8 - 18 Castle Place, Belfast

Castle Buildings, 8–18 Castle Place, Belfast

Castle Buildings is a four-storey former department store in the Art Nouveau style, clad in faience, designed by the architectural partnership of Blackwood & Jury and built in two phases. The central bays (originally numbered 10–18 Castle Place) were constructed first in 1904–05, commissioned by Crawford McCullagh & Co., silk and fancy drapery merchants. The building was extended eastward in 1907 when the adjacent No. 8 Castle Place — previously a cutlery and silversmith's shop belonging to Thomas McClelland — was demolished to make way for the additional bays, which incorporated a circular drum tower at attic level. Both phases were designed by Blackwood & Jury in a consistent style. The construction of the extension was carried out by McLaughlin & Harvey, and the building was finished throughout in 'Carrara' ware faience, executed in a soft cream colour relieved by enrichments in the palest green. Blackwood & Jury was a practice formed around 1901 by William Blackwood and Percy Morgan Jury; it continued under that name until 1973, making Castle Buildings one of the firm's earliest commissions. The building is widely cited as the finest Art Nouveau façade in Ireland.

The building is wedge-shaped on plan, fronting north onto Castle Place at the heart of Belfast city centre's commercial district. It is asymmetrical across its full width. The roofline is set behind a decorative curvilinear parapet, with a drum rising at the eastern end at attic level. The roof itself is covered in natural slate. Rainwater goods are not visible from street level.

The principal north-facing front elevation is articulated as five vertical sections. Engaged octagonal piers flank each section, rising from second-floor level to the parapet; those at either end are surmounted by cartouches incorporating dragons. Three alternating sections are topped by semi-circular gablets with pale green faience Art Nouveau cartouches. The inner east section features the drum, which has a large shouldered elliptical-headed window opening with a corbelled-out balconette and green faience spandrels above, flanked by octagonal piers topped by cartouches; the drum interrupts a full-span modillioned cornice, with the remainder of the drum cement rendered. The inner west section is topped by a decorative curvilinear gable with slender octagonal pilasters surmounted by finials, framing a date plaque with raised digits reading '1905', and an oculus below with radial keystones.

The upper two floors are faced in coursed faience. At ground- and first-floor level the elevation is largely glazed, with red faience piers framing each section at first-floor level and surmounted by cartouche panels. Window openings are square-headed with faience architrave surrounds and original hardwood casement windows, except at ground and first floors where replacement hardwood fixed-pane display windows have been inserted. The ground floor has three replacement shopfronts surmounted by a full-span replacement fascia. The first-floor display window openings to each section are also surmounted by replacement fascias and full-span red faience trim. At second-floor level, large semi-circular window openings span each section, with architrave surrounds punctuated by green faience keystones embellished with Art Nouveau motifs, and matching spandrel panels; the relief decoration incorporates what scholars have identified as the characteristic Art Nouveau 'whiplash curve', and the frieze and spandrel panels feature swirling pomegranates and foliage, modelled to designs by William Greer. The second floor is topped by a full-span faience architrave and frieze, modillioned to the three gableted sections, with corbelled-out balconettes to the remaining two sections. The third floor has diminutive square-headed window openings detailed in the same manner, with decorative iron balconettes to the gabled section and to the drum section.

The east side elevation is abutted by an adjoining mid-20th-century building. The west side elevation is abutted by the adjoining Nos 20–22 Castle Place. The rear elevation is abutted by extensions to buildings fronting onto Castle Lane and Castle Arcade.

The original Art Nouveau shopfronts have been removed from all ground-floor units, and the conversion of Nos 18–22 Castle Place into a single property has resulted in the installation of a modern shopfront connecting the contrasting Victorian and Edwardian buildings. The original ground and first floor detailing has therefore been lost. The upper floors, however, survive in good condition, retaining the ornamental parapet, gables, and drum.

The building was commissioned by Crawford McCullagh (1868–1948), who in addition to managing McCullagh & Co. served as High Sheriff of Belfast in 1911 and as Lord Mayor of Belfast from 1914 to 1917, and again for an exceptionally long second term from 1931 to 1946. It was during his second term as Lord Mayor that Nos 10–18 Castle Place, originally a single department store, were subdivided into individual retail units and leased to separate businesses. Alteration work was carried out to McCullagh & Co.'s property in 1927–28, executed by Samuel Stevenson & Sons, representing one of that family firm's earliest commissions.

Following completion in 1905, the building was valued at £1,700 in the Annual Revisions. The 1907 extension was valued separately at £390, bringing the combined total to £2,090. By 1930 the total rateable value had risen to £2,610, partly reflecting the 1927–28 alterations. Under the First General Revaluation of Northern Ireland in 1935, the value was further increased to £3,810. The building escaped major damage during the Belfast Blitz of 1941, when bomb damage levelled many neighbouring buildings on High Street and Bridge Street. By 1943, Thomas McClelland had vacated No. 8, which was then occupied by the jewellery firm H. Samuel Ltd; at the same date, Nos 10–12 were occupied by Castle Buildings Ltd (a clothing store), Nos 14–16 by Swears & Wells Ltd (local furriers), and No. 18 by Wallis & Co., a clothing firm that continued to occupy the site until at least the late 20th century. In 1958 Wallis' acquired the adjoining Nos 20–22 Castle Place and extended their store into the Victorian warehouse next door, which predates the Art Nouveau building by more than fifty years. The Second General Revaluation (1956–72) raised the total value of the site to £7,392; following the Wallis' extension the value of No. 18 rose to £3,424, increasing the combined total to £8,936 by the close of that revaluation period. The building was listed in 1979 and has continued to be used as commercial premises since that date.

Castle Buildings stands on or very close to the original site of Belfast Castle, which was burned down in 1708. Castle Place itself follows the line of the original course of the River Farset, as recorded on the 1685 map of Belfast. The western portion of High Street was known as Grand Parade by 1791 and was used for military processions; the Volunteers marched through it as part of their Bastille Day celebrations in the late 18th century. The street was not renamed Castle Place until the early 19th century. The symmetrical design of the original 1905 building has been described as referencing the Tudor style of the original Belfast Castle, though the circular drum tower added in 1907 bears no visual resemblance to the 17th-century castle as depicted in historical illustrations. Castle Buildings is among the earliest surviving buildings on Castle Place, a thoroughfare described by the architectural historian Patton as 'the hub of Victorian Belfast.'