Gilpin's, former brewery buildings, 77-87 Sandy Row, Belfast, Co Antrim, BT12 5ER

Gilpin's Former Brewery Buildings, 77–87 Sandy Row, Belfast

These former brewery buildings occupy a site with three main phases of historical development. It began as a Glue and Starch Works from around 1820 to 1866, then operated as a brewery from 1866 to 1884, and subsequently served as industrial and commercial units from 1884 until 2013. The site is not listed.

Historical Background

The site first appears in Bradshaw's 1819 street directory as a glue manufacturer's premises operated by a Samuel Tucker on Sandy Row (then known as Tea Lane). The 1843 Ordnance Survey large-scale map shows a glue factory here, and by 1859 the premises had expanded considerably and were captioned on OS maps as the Belfast Glue and Starch Works. By 1866 both the starch and glue works had closed and the site stood vacant.

In July 1866, the Belfast and Ulster Brewing Company (BUBC) acquired the vacant premises. The company had been established in February of that year, with Bernard Hughes — the well-known Belfast baker — as chairman, and a board dominated by wine and spirit merchants. Capital of £60,000 was sought through 6,000 shares at £10 each. One particular attraction of the site was the presence of wells previously sunk by Mr Tucker for his glue and starch production.

In March 1867, the BUBC contracted Fitzpatrick Brothers (Thomas, William and Michael) of Great Victoria Street, Belfast, to erect brew houses, malt houses, a kiln, two dwelling houses, offices, yards and associated buildings for the sum of £17,702. The architect was Alexander McAllister of Chichester Street, Belfast, who later designed St Matthew's Church, Belfast in 1882–83. The steam engine was supplied by Victor Coats' Lagan Foundry, and the structural cast ironwork was manufactured at Henry Grey's Foundry in Townsend Street. The foundation stone was laid in 1867, and the brewery appears to have been operational by late 1868, with the site's rateable valuation rising five-fold from £155 in 1866 to £800 in 1868. A site plan by McAllister dated November 1868 describes the completed complex as comprising a four-storey malt house, a two-storey kiln, a three-storey brew house, a fermentation house, hop stores, engine and boiler rooms, a chimney, offices and two three-storey dwellings.

Although construction proceeded well, settlement with the contractor was not straightforward. In February 1869, Fitzpatrick Brothers instigated legal proceedings over disputed extras, eventually resolved by arbitration. By 1870 the brewery was producing X, XX and XXX-strength porters as well as tonic, mild, pale and extra-strong ales. However, in February 1873 the BUBC went into receivership. The premises were sold at public auction, described at the time as "most substantially built and fitted with all the improvements that experience and scientific knowledge could suggest to make one of the most complete breweries in the United Kingdom," including extensive cellarage, cooperage, stores, maltings, kiln, offices, and dwelling houses, along with all machinery, plant and approximately 1,500 casks.

In September or October 1873, the premises were transferred to the Belfast Brewing Company (BBC) for £15,000. A letterhead of 1876 includes a drawing of the premises showing an impressive classical façade and gateway along Sandy Row, with some of the old glue and starch factory buildings visible in the background. By 1878 the brewery was recorded in the valuation books as "at rest," with its rateable value falling from £658 to £370. In the same year the distillers William Dunville and Co took over the malt house, stores and kiln. The Dublin Gazetteer of March 1881 noted the appointment of a liquidator to the BBC. Advertisements in the Belfast Newsletter of 1882 and 1883 offered the premises for sale by public auction without finding a buyer. The 1884 street directory records the site as vacant, suggesting production had ceased once the BBC went into receivership, though the 1883–84 OS map still captions the site as "brewery" rather than "brewery disused."

