Caretaker's House, West Belfast Orange Hall, 7 Brookmount Street, Belfast, Co Antrim, BT13 1AP

The Caretaker's House is a three-bay two-storey mid-terrace red-brick building constructed in 1898 to designs by William Batt, a prominent architect of Orange Halls in Belfast. Originally built as accommodation for the caretaker of the adjacent West Belfast Orange Hall, it now serves as an office.

The building is rectangular on plan with a single-storey canted bay window to the front and a return to the rear. The pitched natural slate roof features angled ridge tiles and red-brick chimneystacks, with plastic rainwater goods on brick eaves. The walling is English garden wall-bonded red-brick, with a decorative brick drip course above the ground floor windows at the right bay. The principal southeast elevation is irregularly arranged due to the building being set on a slight slope, with right bay openings slightly higher. This elevation features two windows at each floor in the right bay, and two windows to the first floor above the canted bay in the left bay. The windows are replacement twentieth-century timber casements in segmental-headed reveals to the first floor with red-brick voussoirs and projecting painted sills. The canted bay window has a slate roof and continuous sill course. To the left of centre is a replacement uPVC entrance door in a plain reveal with an infilled transom light, surmounted by a cogged brick hood mould and imposts with a shallow raised keyblock. The southwest and northeast elevations are abutted by adjoining buildings. The building is situated on the west side of Brookmount Street off the Shankill Road, abutting the Orange Hall to the northeast and forming part of a terrace of two-storey red-brick houses. It is set back from the street with a tiled yard to the front enclosed by a low red-brick wall with concrete coping topped with metal railings. The pathway to the entrance door is laid with terracotta and yellow square tiles. An enclosed yard lies to the rear.

The building is of interest primarily due to its relationship with the neighbouring Orange Hall, which informs its history of use and social context. The West Belfast Orange and Unionist Hall was built in 1897-8 on what was formerly a vacant plot on the outskirts of the rapidly expanding city. The closing years of the nineteenth century saw an enormous growth in the Orange Institution, with record numbers of new Orange Halls being opened. An earlier hall in Agnes Street had become inadequate as West Belfast underwent rapid development; the old hall had become surrounded by houses which obstructed entry and exit, and rent and taxes had become very heavy. The decision to erect a new hall was taken in October 1890, though construction was delayed by opposition to Home Rule which absorbed funds and energies otherwise directed towards the project. After the second Home Rule Bill was defeated in 1893, fundraising began in earnest. The foundation stone was laid on 19 April 1897 by Alderman McConnell, a well-known supporter of the West Belfast community who had been instrumental in acquiring the site and contributing significantly to the building fund. The contractors were Campbell & Lowry of Cliftonpark Avenue, with the project costing £2,500. The opening ceremony took place on 22 April 1898 when Alderman McConnell's wife declared the building open. The caretaker's accommodation was described in contemporary newspaper reports as a "commodious house". The hall consisted of an entrance vestibule, lodge, ante-rooms, reading, arch and box rooms, with a large hall upstairs featuring a gallery and a number of retiring rooms. The hall served not only as a focus for political work but also for social and religious outreach, with particular concern about the "vice of intemperance" and the proliferation of public houses in the Shankill Road area. A debt of £800-£900 remained when the building opened but was subsequently cleared by fundraising efforts. The hall remains the home of the No 9 District Orange Lodge. The building has undergone alterations and refurbishments, including replacement fenestration and entrance door. The history of both the hall and caretaker's house reflects the development of Belfast in the late Victorian era.