North Queen Street Community Centre, 46 Victoria Parade, Belfast, Co Antrim, BT15 2EN

North Queen Street Community Centre

46 Victoria Parade, Belfast

A large single and one-and-a-half storey brick-built gabled hall erected in 1883, originally functioning as a gymnasium for Victoria Barracks, a substantial artillery complex established on this site in 1797. The building now serves as a community centre following conversion around 1979–80, with a two-storey extension added to its eastern side at that time. The hall stands within a mid-twentieth-century housing estate to the west of North Queen Street.

The main structure is rendered in painted brick beneath a slated gabled roof and retains numerous architectural details of interest. The front gable faces roughly south and features a central entrance comprising a largely glazed recent double door with roller shutter box above, accessed by a short flight of steps with simple iron railings. Above the doorway is a signboard reading 'North Queen Street Community Centre', surmounted by a tall segmental-headed window whose frame has been altered in recent times and is now partly boarded up. Both the entrance and window sit within a tall segmental arched recess with brick dentils to the underside of the arch. To the left and right of the entrance are identical tall flat-arch recesses with dentilled brick detailing. The left-hand recess originally contained a large window similar in size to that above the doorway; the lower two-thirds is now locked up and rendered over, whilst the surviving uppermost third retains its timber frame with Georgian-like panes and a top-hung opener. The original window sill remains visible. The right-hand recess is likewise treated. The front gable is edged with plain brick pilasters and has decorative raised brickwork to the verge.

The western elevation features seven flat-arch recesses arranged in two pairs and a group of three (to the right), all filled with large high-level windows in timber frames similar to those to the front. Many panes are boarded up, and glazing bars have been removed from the window to the far right. Glazing bars remain intact on other windows. This elevation is edged with pilasters and has a dentilled eaves course. Evidence suggests there was originally a doorway between the second and third windows.

The rear (northern) gable adopts a similar arrangement to the front but with a metal-sheeted doorway set within a segmental arched recess, a smaller window above the doorway, and larger windows set lower in flat-arch recesses to either side. A disabled-access ramp leads to the rear doorway rather than steps. The rear gable merges on its left (east) side with the much smaller gable of a lower two-storey extension.

The most striking architectural feature is the relatively large octagonal roof-light turret positioned to the centre of the ridge, with a lead-covered base, Georgian-paned sash windows to each side, and a slated hipped roof. Two further conventional flat roof lights flank this turret; their glazing has been removed. A tall brick chimneystack with a splayed base and string courses rises near the eaves on the western roof slope close to the ridge. A square chimneystack stands at the apex of the south gable. Cast-iron rainwater goods are present.

The eastern extension, added circa 1980, may incorporate all or part of an original (though probably much smaller) structure. Its gable is mostly rendered, with the lowermost third in brick, suggesting that portion is original. The ground floor features a metal-sheeted door on the left (west) side; the first floor has a small window with security grille to the right. The southern gable of the extension, set back from the line of the main building's south gable, is wholly rendered and has a window and doorway to the ground floor with another window to the first floor. Interior evidence indicates four broad windows to the first floor of the eastern elevation.

The building is in fairly original condition and survives as an unusual and well-preserved example of Victorian military gymnasium architecture. Many windows have been boarded or altered, and the entrance has been updated with modern glazing and security provisions, but the fundamental structural form and decorative brickwork detailing remain intact.

Historical Context

The site was originally home to an artillery barracks constructed in 1797 as a replacement for an earlier barracks located in what is now Barrack Street. Following the Cardwell Scheme reforms for army modernisation, two large new accommodation blocks and this gymnasium were built in 1883. By 1909, Victoria Barracks accommodated 10 officers and 182 soldiers, with quarters for 32 married soldiers and their families, and could garrison up to 1,000 men in permanent buildings with capacity for a further 3,000 under canvas.

The barracks suffered devastating damage during the German air raids on Belfast in 1941, when every main building was hit and many troops were killed. In the immediate post-war years, the government determined that such compact military bases in built-up urban areas were vulnerable to enemy attack and should be abandoned. The site remained in a ruinous state until the 1950s, when it was cleared and subsequently developed with new housing and tower blocks built between the mid-1950s and mid-1960s. The military retained a small western section until the late 1960s, when it too was cleared and replaced with the present Carlisle Estate.

The gymnasium escaped major damage in 1941 and was spared demolition. During the 1960s and 1970s it was occupied by the Belfast Education and Library Board and used as a store. Around 1979–80 it was converted to its present use as a community centre, with the two-storey eastern extension added at that time.