Ross' Auction Rooms, John Ross & Co., 37 Montgomery Street, Belfast, BT1 4NX

Ross' Auction Rooms, 37 Montgomery Street (Nos 22–26 May Street), Belfast

This is an attached, corner-sited former assembly rooms building, now operating as an auction house, built around 1873 as the headquarters of the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church in Ireland. The building was restored following a fire around 1965 and has been in use by John Ross & Co., Auctioneers and Valuers, since around 1937. It sits prominently on the north side of May Street at its junction with Montgomery Street in Belfast city centre, enclosed to the north by Music Hall Lane and to the west by an adjoining building and enclosed yard. The listing covers the auction rooms and the front boundary wall.

PLAN AND FORM

The building is roughly square on plan and comprises three conjoined blocks aligned east to west. The ground floor of the south block sits partially below street level at May Street. There are two principal entrances: a split-level entrance from May Street on the south elevation, and a secondary entrance at ground floor level on Montgomery Street on the east elevation. This unusual split-level plan form survives largely intact and is one of the building's most distinctive characteristics.

EXTERIOR

The building is three storeys in height and detailed in a loose Venetian Gothic style. Walling is in Flemish-bonded red brick with sandstone dressings throughout, including stringcourses, a projecting plinth course above ground floor windows, projecting cavetto-moulded flat sills, and chamfered window heads. Windows are square-headed at basement level, segmental-arched at ground floor, and round-arched at first floor. All windows are 1-over-1 timber sashes with brick reveals unless otherwise noted.

The south block has hipped natural slate roofs with blue and black ridge tiles, lead valleys, cast-iron rainwater goods, and projecting eaves supported on moulded stone corbels. Two large brick corbelled chimneystacks rise from this block. The north block has a pitched roof with a stone verge at the east.

SOUTH ELEVATION (MAY STREET)

The principal south elevation is symmetrical and features a central breakfront entrance portico. The entrance has replacement metal double doors with a segmental-headed plain fanlight above. These are flanked by paired and stepped square brick piers supporting paired sandstone Corinthian pilasters. The inner pilasters support a torus-moulded round arch containing a sexfoil leaded stained glass roundel. The outer pilasters support large carved stone console brackets surmounted by a projecting canopy of piers and pierced balustrade with cavetto coping. Above the portico, paired windows are surmounted by a pedimented entablature carved with the burning bush — the symbol of the Presbyterian Church in Ireland — and the inscription "ARDENS SED VIRENS." A cavetto cornice supports an acroter and metal finial above. The entrance bay is flanked on each side by two sets of paired windows at each floor level.

At street level, rectangular windows are enclosed by a red brick plinth wall with sandstone coping; the coping at the west of the entrance has been partially removed, with some sections surviving. Cast-iron railings remain to the lower windows. Signage reading "JOHN ROSS & CO. — AUCTIONEERS" is applied to painted brick below the second floor windows. The west elevation of the south block is abutted by a slightly lower three-storey building facing May Street.

EAST ELEVATION (MONTGOMERY STREET)

The east elevation reads as three visually distinct and individually symmetrical blocks.

The south block on this elevation is similarly detailed to the May Street front. It contains a replacement metal door at the centre with a stepped sandstone chamfered surround, flanked by paired 1-over-1 timber sashes fitted with original decorative painted cast-iron window grilles and plain sandstone sills. These are surmounted by paired windows at first and second floor level. Signage reading "ROSS'S AUCTIONEERS & VALUERS" is applied to painted brick below the second floor windows. To the left of the first floor windows, an original glazed clay tile street sign reads "MONTGOMERY ST."

The central block rises to a flat-roofed belfry and contains the principal Montgomery Street entrance. This is similarly arranged to the May Street entrance but is plainer in detail, without pilasters. Cast-iron downpipes to either side of the entrance gable are recessed into the brickwork. The entrance is surmounted by three square-headed 1-over-1 timber sashes with a continuous sandstone sill course splayed below each window and a continuous header course; each window is surmounted by a pointed-arched brick recess with brick voussoirs. At second floor level there are three oculus lights surmounted by three pointed-arched louvred openings at the former belfry level.

