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

North Belfast Working Men's Club

A symmetrical three-bay two-storey-with-attic gabled red-brick Working Men's Club with Gothic detailing, built from 1894 to designs by W.J. Gilliland and completed in 1909 to designs by Hill and Kennedy. The building is rectangular on plan with two-storey lean-to brick extensions to the east and west (both 1909) and a large double-height bow-roofed red-brick hall extension to the rear (1909).

The pitched natural slate roof features blue and black angled ridge tiles and a copper cupola at the centre of the ridgeline. Raised sandstone verges flank the gables, with castellated corner pinnacles to the northeast and northwest. The walling is Flemish-bonded red-brick on a chamfered plinth with sandstone dressings. An ashlar sandstone apex crowns the attic gable, and sandstone platbands mark each floor level. An ornately carved floriated string-course runs between the ground and first floors. Cement render covers the gables. Rainwater goods are absent from the original building but present (in plastic) on the extensions.

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

The principal elevation faces north and is symmetrically arranged three openings wide, divided vertically by slender pointed brick courses with decoratively carved sandstone capitals at impost level to both ground and first floors. The central bay rises to a pedimented gable inscribed "1909" and contains three slender windows to the attic. Three inscribed sandstone panels beneath the first-floor windows read "NORTH BELFAST", "WORKING MENS", and "CLUB. EST 1893". Three identical sets of doors occupy pointed-headed openings at ground floor level, all within chamfered reveals with moulded archivolts. The doors are double-leaf panelled-and-glazed timber with fixed timber tympanum overhead containing two leaded and stained glass oculi with cinquefoil at centre (the larger oculus). The central entrance door features a glass panel over the cinquefoil bearing painted lettering reading "NORTH / BELFAST / WORKING MENS / CLUB".

The east elevation displays three small windows at first-floor level to the left (partially brick infilled). The lean-to brick extension abuts the far left, lit at first floor by a 1/1 timber sash window and accessed at ground floor by a modern entrance door. The south (rear) elevation is largely obscured by the double-height hall extension (1909), which has a felt roof and stepped parapet to the east. Originally this elevation was nine openings wide; all openings are now partially infilled, with three to the far left entirely infilled. Replacement glazed timber entrance doors occupy a position right of centre, accessed by concrete steps. The extension's west elevation is blank, whilst its east elevation is abutted at centre by a slated lean-to shed and contains four openings with brick infill.

The west elevation has three window openings to the first floor right, all with concrete block infill, and three timber-boarded square window openings at ground floor right. The lean-to brick extension abuts the far right of this elevation.

The building stands street-fronted in a residential area south of Crumlin Road, surrounded by twentieth-century red-brick terraced housing. To the rear is a bowling green with a red-brick pavilion building (1909) at the east side of the lawn. The pavilion, now housing a modern bar, features a corrugated tin roof.