North Belfast Working Men's Club, 32 Danube Street, Belfast, Co Antrim, BT13 1RT

North Belfast Working Men's Club, 32 Danube Street, Belfast

This is a symmetrical three-bay, two-storey-with-attic, gabled red-brick Working Men's Club with Gothic detailing. Construction began in 1893–1894 to designs by W.J. Gilliland and was completed in 1909 to designs by Hill and Kennedy. It holds the distinction of being the first working men's club built in the north of Ireland, and retains much historic fabric and detailing of quality. The proportions and detailing are characteristic of the late Victorian period, expressed through Gothic design features including pointed arches and castellated pinnacles. The early 20th-century additions to the rear add to the building's historic interest, illustrating the changing architectural taste at the turn of the century.

Form and Plan

The building is rectangular on plan, with two-storey lean-to brick extensions (1909) to the east and west, and a large double-height, bow-roofed red-brick hall extension (1909) to the rear.

Roof and Walling

The roof is pitched and clad in natural slate with blue-black angled ridge tiles and a copper cupola at the centre of the ridgeline. The gables have raised sandstone verges and castellated corner pinnacles to the northeast and northwest. There are no rainwater goods to the original building; plastic goods serve the remainder. The walling is Flemish-bonded red brick on a chamfered plinth with sandstone dressings. The apex of the gable at attic level is ashlar sandstone, and there are sandstone platbands at each floor. An ornately carved floriated string-course runs between the ground and first floor, with carved trefoil roundels above the entrance doors to the north. The gables are finished in cement render.

Windows

Windows throughout are a variety of pointed-headed timber casements in chamfered surrounds with flush sandstone sills, unless otherwise noted. Large five-paned casement windows at first-floor level are surmounted by moulded sandstone hood moulds; the central window rises to a decoratively carved pinnacle. Windows to the south gable are boarded.

Principal (North) Elevation

The principal elevation faces north and is symmetrically arranged, three openings wide. It is divided vertically by slender pointed brickwork with decoratively carved sandstone capitals at impost level to both ground and first floor. The central bay rises to a pedimented gable inscribed with the date 1909, containing three slender windows at attic level. Three inscribed sandstone panels below the first-floor windows read "NORTH BELFAST" / "WORKING MENS" / "CLUB. EST 1893".

At ground floor there are three identical sets of doors set within pointed-headed openings, all in chamfered reveals with moulded archivolts. The doors are double-leaf, panelled and glazed in timber, with a fixed timber tympanum over each containing two leaded and stained-glass oculi with a cinquefoil to the centre, the central oculus being the larger. The central entrance door has a glass panel above the cinquefoil with painted lettering reading "NORTH / BELFAST / WORKING MENS / CLUB".

Other Elevations

The east elevation has three small windows at first-floor level to the left, partially brick-infilled. It is abutted at the far left by the lean-to brick extension, which is lit at first floor by a one-over-one timber sash window and has a modern entrance door at ground floor.

The south (rear) elevation is abutted by the double-height hall extension (1909), which has a felt roof and a stepped parapet to the east. The south elevation was originally nine openings wide; all openings are now partially infilled, and the three at the far left are entirely infilled. Replacement glazed timber entrance doors sit to the right of centre, accessed by a set of concrete steps.

The west elevation of the extension is blank; the east elevation is abutted at centre by a slated lean-to shed and has four openings with brick infill. The west elevation has three window openings at first-floor level to the right, all with concrete-block infill, and three timber-boarded square window openings at ground-floor level to the right. It is abutted at the far right by the lean-to brick extension.

Setting

The building faces directly onto the street in a residential area south of the Crumlin Road, surrounded by 20th-century red-brick terraced housing. To the rear is a bowling green. On the east side of the lawn is a red-brick pavilion building (1909) with a corrugated tin roof, now housing a modern bar.

Historical Background

Construction of the club began on 16th September 1893, when the foundation stone was laid by Lady Harland, wife of Sir Edward J. Harland, the Member of Parliament for North Belfast. Contractors for the first phase of work were McLaughlin and Harvey.

Although a small number of working men's institutes and halls had been established in Belfast and Dublin from the mid-1860s onwards, the North Belfast club was regarded as a new departure for Belfast's civic life. Its stated purpose was to provide healthy recreation for artisan workers, their wives and sisters. Inspired by similar developments in Britain, it was hoped this would be the first of many such clubs in Belfast. The club was to be non-political, non-sectarian, and unconnected with trade unions, with the aim of promoting the intellectual and social advancement of working men, as reported in the Belfast Newsletter.

The initiative was conceived by Gerald B. Snape, a factory inspector who had observed the benefits of such clubs in England and sought to establish something similar after moving to Belfast. North Belfast was chosen as the location due to the high concentration of linen mills and factories in that part of the city. Generous financial contributions were made by local employers including Ewart's, Lindsay Thompson and Co., the Edenderry Spinning Company, the Brookfield Linen Company, Combe Barbour and Combe, and Harland and Wolff.

The three doorways on the ground floor were intended to give separate access to the reading room and billiard rooms, with a large hall, chess room, and caretaker's apartments above. A refreshment bar on the ground floor was to serve only non-alcoholic drinks. Plans for the rear included a bowling green, quoit alley, ball alley, gymnasium, and skittle alley.

One of the club buildings was badly damaged in a severe gale in December 1894 and was not rebuilt for some time owing to lack of funds. Gilliland's original design was estimated at £3,000, but only a portion of the scheme was initially executed. The Belfast Revaluation of 1900 records the building as one storey high with a felt roof, with a construction cost of £1,900 including furniture and a valuation of £50. When the façade was finally completed in 1909, Hill and Kennedy used a modified design that omitted the oriel window that had been projected for the upper storeys in Gilliland's original proposal.

The building continues in use as a working men's club, with the bowling green and pavilion to the rear remaining in place.