166-174 North Street, Belfast, BT1 1QS

166–174 North Street and 176 Law's Court, Belfast

This is a four-storey, five-bay former commercial building with substantial warehouses to the rear, designed by architect William J. Gilliland and built in 1899 for developer Francis Curley. It stands prominently at the north-west end of North Street, at its junction with Millfield, in central Belfast, east of the former Smithfield market site. Curley was a clerical and merchant tailor with premises at 16 North Street and an active property developer across Belfast, living at 'Dunedin Terrace', 397 Antrim Road. The building was known in the early 20th century as Merchant's Buildings. It is one of only three late Victorian buildings surviving in what was once a thriving commercial area, and forms a landmark when viewed from Millfield and Carrick Hill.

Form and Plan

The building is rectangular on plan with an L-shaped rear stairwell and WC extension, further abutted by a substantial former warehouse to the south, partially canted at its south end. The front block has a mansard slate roof, concealed to the principal elevation by a continuous attic extension added around 1970, which replaced five original brick dormer windows along the front elevation — removed as part of a refurbishment scheme drawn up by TT Houston Architects in 1961. There are cast-iron rainwater goods and no chimneystacks. The warehouse to the rear has a flat roof with rooflights, and partially supports a telecommunications installation, with planning permission for radio masts, antennae and mobile phone transmitter equipment granted in 2001 and upgraded in 2003 and 2013.

Principal Elevation (North, facing North Street)

The principal elevation is symmetrically arranged with a narrower central entrance bay and is built in English garden wall bond red brick to the upper floors, with red sandstone and granite dressings. Windows have flush chamfered sandstone surrounds, though a number of transoms are missing; replacements to the façade are generally aluminium. The upper floors are divided into full-height canted bays separated by red brick piers, each with a profiled parapet; the central parapet has carved sandstone embellishment. A terracotta datestone is placed between the second and third floors at the central bay, with smaller terracotta panels to either side. Continuous sandstone cills run across each floor.

The ground floor contains two shop units to either side of the central entrance, divided by semi-engaged polished red granite hexagonal columns on grey granite plinth blocks. These carry staged piers with acanthus leaf detail — assumed to be sandstone but generally painted over — and profiled finials pierce a cavetto sandstone cornice spanning the entire ground floor. The shop units are covered by roller shutters, and tall two-tier fascias above may conceal original shopfront fabric beneath later boxing. The central entrance has a corniced lintel, a semi-circular fanlight, and an embellished sandstone panel above; carved sandstone lions sit over the entrance, clasping shields.

The front block is fully abutted on the east side by the adjoining building at Nos 156–164 North Street. The west gable, facing onto Law's Court and Millfield, is plainly detailed with a single window opening to the extreme right side of both the first and second floor levels, and carries large signage to the left of the windows at those levels.

Secondary Elevations and Warehouses

The rear (south) elevation of the front block is exposed only to the right side above ground floor level and is plainly detailed, with regular rows of windows and wall-head dormers lighting the attic. Windows are generally camber-headed, with some replacement flat concrete lintels. It is abutted by returns to the left, which are in turn abutted by the warehouse to the rear. The north elevation and rear have plain surrounds with timber casements.

The warehouse's main elevations face west onto Law's Court and Millfield, and south onto Samuel Street. Both are plainly detailed with rows of regularly spaced windows to each floor. The south elevation has a metal fire escape stair to the right side, and much of the ground floor level is abutted by a single-storey brick lean-to extension with a corrugated metal roof. The east elevation of the warehouse is set back from the rear block and also has rows of regularly spaced windows to each floor, apart from the ground floor, which falls within a flat-roofed section linking the front and rear blocks. A projecting block at the south end has a blank east elevation.

Interior and Structural Interest

The interior is well-appointed for commercial use, comprising four ground-floor shopfronts, a series of halls to the upper floors, and expansive warehousing and offices to the rear off Law's Court. Of particular technical and historic interest is the attic floor of the front block, which is unusually configured within a set of innovatory semi-circular cast-iron trusses without bracing. These are both rare and of considerable structural interest.

After a fire in 1934, the rear warehouses were renovated by architect Charles Macalister, who worked closely with Francis Curley and had his office for some years in Curley's Whitehall Buildings.

Historical Occupancy

The building's most notable early tenant was the Municipal School of Art, a branch of the Municipal Technical Institute. The school transferred its headquarters from College Square North to North Street on 26 September 1901, occupying the upper floors of Merchant's Buildings until the opening of the new purpose-built Belfast Technical Institute, back on College Square North, in 1906 — making this building the home of Belfast's art school for approximately five years.

Ground-floor shopfronts in the early years were occupied by Kerr's Milliners at No. 166 and the Belfast Co-operative Society Ltd. ('gent's outfitting and boot and shoe warehouse') at Nos 170–174. The sole tenant of the rear warehouse during this period was G. Bolton & Co., manufacturers of boys' washing suits and blouses, girls' washing blouses, tunics and similar garments, until 1905, when they shared the premises with Patrick Bros., printer's engineers. Davidson and McCormick, general bookbinders, printers and commercial stationers, occupied No. 170 from 1907, and the Belfast Co-operative Society Ltd. remained at Nos 172–174 until 1912, at which point Francis Curley himself — who remained lessor throughout — is recorded as occupying No. 172.

By 1908, a George Dodds had been employed as caretaker, residing in a room on the third floor allocated for that purpose, and was replaced the following year by a George Foy. Among longer-standing tenants, the International Stores at No. 168 began as Henry G. Gibson and Co., 'stationer, bookseller and publisher of religious literature', in 1918, became international exporters and stationers under proprietor M. J. Gibson in 1923, and eventually closed in 1940. Sam McCrudden and Company, linen manufacturers, occupied No. 170 from the mid-1920s until 1963, running a laundry in the rear warehouses with an employees' entrance on Law's Court. Valuations from 1930 record McCrudden occupying the second-floor hall over Nos 166–174, two offices at No. 174, and warerooms to the third floor and attic.

During the 1960s and 1970s, Nos 166–168 were occupied by Cash and Carry furnishing company, while Thomas Beggs and Co., booksellers and stationers, occupied No. 170 and a portion of the rear warehouses. By 1975 the North Street units were entirely vacant, with Beggs and Co. retaining only warehouse facilities to the rear. A series of short-lived retail outlets followed over the next decade. In 1988, the Manor Snooker Hall and social club opened on the upper floors and operated until the late 1990s. Barewood Architectural Salvage opened in the rear warehouses on Law's Court around 1994 and was the building's only tenant at the time of survey. Drawings of 1975 by Houston Bell and Kennedy Architects proposed re-glazing of the windows to the continuous dormer and new shopfronts.

Setting

The building occupies a prominent corner location at North Street and Millfield, fronting directly onto the North Street pavement. It is abutted on the east by a similarly scaled late 19th-century commercial building at Nos 156–164 North Street, and to the rear by the substantial former warehouse facing west onto Law's Court and Millfield and south onto Samuel Street.