Hendron Brothers 14 Little Patrick Street Belfast BT15 1AD

Hendron Brothers, 14 Little Patrick Street, Belfast

A three-storey terrace corner shop with living quarters over, built in 1873–74, with a large matching store to the rear (originally a separate property) of approximately 1920. The building stands at the junction of Little Patrick Street and Little York Street. It appears to have been vacated in the 1980s and is now derelict.

The structure presents a plain formal appearance. The shop and house section is substantially narrower than the large store to the rear facing north. The walls combine red brick and render with a dentilled eaves course and a moulded stone course over the shopfront. The roof is part hipped and part gabled, slated, but now contains several significant holes. Window openings are a mixture of segmental and flat-headed types. All appear to have lost their frames; those to the ground floor are blocked up and the remainder are boarded. Several openings to the long west façade facing Little York Street have had their heads altered, as has the vehicle entrance to this side.

Historical Development

Little Patrick Street was laid out around 1805 and was initially known as Thomas Street. The site at the junction of Little York Street (also created around 1805) was originally leased to James Williamson, a local land surveyor, cartographer, and architect of 'Lillyput Hill', and appears developed on Mason's 1815 town plan of Belfast. The present building is a later replacement.

The main front section (extending as far as the vehicle entrance on Little York Street) was constructed in 1873–74 as a house and shop for Robert W. Moreland, recorded in contemporary street directories as a grocer trading as 'R. & W. Moreland'. Moreland leased the property from Jane Rutledge until around 1906, when he is recorded as the freeholder. In 1906 or the following year, the building and its grocery business passed to Robert Knox, who retained it until around 1922, though it appears to have remained vacant for part of this period.

In 1923 William Noble, a sack and grain merchant with premises at neighbouring 16a Little Patrick Street, is listed by valuers as the owner. Several years earlier, in or just before 1920, he had built the large attached store to the north along Little York Street (numbered 23–33) as an adjunct to no. 16a (which lies to the rear of no. 16). By 1947 the business also occupied neighbouring nos. 16–20 to the south; the present Modernist warehouse structure at this address was probably built around this time. William Noble & Co. Ltd. retained nos. 14–20 into the 1970s.

In 1978 the entire group came into the hands of Henrdon Bros., tool and machine merchants, who remained there until the firm closed in early 1982. By 1987 no. 14 was being occupied by a car body repair business, though this may have been housed exclusively in part of the rear store, with the shop and house section unused. The building appears to have remained disused since around 1982, while the store to the rear seems to have been vacated not long after 1987.