16 May Street, Belfast, County Antrim, BT1 4NR

16 May Street is a three-storey, mid-19th century Georgian-style terraced townhouse, built in red brick around 1855 and first recorded on the Ordnance Survey map of 1858. It is one of a group of four similar houses (nos. 14–20 May Street) sitting directly on the north side of May Street, in what was originally known as Clarendon Place — a name retained until around 1860 when the entire street was permanently designated May Street.

The roof is pitched and covered in natural slate, with a modern rooflight, a moulded metal gutter on a bracketed timber gutter tray, and a round cast iron downpipe. The walls are built in red Flemish bond brickwork, though the ground floor appears to have been rebuilt using later brick. Decorative elements include rusticated stucco quoins to the east corner, a stucco eaves fascia, a string course at first floor cill level, and a plinth beneath the ground floor cill. Window openings have painted stucco reveals and flat brick arches, and retain their original 6-over-6 sashes with horns, though the ground floor window openings are currently covered by steel roller shutters.

The entrance doorway features a segmental arch with a moulded stucco surround enclosing a recessed Ionic doorcase, a plain fanlight above, and a replacement six-panelled timber door, approached by two concrete steps. The south elevation has the entrance to the east side with two adjacent windows; the first and second floors each have two windows. The west elevation abuts the adjoining terrace, and the east elevation abuts an adjoining, mirrored terrace. The rear north elevation of the original building is not visible from Music Lane. The extended building on the lane is two storeys and three windows wide, with a door to the west side; it has a natural slate pitched roof, painted rendered walls, and arched openings with block keystones at ground floor level. The ground floor openings are shuttered, while the first floor has 9-pane windows.

The terrace was constructed on land reclaimed through the canalisation of the Blackstaff River, a project pioneered by Edward May, an influential figure in Belfast's development, who acquired a large number of leases from the Marquis of Donegall. The street itself was named after the May family; Sir Edward May is recorded as the original leaseholder of No. 16 in Griffith's Valuation of 1859, at which point the property was valued at £38 and included a stable block to the rear.

The building represents an intermediate phase between the formal Georgian townhouse and the fully Victorian city. As noted by architectural historian Marcus Patton, the group comprises "Flemish bond redbrick houses with small-pane sashes and arc-headed doorcases with slender edge mouldings and plain fanlights, and recessed Ionic columns supporting plain entablatures; corbelled gutter on rendered wallhead." The overall design is conservative in character, closely resembling the formal Georgian townhouses of the preceding period, while using early Victorian materials and construction techniques.

The first recorded occupant was William Seeds, a solicitor with offices on Castle Lane, who lived at No. 16 from around 1859 until his death in 1886, after which the property fell vacant. In 1891 it was purchased from the May family estate by Thomas Fisher, proprietor of the Victoria Music Hall, who leased it to Thomas Maguire, recorded in the Belfast Revaluation of 1900 as a surgeon. By that point the property had been revalued at £58 and was noted to contain eight rooms (excluding kitchens), fitted with gas and plumbing. The 1901 Census recorded Maguire, then aged 34, living there with his wife Mary, aged 24, and their two children, in a first-class dwelling of 13 inhabited rooms, with the rear stable as its sole outbuilding.

Maguire had vacated by 1907. The house was briefly used by warehouse firm James Lindsay & Co., formerly of 28 Donegall Place, before J. Ewing Johnston, a member of the Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons, took possession in 1909 and resided there until 1923. In that year Thomas Fisher sold No. 16 to the County Antrim Masonic Provincial Grand Lodge, which converted the building into its headquarters — at which point the value rose to £61 — and established a masonic library and small private museum on the premises. Under the First General Revaluation of Northern Ireland in 1935, the value of the Lodge headquarters was increased to £125. The Lodge occupied the building until 1958, and the terrace as a whole escaped damage during the 1941 Belfast Blitz.

Following the Lodge's departure, the upper floors were taken as offices by S. M. McQuintty & Co., and the ground floor was converted into a restaurant in 1959, when a modern shopfront was installed. This shopfront is visible in the First Survey Image of 1978 but has since been sympathetically removed, with restoration work returning the redbrick façade to its original appearance. In the later 20th century the building was used as offices for the Girls Brigade, which was also administered from the adjoining Boys' Brigade Headquarters at No. 14. A sign above the entrance door still reads "Girls Brigade" despite the organisation having since vacated. The property was listed in 1988 and is currently vacant, with shutters covering the ground floor windows and entrances.

No. 16 May Street stands opposite May Street Presbyterian Church, with John Ross & Co. adjoining the terraced group to the east and B. T. Shields nearby to the west. May Street itself is a busy central thoroughfare that passes to the rear of Belfast City Hall. Although the building has been compromised by later alterations, considerable historic fabric and detailing survive, and the house remains a good example of the type of residence built for the professional classes during the mid-19th century expansion of Belfast. Its changing history reflects the broader development of the city centre across the 19th and 20th centuries, and it also holds a notable connection with the Girls Brigade movement.