68-70 Royal Avenue, Belfast, County Antrim, BT1 1DJ

68-70 Royal Avenue is a four-storey commercial building with attic, constructed in 1885 to designs by William John Fennell (d. 1923), a Belfast-based architect originally born in Canada who established his independent practice in 1880. The building is constructed in Dumfries red sandstone ashlar in a robust Classical style and forms part of a terrace on the west side of Royal Avenue, sitting directly on the pavement of this major commercial street. It was built for George Tate, a rent agent, as recorded in the Irish Builder, and represents one of the earliest commissions of Fennell's career in the city.

The building forms part of a wider group of late Victorian commercial properties erected along the newly created boulevard of Royal Avenue, which was laid out in 1880-81 by surveyor J. C. Bretland. This redevelopment involved the demolition of almost all buildings on the former Hercules Street and Hercules Place, and the relocation of approximately 4,000 people, in order to create the long open boulevard now running from Donegall Square to York Street. Nos 68-70 were among the last buildings to be erected on the western side of this new boulevard, alongside the adjoining nos 58-88.

The east-facing principal elevation is symmetrical, comprising five windows centred on a pedimented dormer. The roof to this front is natural slate with a pitched form; the rear has a mansard roof with brick copings and modern rooflights. Tall, deep brick chimneys with moulded cornices rise from each gable, and there is a cast iron rainwater downpipe.

The Venetian-windowed dormer is flanked by urn parapets and has the date 1884 carved into its pediment, with vestiges of foliate decoration to the spandrel — the northern example of which has been lost. Below, a deep bracketed cornice runs across the elevation, which is framed by pilasters with mouldings at first-floor level. Moulded string courses and architraves articulate the façade throughout.

Window openings are varied by floor. The third floor has paired square-headed windows either side of a smaller central window. The second floor repeats this grouping but with segmental arched lintels to the side windows, which carry foliate impost mouldings. A foliate carved roundel sits above the central window at this level. The first floor windows match the grouping of the floors above but are of equal height, square-headed with rounded corners. Throughout, the windows are original two-pane, one-over-one timber sashes with horns. The ground floor has a replacement shopfront inserted between the original pilasters.

The north elevation is abutted and largely obscured by a modern construction that replaced a former four-storey ashlar stone Italianate building known as Crown Chambers. The south elevation is similarly abutted and obscured by nos 72-74. The west elevation has a full-height central lean-to projection and a dormer window; its walls are cement rendered with a single one-over-one timber sash window to each floor of the set-back walls.

This was the second contract Fennell completed on Royal Avenue. In 1883 he had won the competition to design the Belfast Water Commissioners' headquarters at No. 53 — a building since demolished around 1965 — which effectively launched his career in the city. Nos 68-70 can therefore be understood as an early and characteristic example of his output.

When originally constructed, the ground floor was divided into two separate shop units, with the upper floors used as offices by a number of private firms. George Tate occupied one ground-floor unit; the other was taken by a Mr R. B. Batt. The building's total rateable value on completion in 1885 was £173. By 1900 the ground floor was occupied by Miss Mary Brennan's millinery and fur house and Mr D. Lyle Hall's men's clothing and linen warehouse, and the rateable value had risen to £336. The valuer noted at that time that a tea room café occupied part of the second floor. Over subsequent decades a variety of businesses and organisations used the upper offices: the Belfast Protestant Association had rooms on the third floor in 1907; in 1910 a Mr Joseph Moles ran a business school from the property; and by 1918 a number of merchant tailors were operating from the upper floors. By the end of the Annual Revisions in 1930 the total value stood at £295 10s., rising under the First General Revaluation of Northern Ireland in 1935 to £422 10s.

Royal Avenue sustained bomb damage during the Belfast Blitz of 1941, with a number of buildings moderately damaged. The building was included in the second revaluation commencing in 1956, by which time the ground floor had been converted into a single retail unit occupied by Jean Millar Ltd., a bridal salon. By the end of the second revaluation, the total value had risen substantially to £926 5s. Jean Millar's Bridal Salon continues to occupy the ground floor and has also made use of the former office space on the upper floors.

The building was listed in 1989. Despite the installation of a modern shopfront at ground floor level and some other modern alterations, much historic fabric and fine carved detailing survive, and the building retains much of its original late Victorian character. It is bounded to the north by Gresham Chambers and to the south by nos 58-66, and sits within a conservation area.