfast's Cathedral Quarter. Built in 1902-3 as offices for James Gallaher, a grain merchant, it exemplifies simple Classical style commercial architecture of the early 20th century.

The building has a flat roof hidden behind a solid parapet. The walls are constructed of red brick laid in English garden wall bond, with moulded stone and brick cornice detailing. A stone ashlar string course runs over and connects the windows, with a projecting brick mould above on the first floor. Between windows runs a terracotta floral string, with a dentilled brick string below the second floor windows. The ground floor features a stone entablature supported on stone pilasters with recessed panels to the shafts and egg and dart capitals.

Windows throughout are timber sashes with 2-pane 1/1 glazing, except the ground floor which has plate glass windows and doors. The main north elevation is six windows wide with regularly spaced openings. The ground floor contains five columns with the main entrance flanked by windows. An original secondary doorway to the west, now converted to a window, is also visible. The east side elevation shows two windows wide with three columns to the ground floor. The south and west elevations are abutted by adjoining buildings.

The building was constructed at a cost of £1200 and contains offices on the ground floor with six further offices for letting on the upper floors. James Gallaher had occupied the site since at least 1877, when it housed various businesses including shoemakers, tailors, and the Universal Parcel Express. Valuation records from 1903 show the ground floor valued at £60, with upper-floor offices ranging from £6 10 shillings to £14. Gallaher's grain business remained in occupation until the 1950s. From the 1940s to the 1980s, the Hamilton steamship company occupied the ground floor alongside the Consulate of the Dominican Republic. In the late 1990s, the building was taken over by the Young Help Trust and refurbished as a training centre to designs by Lyons Architects, with limestone shopfronts restored. The upper floors continue in use as offices while the ground floor operates as commercial premises.

Rainwater pipes are recessed replacement square metal. The building sits within a conservation area opposite the former Ulster Bank building, now The Cloth Ear, and The Merchant Hotel.