From 1884 onwards the premises were used for a wide variety of industrial and commercial purposes. By 1890 the street directories referred to them as the Belfast Brewery Buildings. Subsequent tenants included McClintock and McFadden as storers, followed around 1891 by McCaw, Stevenson and Orr operating a lithographic printing works, and then from around 1900 a clothing or hemstitching factory with a 13 horsepower gas engine and 110 sewing machines. Robert Smith and Sons, apron and pinafore manufacturers, occupied the site through to the 1950s. Andrew Jamison operated a laundry in part of the complex around 1900, and the Jamison firm continued as boys' clothing manufacturers on the site into the 1930s. J. Gilpin's piano and organ warehouse first appears in the 1924 street directory; by 1940 the firm had diversified into house furnishings, which eventually became their sole focus until closure in 2007.

The South Belfast Ulster Volunteer Force, formed in 1908 in opposition to Home Rule, trained in the premises, as did the 36th Ulster Division during the First World War. Sometime in the mid-20th century, probably post-war, part of the south-west corner of the block around the main yard was rebuilt. The entire northern half of the brewery premises was later demolished to make way for new housing along Rowland Way (formerly Rowland Street, and Tea Lane before that) and a community centre at its junction with Sandy Row. The community centre opened in 1982–83 on the site of the Sandro Cinema, which had operated in one of the brewery buildings from 1919 to 1961. The terrace of houses along Boyne Square and the remnants of the old glue and starch factory were also cleared to make way for an access road serving new housing — Boyne Court and Renfrew House. Gilpins were the last occupants of the site, closing in 2007, and the site has since been vacant.

While the buildings are of local historical interest as a reminder of 19th-century industry and for their 20th-century associations, the overall loss of original historic fabric and character means they do not meet the statutory test for listing when assessed against the criteria for listing.

The Complex: Four Buildings

The complex as it now stands comprises four buildings described below. The primary subject of architectural interest is Building 1 on the west side of the yard; the three other buildings are recorded here for context.

Building 1: West Side of Yard

This three-storey building dates from the original brewery construction of 1866–68, although its south-west corner may have been partly rebuilt in the mid-20th century, probably at the same time as the reconstruction of Building 3B. According to McAllister's 1868 description, it originally contained hop stores, malt rooms, a malt mill, mash vessels and the brewing house. A steam engine occupied the ground floor, with copper boilers on the fire-proof first floor. A large cast-iron water cistern sat on the roof, fed from a separate single-storey boiler room that abutted the south end of the west elevation. The 1900 valuation recorded it as a brick and slate building measuring 96 feet long by 38 feet deep and 38 feet high.

The roof is half-hipped. The south end retains natural slates, some of which are missing, while the remainder has been replaced with profiled metal sheeting. There appears to be a raised firewall between the two sections. A concrete-roofed brick motor room, sitting atop an internal goods lift, projects from the south end of the roof on the yard elevation. Rainwater goods are plastic.

The principal elevation faces east into the yard. It has a chamfered masonry base course and shallow brick pilasters defining seven full-height recesses. These recesses have semicircular heads trimmed with polychromatic brickwork in alternating cream and black brick, with dentilated cream brick extradoses. The arches spring from dressed ashlar sandstone cornices on top of the pilasters. A punctuated yellow brick platband runs across the pilasters below their cornices, with a second continuous platband at eaves level just below a moulded brick top course. Dressed sandstone string courses run between the pilasters and serve as cill courses to the infilled window panels.

Most openings are blocked with brick or concrete blockwork; no attempt has been made to differentiate original and later brick infill. Bays 4 and 5 (counting from the left as viewed from the yard) are abutted at ground floor level by Building 2. The 1876 letterhead shows bay 5 (the middle bay) to have had a doorway, which now connects the two buildings internally. There is a ground-floor doorway to bay 1 with a flat concrete head, though there may originally have been a segmental-arched doorway here, similar to the surviving one in bay 7, which also retains a small sidelight. Fire-escape doorways serve the first floor of bay 3 and the second floor of bay 2, the latter being a later insertion judging by its flat concrete head. Blind semicircular-headed recesses appear in four of the semicircular brick panels across the top floor. The middle one has an infilled roundel trimmed with dressed sandstone and surmounted by a crown.

