West Belfast Orange Hall, 342-344 Shankill Road, Belfast, County Antrim, BT13 3AB

An attached two-storey-with-attic red-brick Orange Hall with round corner tower and cupola to designs by William Batt; dated 1898 and situated to the south side of Shankill Road in west Belfast. Rectangular on plan with projecting porch to front, engaged round tower to east corner and two-storey entrance bay to southwest. Hipped natural slate roof with angled terracotta ridge tiles; lead clad roof to cupola. Cast-iron ogee rainwater goods on dentilled brick eaves with aluminum downpipes. Walling is English garden wall-bonded red-brick on a chamfered and painted concrete plinth; dentilled string-course between floors and moulded string-course to impost level at each floor (also to porch). Windows are a variety of late twentieth-century timber casements with projecting painted sills, in camber-headed openings having impost mouldings and keyblocks; round-headed at ground floor. The principal elevation faces northeast and is (almost) symmetrically arranged with round tower to left corner and central entrance bay rising to aediculed glazed oculus piercing balustraded parapet. Three windows to first floor; that to central bay is narrower and framed by paired brick pilasters (one also to far right). Ground floor is abutted to centre by the projecting porch and has two windows at right and one at left. Porch has slate roof, moulded eaves and corner piers; double-leaf five-panelled timber doors surmounted by round-headed transom light with lettering reading “WEST BELFAST/ ORANGE HALL”, in a chamfered reveal with impost mouldings, archivolt and keyblock. Door accessed via a single concrete step. Tower at left is lit by two windows at each floor and rises to ocatgonal timber cupola having ogee-arch openings with trefoil detailing and surmounted by lead roof with tall finial. The southeast elevation has two sets of paired windows at first floor divided by pilasters. Five windows to ground floor (without impost mouldings). Two-storey entrance bay at left (lower) has a round-headed window at first floor with moulded head, decorative stops and keyblock; ground floor has a replacement timber door with concrete lintel, fronted by modern metal roller shutter and accessed by a set of six modern tiled steps. The southwest elevation is abutted by adjoining building (HB26/34/004B). The northwest elevation is abutted by adjoining building. Setting: Street-fronted and situated at the west end of the Shankill Road between Battenberg Street and Brookmount Street. Facing twentieth century Spectrum Centre to north and streets to south lined with two-storey red-brick terraced housing. Roof: Natural slate Walling: English garden wall-bonded red-brick Windows: Replacement timber casements RWG: Cast-iron