State Buildings, 16-22 Arthur Street, Belfast, Co Antrim, BT1 4GD

State Buildings, 16–22 Arthur Street, Belfast

State Buildings is an attached, symmetrical, multi-bay five-storey office building in red brick and faience, constructed in 1902 to the designs of the Belfast architectural firm Graeme Watt and Tulloch. It was built for Wright and Hunter Ltd., cabinetmakers and upholsterers who had previously occupied a smaller building on the same site — valued at just £150 compared to the new building's valuation of £500 on completion. The firm was described in the 1901 Belfast Street Directory as "cabinetmakers and upholsterers, carpet warehousemen, bed and bedding manufacturers and general house furnishers."

The architects, Robert Graeme Watt (c.1849–c.1915) and Frederick Henry Tulloch (1863–1953), formed their partnership in 1895 and were primarily responsible for commercial buildings in central Belfast. Their other works include Avenue Hall on Lower Garfield Street and the William Ross and Son Mineral Water factory on William Street South.

The building is corner-sited, with its principal elevation facing west onto Arthur Street and its south side elevation fronting onto Arthur Place. The roof is a piend-ended slate construction with moulded guttering and modillion brackets to the overhanging eaves, with replacement moulded steel rainwater goods. The walls are of machine-made red brick laid in Flemish bond, with flush faience quoins, and a faience frieze and cornice above the third floor.

The west front elevation is nine windows wide, with advanced end bays and a recessed loggia-style colonnaded top floor set behind a parapet wall with moulded stone coping. Paired fluted Ionic faience columns support the eaves at this level. The top-floor windows are round-headed with rendered archivolts and continuous impost mouldings, arranged in a group of three to the centre and in pairs to either side. The advanced end bays feature three-sided canted timber windows with leaded glazing, flanked by Ionic columns and panelled faience pilasters resting on a balustrade faience parapet. On the advanced bays, the windows to the first, second, and third floors are tripartite with moulded faience surrounds incorporating sills, transoms, and mullions. The remaining windows on the front elevation are arranged in groups of three to the centre and in pairs to either side. At first-floor level there is a tripartite timber oriel window with bowed sidelights, a timber frieze, and a dentilled lead-lined cornice — what the architectural historian Larmour describes as an "effective use of the Ipswich Oriel." All other windows are square-headed with flush interlocking faience lintels, stone sills, and fixed-pane bipartite metal windows with leaded overlights. Replacement timber shopfronts span the entire ground floor, with a full-span fascia and lead-lined cornice.

The north side elevation abuts the adjoining Arthur Chambers (Nos. 6–16). The south side elevation is three windows wide, with the advanced end bay returning from the front elevation and detailed in the same manner as the principal facade. The rear elevation abuts a five-storey red brick extension built around 1985 in a style sympathetic to the original building.

Wright and Hunter continued to occupy the building until around 1930, by which time the 1918 Belfast Street Directory recorded that they had also begun dealing in antique china and furniture. The building's value remained unchanged throughout the Annual Revisions period, which ended in 1930. The building was subsequently purchased by Brumor Ltd., who commissioned Samuel Stevenson and Sons — a Belfast firm established following the death of Samuel Stevenson in 1924 by his sons John Hamilton Stevenson and William James Hamilton Stevenson — to carry out a major renovation. This involved converting the ground-floor shop and upper warehouse into a number of smaller individual retail units, while the upper floors were turned over to office use. As part of this work, Art Deco chromium shopfronts and an ornate entrance porch were installed. By the First General Revaluation of Northern Ireland in 1935, the building's total assessed value had risen substantially to £2,026, comprising four ground-floor retail units valued at £992 and upper-floor offices valued at £1,034 10s., let to a wide variety of tenants.

The building survived the heavy bombing of Belfast city centre during the 1941 Blitz. During the Second World War the upper offices housed tenants including accountants, insurance brokers, estate agents, solicitors, dressmakers, charitable organisations, stationery suppliers, and a masseur. The ground-floor units were occupied by two coal suppliers and a jeweller, with one unit vacant. By the Second General Revaluation, which ran from the 1950s to 1972, the ground-floor units had been consolidated into a single commercial shop valued at £288, with the upper floors jointly valued at £1,645 5s.

Around 1984 the building was gutted or rebuilt behind its retained facades and extended to the rear to the designs of Building Design Partnership. The extension added four further bays to the south, matching the original three bays that had previously extended into Arthur Place, and was designed sympathetically to echo both the loggia and oriel windows of the original building. Unfortunately, the Art Deco shopfronts installed by Samuel Stevenson and Sons were removed during this work and replaced with the present timber shopfronts.

Arthur Street takes its name from one of the Earls of Donegall and was known for its fine residences in the early 19th century, before the Victorian commercial redevelopment of Belfast city centre transformed it into a street of retail and office buildings. Other surviving examples of this redevelopment on the same street include the Mayfair Building and the former Trustees Savings Bank. State Buildings itself is a notable example of Edwardian architectural eclecticism, combining Renaissance-derived elements — the top-floor loggia, the Ionic columns, the faience oriel — in a composition that gives it a distinctive character among Belfast city centre buildings. The building was listed in 1988 and continues to be used as retail premises at ground-floor level with office space above.