Block Of Shops & Offices, (Formerly Known As Arnotts Building), 12-16 Bridge St.(East Side) And 26-32 High St., Belfast

A block of shops and offices at 12-16 Bridge Street and 26-32 High Street in Belfast, built c.1955 to designs by Young and Mackenzie. This red brick, four-storey neo-Georgian building occupies a corner site at the junction of Bridge Street and High Street in central Belfast, replacing an earlier Victorian department store destroyed during the 1941 Belfast Blitz.

The building is U-shaped on plan with its principal elevation facing west onto Bridge Street and a secondary elevation facing south onto High Street, with single-storey infill to the centre. It features a distinctive chamfered corner bay and shopfronts spanning the entire ground floor. The flat roof is concealed behind a parapet wall with moulded concrete coping and deep concrete cornice supported on brackets.

Brown brick walling is laid in English garden wall bond. A moulded concrete cornice sits over the first floor, with a further cornice above the ground floor fascia. Gauged brick flat-arched window openings feature concrete sills. Most windows are 6/6 timber sash windows with exposed sash boxes, though some variations occur.

The principal west elevation is nineteen windows wide with shallow breakfronts at either end. Two decorative moulded concrete window surrounds to this elevation incorporate single window openings to the first and second floors. These comprise an architrave surround and cartouche with the letter 'A' to the first floor, flanked by flat panelled pilasters and scrolled console brackets supporting a balconette to the second floor with iron railing. A pair of engaged Doric columns supports an open-bed segmental pediment above (this window has a 6/9 timber sash). The breakfronts feature similar decorative concrete surrounds with a plain entablature replacing the pediment. The ground floor has a polished granite-clad shopfront with large display windows, a painted masonry architrave above, and full-span fascia, with generally replacement windows and doors.

The north elevation is abutted by a brick infill structure with a vehicular entrance. The east elevation, fronting a small alley, has glazed brick cladding to the ground floor and uPVC windows.

The symmetrical south elevation onto High Street is fifteen windows wide with shallow breakfronts at either end, detailed as per the principal elevation with a single pedimented window surround and further window surrounds to the breakfronts. The entire south elevation has uPVC windows, replacing the original fenestration.

Historically, the original Victorian department store on this site was constructed in 1866 to designs by Thomas Jackson & Son, with a façade 120 feet in height featuring granite piers, clustered columns, and extensive red Aberdeen granite detailing. The site was occupied by John Arnott & Co. Ltd., wholesale and retail drapers and shirt and underclothing manufacturers. Arnott's Department Store stood for 75 years until demolished during the Belfast Blitz in April and May 1941.

Following the Second World War, Bridge Street was widened to its current layout and largely reconstructed during the 1950s. The current neo-Georgian building was constructed in 1955 on the site of Arnott's former department store. Young and Mackenzie, an architectural firm formed in 1867/68 that received some of the most important commercial commissions in the city, designed both this building and the opposite nos 1-21 Bridge Street (constructed 1957-59 in contrasting Festival of Britain style), both for John Arnott & Co. Ltd.

During the Second General Revaluation of property in Northern Ireland (1856-72), the building was valued at £8,384, with upper floors utilised as offices for the Northern Ireland Ministry of Finance. By the end of revaluation in 1972, the value stood at £8,212. John Arnott & Co. operated from the site until the firm ceased business in 1974, after which the ground floor was occupied by various other tenants, including an electrical showroom by 1994. In recent years the building has been utilised as a Royal Mail post office branch in Belfast's city centre.