Central Hall, 37-39 Rosemary Street, Belfast, Co Antrim, BT1 1QB

Central Hall, 37–39 Rosemary Street, Belfast

Central Hall is a three-storey building in brown rustic brick, designed in 1959 by Robert Hanna Gibson (1890–1979) of the architectural practice Gibson & Taylor, in a Scandinavian-influenced Modern style. It was constructed between 1958 and 1959 by the builder J. Buckley & Sons of Belfast, and comprises ground-floor retail units with a meeting hall and spaces for church use and social gatherings on the floors above. It stands on the north side of the pedestrian Rosemary Street, immediately adjacent to the First Presbyterian (Non-Subscribing) Church at No. 41, to which it belongs.

Architectural Character

The building is notable for its simplicity of design and detail. Although built in a different idiom to the adjacent 18th-century church, it shares something of its spirit in its restrained and considered proportions. It survives as a representative example of a style employed in public buildings and factories across Northern Ireland during this period, and is one of the works of a practice of recognised significance involved in several notable public commissions.

Exterior

The main section of the building has a flat roof with large overhanging eaves ornamented with a Greek key motif moulding to the soffit. The walls are laid in Flemish-bonded brown brick, with a concrete string course at cill level of the second-floor windows and at the top of the ground-floor tiled walling. Windows are flat-lintelled with raised concrete reveals and, on the first floor only, scalloped heads; they are metal-framed with centrally pivoted openings.

The south side elevation has eight regularly spaced six-paned diminished windows to the second floor; the first floor has five tall eighteen-paned windows; the ground floor is occupied by a mixture of modern shop fronts.

The principal west entrance elevation features a tower set back to the north corner, which has a pitched tiled roof. This tower contains an arched window with a corbelled brick balcony at second-floor level, a central tall thirty-paned window at first-floor level, and a shuttered entrance door with a projecting cornice at ground-floor level. The main section of this elevation is symmetrical, with three windows to the second floor matching those on the south elevation; the first-floor window has irregular multi-paned glazing; and a curved, scalloped screen sits centrally at ground-floor level, topped with a small balconette with a metal rod balustrade.

The north elevation shows the gable of the tower at the west corner, with the flat roof stepping down twice towards the east, descending from five storeys to three. Two windows are located at fifth-floor level on the tallest section, with irregular windows distributed across the four- and three-storey portions. A metal fire escape stair provides access to a set of first-floor double doors at the eastern end. The east elevation is abutted by a four-storey modern building.

Roof materials are unrecorded. Rainwater goods were not inspected at the time of survey.

Setting

Central Hall sits on the north side of the pedestrian Rosemary Street, within a conservation area. To its east stands the Rosemary Street First Presbyterian (Non-Subscribing) Church. Opposite is a further listed building. The building's setting contributes to its architectural and historical interest.

Historical Background

Rosemary Street was laid out by 1715, when it was recorded as 'Rosemary Lean', and was once home to three Presbyterian churches. The site on which Central Hall now stands has a long and significant history.

The first building on the site was the original manse of the First Presbyterian (Non-Subscribing) Church, which was itself erected in 1781–1783 to designs by Roger Mulholland. The manse was the birthplace of Dr William Drennan (1754–1820), whose father served as minister of the adjoining church. In his youth a radical nationalist, Drennan was a founding member of the Society of United Irishmen, though he withdrew from it in 1794 and took no part in the 1798 Rebellion. In later life he worked as a physician and was instrumental in establishing the Belfast Academical Institution. He also published poetry and articles, and is credited with coining the phrase 'the Emerald Isle' in his poem When Erin First Rose.

The manse was demolished by at least 1885, when its successor — the first Central Hall — was erected on the site to designs by William J. Fennell. The foundation stone was laid in 1885 and the building opened in January 1886. Described in the Irish Builder as consisting of a lecture hall seating 350, a schoolroom, and ground-floor shops, it was known from the outset as 'Central Hall'. By 1918, the building housed a dancing school, an elocution classroom, and the Ulster Unitarian Christian Association Head Offices. This first Central Hall was destroyed during the Belfast Blitz of 1941, when extensive areas of the surrounding city centre were also demolished. The site remained vacant until 1958–59, when the present building was constructed.

The new Central Hall was first recorded in the Second General Revaluation of property in Northern Ireland in 1960, when it was valued at £740. At that time the ground-floor retail units were occupied by Duffs (Food) Ltd; this remained unchanged through to the end of the revaluation period in 1972.

Writing in 1993, Marcus Patton described the building as: 'a three-storey building in brown brick. Tall metal windows in narrow frilly-topped "picture frame" surrounds at first-floor; small square attic windows under deep eaves ornamented with Greek key pattern. Higher portion behind with pitched pantile roof and corbelled balcony.'

On 24 June 2002, an Ulster History Circle plaque was unveiled on the western gable of Central Hall to commemorate the birth of Dr William Drennan. The plaque reads: 'Dr. William DRENNAN / 1754–1820 / Patriot & Radical / Born in the Manse on this site.'