The north block's east gable elevation contains two sets of paired windows at ground floor level, with the windows on the right retaining original decorative painted cast-iron window grilles. There are two sets of paired square-headed 1-over-1 timber sashes at first floor level, and two sets of paired square-headed 1-over-1 timber sashes at the diminished second floor level. These are surmounted by pointed-arched brick recesses with a raised blank oculus at the centre of each recess. A large oculus opening with a sandstone surround sits at the apex, but has been blocked with grey engineering brick. Signage reading "FINE ART CONSULTANTS" is applied to painted brick below the second floor windows.

NORTH ELEVATION (MUSIC HALL LANE)

The ground floor of the north elevation has been smooth rendered and painted, with a sandstone plinth. The first and second floors show a mix of new and original brick, painted. From left, the ground floor contains a double arrangement of segmental arches with a modern metal roller door and stepped masonry quoins; to the left of this are square-headed 1-over-1 timber sashes with original decorative painted cast-iron window grilles and plain sandstone sills. A replacement metal door sits to the right. The first and second floors each contain five square-headed window openings fitted with 9-over-9 timber sashes, generally replacements. The rightmost window opening at both first and second floor level is partially blocked with glass blocks. To the left of the first floor windows, an original glazed clay tile street sign reads "MUSIC HALL / LANE."

The north block's west gable is partially rebuilt at first floor level using grey engineering brick, and is smooth rendered and painted at ground floor level; the gable is otherwise blank. The central block is abutted by a single-storey flat-roofed extension of no architectural interest. The first floor of the north block contains a metal escape door at the left and a multi-pane timber casement at the right; the second floor has two multi-pane timber casements.

HISTORICAL CONTEXT

The building was constructed in 1873 and first recorded in the Annual Revisions shortly after completion, when it achieved a rateable value of £200 in the ownership of the Presbyterian Assembly. The original construction cost was £6,372. As well as serving as the General Assembly's headquarters, the building housed a number of Presbyterian organisations: the 1877 Belfast Street Directory records offices for the Bible and Colportage Society, the Presbyterian Orphan Society, and the Sabbath School Society in Ireland. Private businesses also leased space, including a land and rent agency in 1877.

The building was not depicted on Ordnance Survey maps of Belfast until the third edition of 1901–02, which showed a square-plan structure matching the current layout, suggesting no major alteration to the site's overall form has occurred since construction. By the 1900 Belfast Revaluation, the building's value had increased to £330, with the General Assembly paying rent of £35 15s. per annum.

As Belfast grew following its elevation to city status in 1888, the General Assembly found the May Street building too small for its needs. A new site was chosen on Fisherwick Place — the former site of Fisherwick Presbyterian Church — and a design competition was held in 1899–1900 for a replacement. The new Presbyterian Assembly Building was constructed between 1899 and 1905. During this period the May Street offices continued to be occupied by ecclesiastical organisations, but by 1905 the building was vacated.

The building remained empty until 1912, when it was taken over by John Wilson and Son Ltd., linen, damask, handkerchief, ladies' underclothing, and gentlemen's shirt and collar manufacturers, who renamed it "Downshire House" and used it as a warehouse. Its rateable value fell to £220 upon conversion. By the First General Revaluation of Northern Ireland in 1935, Wilson and Sons had vacated the building, though Wilson remained the recorded owner; the value fell further to approximately £111. John Ross & Co. came into possession of the site around 1937 and have operated an auctioneers and valuation business from the premises ever since. The building survived the heavy bombing of Belfast city centre during the 1941 Blitz. In the Second General Revaluation of 1956, the ground and first floors were recorded as occupied by a Mr. or Mrs. D. W. Gray, using the space as offices, showrooms, and stores for John Ross & Co. The building's total value stood at £844 by the end of that revaluation period in 1972. The building was listed in 1988. Furniture and household auctions have continued to take place weekly, with antique auctions held monthly.

The surviving carving of the burning bush on the main pediment, together with the inscription "ARDENS SED VIRENS," remains as a direct material link to the building's origins as a Presbyterian assembly and ecclesiastical headquarters. The building is located within a conservation area.