Hatfield House Bar, 130 Ormeau Road, Belfast, County Antrim, BT7 2EB

Hatfield House is a late-Victorian red-brick public house built around 1890, standing two-and-a-half storeys tall and situated on the east side of Ormeau Road, south of Belfast city centre. It occupies a corner plot at the junction of Ormeau Road and Hatfield Street, which is lined with late 19th and early 20th century red-brick terraced housing. Semi-detached in form, the building has an L-shaped plan with two two-storey returns to the rear.

One of the first premises owned by prominent local spirit merchants Braithwaite & McCann, Hatfield House is the only one of their former pubs to retain the original curved metalwork sign bearing their name. The building is a relatively well-preserved example of a late-Victorian pub-front and interior bar, later altered to incorporate an adjoining former dwelling, and despite the addition of a modern extension it remains one of the finest surviving traditional public houses of its type in Belfast.

Architectural Description

The roof is pitched and covered in natural slate, with terracotta ridge tiles and red-brick chimney stacks. Cast-iron ogee rainwater goods are carried on an ornate eaves course. The walls are laid in English garden wall bond red brick, with a first-floor sill course and corner pilasters to the gabled bay, carved terracotta panels to the principal elevation, and a decorative egg-and-dart dentilled course to the flues. Dentilled pediments adorn the wall-head dormers.

Windows to the upper floors and to the two-storey canted bay on the left are 1/1 timber-framed sliding sash. At ground floor level on the south side there is a segmental-headed tripartite timber tracery window, and windows on the west elevation have painted smooth rendered lintels. The bowed windows to the pub-front are round-headed, with three glass panels, vertically divided by metal lattice grilles that open on a hinge.

Principal (West) Elevation

The principal elevation faces west and is asymmetrically arranged, incorporating the adjoining former terraced dwelling to the north. It is six windows wide, with a two-storey canted bay at the left and a wider gabled bay at the right. A symmetrical pub-front, added around 1910, occupies the ground floor of the central and right bays.

The decorative carved timber pub-front features ornately carved and painted quatrefoil panels with keystones to the round-headed openings. The bowed windows to the left and right are framed by pilasters with Ionic capital heads; those at the far left and right are set back with scrolled console brackets. Faience tiles line the window plinths, with ornate tiled panels depicting cherubs with vines and exotic birds. The recessed entrance has a mosaic tiled floor reading "Hatfield Bar", with replacement timber-panelled doors to the twin curved entrances. The signage fascia carries painted lettering reading "Wines / Hatfield House / Spirits", surmounted by a faience balustraded parapet topped by the curved metalwork sign reading "Braithwaite & McCann Spirit Merchant".

Other Elevations

The north elevation is abutted by a modern extension of little architectural interest. The rear elevation is partially concealed, flanked at left and right by two-storey returns; the left return has two windows to the second floor and a stairwell window at ground floor left. The south elevation of the rear has two windows at first floor, a replacement timber-panelled door at ground floor left, and an elongated window at ground floor right. A timber signage fascia reads "Stout, Ales & Spirits".

The south elevation has a slightly projecting pedimented dormer with paired windows to the right of centre, three irregularly arranged windows to the first floor, and two tripartite windows to the left at ground floor divided by brick pilasters. At ground floor right there is a replacement timber-panelled door and a double-leaf door, both in segmental-headed surrounds. Three timber signage fascias read, from left: "Wholesalers", "Fine Wines", and "Off Sales".

Setting

The building is enclosed to the rear by a yard and gated alley. Cast-iron railings on a replacement red-brick plinth stand to the front and south. A large three-storey modern extension has recently been constructed to the north.

Historical Background

Hatfield House was first recorded in the Annual Revisions for the Cromac Ward of Belfast in 1891, when the valuer described the site as a shop and store at No. 132 Ormeau Road. The site was let by estate agents R. J. McConnell & Co., established by Sir Robert McConnell, who also operated an auctioneering business in the city. McConnell let the premises to Braithwaite & McCann, spirit merchants, who converted the building into a public house, though the Annual Revisions continued to record it as a shop until 1903. The property was originally valued at £30 in 1891, rising to £50 when the adjoining No. 130 Ormeau Road — formerly a private dwelling — was incorporated into the public house.

In 1903 the Annual Revisions first recorded the site as a "licensed shop", increasing its value to £60. This rose further to £80 in 1906, when Cromac Ward was first valued separately from the rest of Belfast city centre. In 1911 the owners successfully appealed against this rate, reducing the value to £70, which remained unchanged through to the end of the Annual Revisions in 1930. Street directories of the period described the property as a grocers and wine merchants, and record a Mr James Gordon as manager for at least the period between 1907 and 1918. The public house also contained a private residence: between 1901 and 1916 a Ms Jane Wilson lived on the premises. The 1901 census recorded Wilson as a 67-year-old widow, and the Census Building Return described the site as a first-class public house and private dwelling comprising 14 rooms with no out offices. Wilson's will confirms she remained at the public house until her death in 1916.

By the time of the 1935 General Revaluation of Property in Northern Ireland, Braithwaite & McCann were still operating the bar, which was then valued at £100. The building survived the bombing of Belfast during the Second World War. During the second general revaluation, carried out between 1956 and 1972, the value was set at £400 in 1956, reduced to £320 under the 1957 Rent and Valuation Act, and then lowered again on appeal to £248. By the end of the revaluation period in 1972, the value stood at £291.

Historical sources suggest a public house may have stood on or near this site from at least 1873, though the current building was completed in 1891, and the Belfast Street Directory for 1880 records no public house between Ormeau Bridge and the Belfast Gasworks, suggesting that any earlier structure was likely simple or insignificant. Hatfield House is understood to have been the first premises operated by Braithwaite & McCann. The firm later acquired the Red Lion and the Garrick Bar in Chichester Street, The Store Bar on Church Lane, and The Ulster Tavern in Chichester Street. In the 1960s the firm changed its name to McCann Ltd. and merged with Morton & Co., a Belfast-based bottling company. During the 1970s the merged company spent £5 million acquiring new pubs, owning 27 by 1974. All former Braithwaite & McCann premises are now independently owned. Hatfield House remains the only one to retain the original curved metalwork sign bearing the name "Braithwaite & McCann: Spirit Merchants".

The building was listed in 1989 and continues to operate as a public house.