The south gable is abutted on the right by Building 3B. On the exposed section, only the top floor retains visible brickwork, the floors below having been cement rendered. A flat concrete head over an infilled window is evident on the first floor. The west elevation is detailed in the same manner as the south gable. The segmental brick heads of nine window openings are just visible above the render across the first floor. Nine openings also appear on the top floor, all now infilled with brick: the two at the left have semicircular brick heads, the four in the middle have segmental brick heads, and the three at the right have flat concrete heads. All but the three at the right are doubtless original.

The north gable formerly abutted a block along the north side of the yard. After that block was demolished, the exposed gable was rendered with cement.

Building 2: Loading Shed in the Yard

This single-storey, single-bay loading shed was erected sometime between 1938 and 1967, probably in the mid-20th century, and first appears on the 1967 OS map. It is aligned north–south and abuts the middle of the yard elevation of Building 1. The roof is pitched corrugated asbestos-cement, continuing over a loading dock along the east elevation. Rainwater goods are plastic and the walls are brick. The ground floor is raised above external ground level to facilitate the loading of lorries. The east elevation has a pair of sliding tongue-and-groove doors. The north gable has an opening to the space under the raised ground floor, with a flat concrete head, now infilled. Until its demolition there was also a single-storey, flat-roofed garage to the south of the shed in the corner between Buildings 2 and 3.

Building 3: Building on the Side Street (Leading to Boyne Court)

This three-storey building is aligned east–west along a side street leading to Boyne Court. Although it forms a single internal space and is probably a later 19th-century rebuild of the original brewery malt house, most of the west end represents a 20th-century rebuild, described separately below as sections 3A and 3B.

3A: Main Section (Middle and East)

This appears to be an original 1867–68 brewery building. McAllister's plan describes it as a four-storey malt house with a cellar; its timber floors were covered with cement and there were elevators to all floors. The 1899–1900 valuation records describe it as a brick building with a slate roof, measuring 141 to 146½ feet in length by 49½ feet wide, standing three storeys and 38 feet high, with a 7-foot-high cellar extending under the entire building. The roof has been replaced with shallow-pitched profiled metal cladding. A row of skylights runs along both pitches, though these are missing toward the front of the building where the cladding has been renewed. A profiled-metal lift motor room projects upwards on the yard pitch toward the front. Rainwater goods are plastic.

The east gable facing Sandy Row has been raised and stepped and is now surmounted by a flagpole, behind which stands a large "Gilpins" sign. The brickwork at the east end of the north elevation indicates that this gable façade represents a remodelling of the existing structure rather than a complete rebuild. The ground floor of the east gable has been clad with polished stone veneer; the upper floors and gable apex are clad with white tiles with black margins. A central door flanked by shop windows occupies the ground floor, all fitted with roller shutters, with a "Gilpins" sign above. Four floor-to-ceiling windows to the first floor are all now sheeted over, as are two three-by-two-paned windows on the second floor.

The south elevation facing the side street is of brick, with the lower half and right-hand end cement rendered. The right-hand end is also partly covered with billboards and has a rendered chimney, probably original, at eaves level. Twelve window openings appear on the first and second floors, all with shallow segmental brick heads; there were doubtless similar openings to the ground floor, all of which are now obscured by render. The first-floor openings are infilled with rendered concrete blocks. The top-floor openings retain their original rounded brick cills but have replacement timber frames with vestiges of louvred glazing.

