1- 5 Castle Lane & 23-29 Cornmarket, Belfast, Co Antrim, BT1 4FB

This attached three-storey red brick commercial building with attic storey was built in 1888–9 to designs by Robert Graeme Watt for the Grand Restaurant and Cafe Company Ltd. The contractor was William McCammond JP. The building forms a dramatic curved façade addressing Arthur Square, presenting semi-circular elevation on plan.

The roof is laid with natural slate and incorporates a roll-moulded terracotta ridge with lead valleys and a red brick chimneystack to the southwest. The roof sits behind a red brick parapet wall with moulded sandstone coping that rises as three decorative Dutch gables and two dormers with hipped slate roofs, exposed rafter feet, pairs of brackets and timber casement windows. The central gable is curvilinear while the outer gables are triangular.

The red brick walls are laid in Flemish bond with slender brick pilasters flanking all window openings to the first and second floors. A full-span painted masonry cornice runs to the base of the parapet with a terracotta dentilled course below. Window openings are deeply set with gauged brick segmental heads and chamfered surrounds, continuous hood mouldings, moulded red sandstone sills and single-pane timber sash windows to the second floor; timber casement windows occupy the first floor. Full segmental pediments surmount the gables with square-headed window openings arranged in pairs, bracketed aprons and decorative sweeping terracotta apron panels to second floor windows featuring swags and festoons.

The ground floor has replacement timber shopfronts to the south and southwest curved elevations, while stone-clad shopfronts face the east and northeast curved elevations, which include two shallow canted bays to the northeast. The gabled west elevation is abutted by an adjoining infill structure. The gabled northwest elevation contains blind bays. The rear elevation is not visible.

The building was purpose-built and opened in May 1889 as one of the first such establishments in Belfast. The interior originally comprised four floors over spacious cellars. The ground floor contained a buffet and luncheon room, smoke-room and liquor divan. The first floor housed a grand dining-room, ladies' dining-room and billiard room. The second floor contained manager's offices and the kitchen, while the attic provided staff sleeping quarters. Public rooms were decorated with encaustic tiles and faience supplied by the Burmantofts Company. The building cost approximately £8,000.

The ground floor facing Cornmarket initially contained two shops let to Valentine & Co, tea and sugar importers, and McAlister's family and dispensing chemist. By 1899 the main building had been taken over by Mooney and Co Ltd as a licensed house and shop. Part of the ground floor was subdivided into further shop space which, along with sections of upper floors, became the XL Vegetarian restaurant and cafe. Number 27 Cornmarket was further subdivided c1900 to create number 29 Cornmarket, housing the XL pastry shop and later Gardiner's confectioner and tobacconist until the 1980s. Mooney's public house remained in the building until c1980 and the XL restaurant until 1950. From the 1980s the main premises were occupied by clothing stores. The three shops have subsequently been used as a Thornton's Confectioners, Ulster Bank cash machine housing, and a noodle bar respectively.

The building survives as an important example of late Victorian commercial architecture and represents the continuing prosperity of the era. Although compromised by replacement shopfronts and interior remodelling of ground and first floors, significant historic fabric and architectural detailing remain. It exemplifies the work of Robert Graeme Watt, an architect of note who later formed the partnership Graeme Watt & Tulloch.