Whitehall Tobacco Works, Linfield Road, Belfast, County Antrim

Whitehall Tobacco Works is a former factory building constructed around 1900 to designs by the architects Watt and Tulloch. It stands on the north side of Linfield Road at its junction with Sandy Row in Belfast, County Antrim.

The building is L-shaped in plan with a two-storey structure incorporating an attic storey. Four-stage towers with pagoda-like concave slated roofs occupy the south-east, south-west, and north-east corners, each topped by a large globular finial. The roofs are pitched natural slate with flat lead-roofed dormers set beneath deep overhanging eaves supported on moulded dentils with decorative carved console brackets. Ridge tiles are terracotta, and chimneys are constructed from red brick and sandstone banding with clay pots. A three-storey extension was added to the north and west in 2010.

The walls are English garden wall bonded red brick over a blue brick plinth, with sandstone string courses and sandstone quoins alternating with red brick. Windows are square-headed timber-framed casements featuring elongated sandstone voussoirs, projecting capstones, and moulded sandstone sills.

The principal south-facing gable is symmetrical about a central entrance comprising a square-headed timber-panelled double-leaf door in a smooth rendered reveal. This entrance is flanked to south by a single-storey sandstone portico with a square plinth supporting circular columns beneath a plain architrave, frieze, and cornice to a flat roof. The entrance itself is flanked left and right by two windows each. Six windows occupy the first floor, with horizontal sandstone banding, surmounted by a mosaic frieze reading "MURRAY SONS & CO LTD" to the cornice. Three leaded dormers light the attic storey. Each corner tower at stage one contains two windows, reducing to a single window at stage two. Stage three features decorative projecting quoins and sandstone string courses, while the recessed stage four contains a small window flanked by continuous projecting brick quoins topped by a sandstone cornice. At the tower head, three deeply recessed fixed lights are separated by sandstone columns and flanked by continuous projecting ashlar sandstone quoins, surmounted by sandstone banding.

The east elevation contains six windows at each floor surmounted by a mosaic frieze reading "WHITEHALL TOBACCO WORKS" to the cornice, with a single leaded dormer lighting the attic. The north-east tower's stage two contains three timber-framed 1/1 sliding sash windows; stage three features a central circular window with sandstone keystones flanked by continuous projecting brick quoins; stage four consists of an ashlar sandstone crenulated parapet with a flat roof behind.

The east elevation's right-hand tower contains at stage one a timber double-leaf entrance door surmounted by a single window. Stage two contains two timber-framed 1/1 sliding sash windows.

The west elevation is partially abutted by the modern extension; the exposed section contains a tower with a blank stage one and upper stages as detailed for the tower on the south elevation. The north elevation is similarly abutted at right by the modern extension, with the exposed tower section containing a blank stage one.

The building sits on a sloping site with a large carpark to the west. The east and south boundaries are defined by new red and blue brick plinth walling with sandstone copings topped by cast metal railings, with a landscaped area to the east. Access from Linfield Road at the south is through double-leaf vehicular and pedestrian gates, leading via a newly constructed ramp to the entrance steps and portico. Further vehicular access reaches the carpark to the west. Access to the extension from Sandy Row at the east uses steps and a ramp at the public footpath, leading to two pairs of double-leaf gates and a new forecourt over existing basement. Gutters and downpipes are replacement cast-aluminium moulded components.