The north elevation facing the yard is abutted at its left end on the ground and first floors by Building 4. A chamfered granite base course runs along the exposed section. The segmental-headed tops of basement window arches are visible along the now-raised yard level. The ground floor originally had nine openings, but two in the middle were broken out to form a wide doorway with a steel beam head; this has since been infilled and a smaller now-infilled doorway inserted. The remaining openings are segmental-headed windows with sandstone cills, all infilled with concrete blocks. The first floor has nine similarly detailed window openings, all sheeted over. The top floor has eleven window openings (two of which are over Building 4), all with stone cills and replacement window frames matching those on the top floor of the east elevation.

3B: Section at the West End

This section corresponds to McAllister's original "two-storey kiln with iron and tile floor," depicted in the 1876 letterhead with a louvred ventilator at the apex of a pyramidal roof. It was one of the buildings taken over by William Dunville and Co in 1878. The 1900 valuation recorded it as a brick and slate building measuring 47 feet long by 50 feet wide and 38 feet high with a 6-foot-high cellar; the original kiln had clearly been heightened or entirely rebuilt between 1878 and 1900. In 1900 this section was in use as a laundry by Andrew Jamison. The present structure was largely rebuilt in the mid-20th century and its roofline is higher than that of Building 3A.

The roof is pitched corrugated asbestos-cement with vestiges of natural slate in places. Rainwater goods are plastic. The walls are brick, with a clear colour contrast between the brickwork here and that of Building 3A on the north and south elevations. As with 3A, the lower half of the walls has been cement rendered.

The south elevation has infilled and rendered openings to the ground floor. The first floor has four large window openings, all with flat reinforced-concrete heads but no cills, all now infilled and rendered over. The top floor has four window openings also with flat concrete heads and brick cills, all infilled with brick, with smaller metal-framed casements inserted. The flat concrete heads and reconstructed walls indicate these were new openings in new walls rather than modifications of earlier ones.

The west gable facing Boyne Court is detailed in the same manner as the south elevation, including concrete heads, but with only three windows to the first and second floors. The top-floor windows are infilled except at the right, where a metal-framed casement has been inserted. The north elevation facing the yard is abutted on the right by Building 1, leaving only two openings at the left visible, all with concrete heads. At ground floor there is an infilled doorway with an overlight and a window to the right; the first floor has two large infilled windows; the second floor has two metal-framed casements.

Building 4: Shop on Sandy Row

This modern two-storey, single-bay shop stands on the site of the original three-storey, four-bay-wide dwelling house shown in McAllister's 1868 plan and depicted in the 1876 letterhead, and on the site of the ornate gateway into the brewery yard. It was probably erected by Gilpins in the 1970s. The roof is shallow-pitched profiled metal with metal box gutters. The street elevation is of concrete blockwork finished with polished stone veneer; remaining exposed elevations are of brick. The east elevation facing Sandy Row has three roller shutter shop windows to the ground floor, three bay windows to the first floor (all now sheeted over), remnants of the "Gilpins" sign, and raised eaves clad in profiled metal. The north gable is blank; the west yard elevation is blank save for fire escape doors at the left end to both floors. The south end abuts Building 3A.

The Yard and Surviving Historic Fragments

The ornate gateway that originally gave access to the brewery yard stood on the site of the present modern gated entrance. However, a carved sandstone coat of arms under a crown and shamrock, salvaged from that original gateway during its demolition, has been built into the modern brick wall at the entrance to the adjoining Sandy Row Community Centre at the corner of Rowland Street. Inside the yard, the west boundary is formed partly by a brick wall, the west half of which is the south wall of an original brewery building. Although its brickwork is now largely cement rendered, vestiges of a chamfered granite base course are evident at ground level and infilled window openings are visible above.

Setting

The premises occupy a densely populated commercial and residential area on the west side of Sandy Row. They are bounded to the east by Sandy Row, to the south by the side street leading to Boyne Court, to the west by the street alongside Boyne Court, and to the north by a yard wall behind houses on Rowland Way. Building 1 stands at the back of the yard with Building 4 abutting its yard elevation. Building 3 runs along the side street leading to Boyne Court, and Building 4 fronts Sandy Row.