1 Victoria Square, Belfast, Co Antrim, BT1 4QG

At the junction of Victoria Street and Upper Church Lane in Belfast stands a corner-sited four-storey red brick building with an attic, built around 1893 to designs by W J Gilliland. Originally constructed as a seed warehouse for T & J McErvel, seed merchants, it is the sole surviving structure from the recent redevelopment of the area and now forms part of Victoria Square shopping centre.

The building presents a robust example of late Victorian commercial architecture. Its rectangular south-facing plan incorporates an octagonal corner tower, with a gabled five-storey east elevation fronting Upper Church Lane. Natural slate pitched roofs are set behind arcaded terracotta balustrades and large gabled wall-head dormers, with flat-roofed dormers behind. Red brick walling is laid in Flemish bond.

The principal south elevation, fifteen windows wide with windows arranged in pairs, displays High Victorian decorative elements. These include a terracotta cornice at the base of the parapet and above the first floor, and Giant Corinthian order red brick pilasters spanning the second and third floors. Single-pane timber sash windows are used throughout. Window heads vary by floor: deeply set gauged brick segmental-headed openings on the first floor, square-headed with red sandstone lintels on the second, and gauged brick round-headed on the third. Terracotta festoons span the capitals of the pilasters.

The red sandstone pub shopfront spans the entire ground floor, comprising a series of large display windows framed by stop-chamfered red sandstone ashlar piers with foliate stops and decorative incised details. These piers feature carved fruit and flower motifs including strawberries, plums, apples, pears, grapes, marrows, roses, primulas and lemons. A painted fascia with dentilled cornice spans above.

The full-height octagonal corner tower is detailed as per the south elevation and corbelled out over ground floor level with decorative terracotta courses and panels, surmounted by a tapered slate roof and topped by a lead domed finial. The gabled east elevation mirrors the front elevation's detailing.

The building was extended in 1897. Alterations were carried out in 1932 to designs by Stephen A Orr, though their exact nature remains unclear. The industrial framed structure and flooring survive on virtually its original plan despite extensive refurbishment during the circa 2006 redevelopment of the area. The rear elevation, now within Victoria Square shopping centre, is painted rendered and abutted by a steel glazed stair. The west side elevation, also within the shopping centre, features red brick walling with steel I-beam lintels to fixed-pane glazing and glazed entrances to the first and third floors.

The ground floor now houses the Kitchen Bar, relocated here from its former premises at number 18 Victoria Square during the 2004–8 redevelopment. That earlier pub, dating to 1872, had been a haunt of performers from the Empire Theatre of Varieties. From its construction until the 1970s, T & J McErvel occupied the warehouse. Subsequently, the building accommodated various tenants including the Pigs Marketing Board, the Canadian Government Emigration Department, and the Northern Ireland Council on Alcohol. The building now includes restaurants on its upper floors within Victoria Square shopping centre.