5 Donegall Quay, Belfast

No. 5 Donegall Quay is a terraced, three-storey with attic over concealed basement rendered commercial building, built around 1850 and refronted in 1855 to the designs of Belfast-based architect Alexander McAlister (c.1821–1897). It faces east, is rectangular on plan, and sits on the west side of the River Lagan, fronting onto a slip road called Oxford Street, which runs parallel to but at a lower level than Donegall Quay. It was converted for use as a restaurant around 2000 and continues to trade under the name Tedford's, preserving its long association with the former ship chandler's business that occupied the premises from around 1851 until 1991. As one of only three original structures remaining on Donegall Quay, the building represents the maritime history of the quay front and one of the last remaining links to the original Belfast harbour, albeit compromised by recent alterations and loss of historic fabric and detailing.

The building has a pitched slate roof with roll-moulded terracotta ridge tiles and a central wall-head dormer window. The rear pitch is abutted by a four-storey flat-roofed extension built around 1985. Replacement moulded metal guttering sits on a timber bargeboard, with a metal downpipe.

The facades are painted rendered walling. The first and second floors are framed by slender pilasters with cable mouldings, and capital mouldings span the entire facade as a cornice. Window openings are square-headed with architrave surrounds, painted masonry sills, and replacement windows. The front elevation is two windows wide. A replacement shopfront has been inserted to the ground floor, comprising a triple-light fixed-pane timber display window and a hardwood glazed entrance screen surmounted by a timber fascia, flanked by slender rendered pilasters with moulded capitals. Applied raised lettering to the front elevation reads 'SHIP CHANDLERS' at the base of the dormer and 'SAIL & TENTMAKERS' between the first and second floors. Windows to the second floor are replacement single-pane timber sashes; those to the first floor are uPVC. The attic dormer has a single round-headed window opening with a moulded archivolt rising from impost mouldings, a masonry sill, and a single-pane timber sash window.

The south side elevation is abutted by the adjoining No. 3–4 Donegall Quay. The north side elevation abuts No. 6 Donegall Quay, and has a single square-headed attic window to the extension with uPVC windows. The rear elevation is abutted by the four-storey flat-roofed extension of around 1985.

The architectural historian C. E. B. Brett described the building as "a pleasantly naive example of nautical architecture, executed in stucco, with vertical cable-mouldings running up the crude pilasters to the gable; a lifebelt on the walls; and a large sheaf-block for a shop sign." Marcus Patton similarly described the shopfront as "perhaps not great architecture, but a charming evocation of the nautical past of the area" and suggested it was "perhaps one of the best known shopfronts in Belfast." McAlister, who was originally from Carlow but was educated and practised in Belfast, was one of the leading Catholic architects of the Victorian period in the city. His other works include St. Malachy's Boys School and the Convent of Mercy in Sussex Place; the refronting of Nos. 5–7 Donegall Quay is recorded among his first known independent commissions.

The history of the building is closely bound up with the Tedford family. The site was first depicted on the second edition of the Ordnance Survey map in 1858, though the adjoining buildings at Nos. 7–9 Donegall Quay are thought to date from the mid-to-late 18th century. The wider quay has still earlier origins: the first buildings erected along the River Lagan on what is now Donegall Quay were constructed in 1715 as part of Isaac Macartney's reclamation and development of a block of land where High Street and the Farset River trailed into the Lagan, and the quay was then known as Hanover Quay.

Griffith's Valuation of 1860 recorded the premises as occupied by James Tedford, who leased the site from a Mrs. McCleery and was noted in the Belfast Street Directories as a ship's chandler, sail maker, and provision dealer. Tedford had previously operated as a ship owner and coal and salt merchant in Donaghadee, recorded there in 1843, but had moved his business to No. 5 Donegall Quay by at least 1852, with the current sign above the building stating that the chandler's was established on the site in 1851. It was not until 1855 that Tedford commissioned McAlister to refront an earlier building on the site, producing the current Victorian facade. A ship's chandler was a supplier who specialised in provisions for ships, including rope, tools, lanterns, whale oil, and galley foodstuffs. Griffith's valued the shop at £18; Tedford himself resided at a separate dwelling on Chichester Street. Griffith's also noted that Tedford occupied the adjoining No. 9 Donegall Quay, which he used as lofts and stores where ship sail canvases were sewn and laid out for sale.

James Tedford was a retired sea captain who, upon returning to Ireland and establishing his business at Donegall Quay, expanded into ship owning. At the time of his death at his Chichester Street residence in 1867, he owned a number of merchant ships that traded with South America and the Caribbean and were often seen offloading their cargoes along the wharfs at Donegall Quay. Control of the chandler's business then passed to his son, James Tedford junior.

By 1882 the rateable value of No. 5 had risen to £25, though the reason for this increase is not recorded, although Tedford & Co. are known to have carried out a number of improvements to the buildings they occupied. The Belfast revaluation of 1900 recorded that ownership had passed from Mrs. McCleery to a Mr. Frederick Kinahan, a local magistrate and partner in Lyle & Kinahan, local wine and spirit merchants, and the value was raised to £42. The valuer noted that Tedford had by then expended over £200 in improvements to the property, for which he paid an annual rent of £26 18s. 6d. James Tedford junior had died in 1893 at his residence in Wellington Park, leaving No. 5 Donegall Quay and effects of £6,416 to his son, James Tedford III, who continued to operate the business until his own death in 1928. The building was used purely as commercial premises throughout this period and consequently does not appear in either the 1901 or 1911 census of Ireland. Annual Revisions, which were cancelled in 1930, recorded no subsequent change in value after the 1900 revaluation.

By the First General Revaluation of property in Northern Ireland in 1935, No. 5 had been purchased outright by a Mr. David Tedford, who had taken over the running of the business following James Tedford III's death in 1928. The shop's rateable value was more than doubled to £97 under this revaluation, and further increased under the Second General Revaluation undertaken after the Second World War, reaching £148 by the project's completion in 1972.

James Tedford & Co. Ltd continued to trade from No. 5 Donegall Quay until 1991, when the ship's provisions business closed due to the decline of the port of Belfast. Prior to closure, Tedford's had attempted to expand into new ventures, including supplying tarpaulins to road transport firms, but this could not reverse the declining fortunes of a business that had depended on the success of the port. The building was listed in 1979, while the adjoining Nos. 6–9 Donegall Quay were listed in 1992. No. 5 reopened under new management around 1994 and was converted into a restaurant around 2001, continuing to trade under the name Tedford's.

The building forms part of a setting that includes the neighbouring Custom House and Sinclair Seaman's Church, and together these form a rare group of surviving structures associated with the port's nautical past, standing as a memorial to the time when the quays along the River Lagan were bustling with mercantile activity.