Whitehall Tobacco Works, Linfield Road, Belfast, County Antrim

Whitehall Tobacco Works is a former factory and administration building on the north side of Linfield Road at its junction with Sandy Row, Belfast, built around 1900 to designs by architects Watt and Tulloch. Originally constructed in 1901 as an administration block for Murray, Sons & Co Ltd's tobacco manufacturing operation — known as the Whitehall Tobacco Works — the building is now in use as offices, having been sympathetically restored and extended. It is the sole surviving structure from what was once a substantial factory complex, all other buildings on the site having been cleared.

The building is L-shaped on plan, symmetrical in composition, and rises two storeys with an attic storey. Square four-stage corner towers punctuate the south-east, south-west and north-east corners, each topped with distinctive pagoda-like concave slated roofs surmounted by large globular finials. Pitched natural slate roofs feature flat lead-roofed dormers set beneath deep overhanging eaves supported on moulded dentils with decorative carved console brackets. Terracotta ridge tiles crown the roofline, and red brick and sandstone banded chimneys with clay pots complete the roofscape. A three-storey modern extension added in 2010 abuts the building to the north and west.

The walls are built in English garden wall bond red brick over a blue brick plinth, dressed with sandstone string courses, sandstone quoins alternating with red brick, and horizontal sandstone banding at first floor level. Windows are generally square-headed timber-framed casements with elongated sandstone voussoirs, projecting capstones and moulded sandstone sills.

The principal elevation faces south and is symmetrical about a central entrance. This entrance consists of a square-headed timber panelled double-leaf door set in a smooth rendered reveal, abutted to the south by a single-storey sandstone portico of square plinth and base supporting circular columns, surmounted by a plain architrave, frieze and cornice to a flat roof, with three leaded dormers to the attic above. The entrance is flanked on each side by two windows at ground floor level and six windows at first floor level. Above the first floor sandstone banding, a mosaic frieze reads 'MURRAY SONS & CO LTD' at cornice level. The principal elevation is flanked left and right by four-stage corner towers: stage one has two windows; stage two a single window; stage three features decorative projecting quoins and a sandstone string course; and stage four is recessed, containing a small window flanked by continuous projecting brick quoins beneath a sandstone cornice, with three deeply recessed fixed lights separated by sandstone columns, surmounted by sandstone banding and flanked by continuous projecting ashlar sandstone quoins.

The east elevation contains six windows at each floor, surmounted by a mosaic frieze reading 'WHITEHALL TOBACCO WORKS' at cornice level, with a single leaded dormer to the attic. It is flanked at the left by a four-stage tower detailed as those on the south elevation, and at the right by a four-stage tower whose ground stage contains a timber double-leaf entrance door surmounted by a single window, stage two contains two timber-framed 1/1 sliding sash windows, and stages three and four feature an ashlar sandstone crenulated parapet with a flat roof behind, with a central circular window with sandstone keystones flanked by continuous projecting brick quoins at stage three. The west elevation is largely abutted by the modern extension; the exposed section at the right contains a four-stage tower, with a blank ground stage and upper stages detailed as the south elevation towers. The north elevation is similarly abutted to the right by the modern extension; the exposed tower section has a blank ground stage, three timber-framed 1/1 sliding sash windows at stage two, a central circular window with sandstone keystones at stage three, and a crenulated ashlar sandstone parapet with flat roof at stage four.

Throughout the building, Arts and Crafts style mosaic panelling, high-quality sandstone banding and the pagoda-like tower roofs give the façades a rich and distinctive character. The unusual oriental detailing is attributed to the influence of Robert Watt's London partner Frederick Tulloch, and the building is considered a particularly distinctive example of the partnership's work, for which they were responsible for a number of commercial premises in the Belfast area.

Internally, whilst the layout has been adapted to new office use, much of the original detailing has been restored. The attic has been converted to office space with exposed queen post trusses. A 1937 extension to the front façade was removed during the recent restoration, and brickwork and stonework at ground floor level was reinstated along with the portico, which had been shown in the original building control plans. The roof was re-slated during a 1998 refurbishment, at which time most of the windows were also replaced. Rainwater goods are replacement cast-aluminium moulded gutters and square downpipes.

The building sits on a sloping site with a large car park to the west. To the east and south, the site is bounded by a new red brick and blue brick plinth wall with sandstone copings surmounted by cast metal railings, with a landscaped area to the east. The original brick boundary walls and a set of wrought-iron gates also survive on the site. Vehicular and pedestrian access from Linfield Road to the south passes through double-leaf vehicular and pedestrian gates, with approach via a newly constructed ramp to entrance steps at the portico. Further vehicular access to the car park is available to the west, and access to the modern extension from Sandy Row to the east is via steps and a ramp at the public footpath, leading through two pairs of double-leaf gates to a new forecourt over an existing basement.

The historical significance of the building is closely bound up with the story of Murray, Sons & Co. George and John Murray opened a grocery shop in Belfast in 1810, making them the oldest tobacco firm in the city — Gallaher's tobacco factory did not relocate to Belfast from Londonderry until 1863. Tobacco and snuff quickly became the Murray firm's chief trade, but it was the introduction in 1862 of 'Murray's Mellow Smoking Mixture' — the first branded and packaged tobacco product to come from Ireland, and a product still manufactured into the 1990s — that brought the company outstanding success. By the 1870s the company had wholesale premises in Glasgow and Dublin and a manufactory in Arthur Street. The firm's growth led to the move to the Linfield Road site, which had previously been occupied by the Blackstaff Spinning and Weaving Company Ltd. A small linen mill had stood on the site as early as 1832–3, situated within a loop of the meandering Blackstaff River on the edge of the then-expanding town. Linfield Road was laid out by 1850, and by the late 1850s the site had grown into a large mill complex. By the turn of the 20th century the surrounding area had become a fully developed urban landscape of industrial premises and working-class terraces built to house the factory workforce.

Murray's new premises first appear in valuation records in 1903, described as 'offices, tobacco factory and yard', occupied by Murray Sons & Co Ltd and leased from the Executors of J K Boyd and the Misses Quigley, with a valuation of £560 — replacing the Blackstaff Spinning and Weaving Mill, which had been valued at £260. Several phases of reconstruction and expansion took place through the 1920s and 1930s. A second pipe tobacco brand, 'Erinmore', was developed in the 1920s and became Murray's flagship product, its recipe a closely guarded trade secret. At its peak, the company employed several hundred workers, with raw tobacco arriving from Brazil, Africa, China, the United States and a number of other countries, and finished products shipped to Rotterdam and distributed to forty-five countries worldwide, Belfast's maritime location being central to the trade.

Murray and Sons were bought by the international tobacco company Carreras in 1953, though the plant, products and company name continued as before. In 1972 Carreras was acquired by Rothman's, who consolidated all their pipe tobacco brands — including Dunhill — into Murray's. Following the acquisition of Rothman's by BAT (British American Tobacco), a further restructuring led to the closure of the Whitehall Works in 2005 and the transfer of pipe tobacco manufacturing to Orlik in Denmark.

The building is a prominent local landmark and an important reminder of the industrial heritage of the Sandy Row and Linfield Road area.