40 Linenhall Street, Belfast, County Antrim, BT2 8BA

40 Linenhall Street, Belfast is a six-storey redbrick former warehouse, built in 1901-2 to the designs of the architects Young & Mackenzie. It was constructed as a warehouse for Murphy & Stevenson, linen and handkerchief manufacturers and bleachers, with W J Campbell & Son of Ravenhill Road as the contractor. The building is rectangular on plan, facing west and lining the east side of Linenhall Street.

The roof is not visible behind a redbrick parapet wall with sandstone coping, which rests on a moulded cornice with cogging. Circular redbrick drum structures rise above the parapet wall at each end bay, featuring blind bays and dentilated redbrick cornices below circular parapet walls matching those of the main structure. The redbrick walling is laid in English garden wall bond with a moulded sandstone sill course to the second floor and a rock-faced red sandstone ashlar plinth course with drafted margins.

The front elevation is fourteen windows wide. Segmental-headed window openings with red sandstone sills and replacement casement windows are arranged across the facade. A slight bow to either end bay is corbelled out at second floor level in red sandstone. The fifth floor features stepped three-centred arched window openings forming a recessed vertical panel above the second floor sill course. Ground floor openings are square-headed with flush splayed red sandstone sills and rock-faced keystones. Plain red sandstone keystones appear to all but the fourth and fifth floors.

The central entrance bay contains an elaborate double-height carved red sandstone doorcase. This comprises a round-headed door opening with smooth bowtel-moulded jambs and alternating voussoir blocks with a figuratively carved keystone to the entablature. The door opening is flanked by rock-faced rusticated pilasters with drafted margins, surmounted by swagged Ionic capitals, a lion head, and a pair of foliate scrolled console brackets supporting the entablature. The entablature features a pulvinated frieze with a central plaque inscribed 'M & S Ltd'. Above the entablature is a semi-circular overlight with stepped keystones, fronted by a trefoil-arched balustrade flanked by squat piers and obelisks.

The north side elevation is abutted by the adjoining building at No. 32 Linenhall Street. The east rear elevation includes a circular bay at the south end with segmental-headed window openings, sandstone sills, and replacement windows. The south side elevation is blank and rendered.

The building is located on the east side of Linenhall Street with a square-headed vehicular entrance to the southernmost bay and a bitumac car park to the rear.

The building first appears on the sixth edition Ordnance Survey map of 1931. It entered valuation records in 1906 as "offices, warehouse and yard" valued at £900 and owned by Murphy & Stevenson Ltd. The valuation was reduced to £820 in 1912, probably as a result of an appeal. Murphy & Stevenson continued as occupiers until at least 1957, with continual improvements made to the building resulting in a rise in valuation to £1,127 by 1952. The building has since been converted into offices.