Imperial Buildings, 70-74 High Street, 19-21 Skipper Street, Belfast, County Antrim, BT1 2BE

Imperial Buildings is a four-storey commercial building with attic, located on the north side of High Street at the corner of Skipper Street in Belfast. Designed by W.J. Gilliland and constructed in 1906-7, it was commissioned by solicitors Messrs Campbell & Harden and originally contained ground-floor shops with offices above. The upper floors were substantially rebuilt from the second floor upwards following bomb damage during the Belfast Blitz of 1941, though some architectural details were lost in reconstruction.

The building is constructed of red brick laid in Flemish bond with sandstone cornices and banding. It features a hipped natural slate roof with flat-topped dormers set behind a solid parapet, from which rises a gabled dormer. An octagonal corner turret with a copper conical roof projects from the corner, and the building has brick chimneys with square metal rainwater pipes (some original cast iron) fitted with rectangular hoppers.

The ground floor is notable for its robust detailing, with banded pilasters of alternately polished and unpolished red granite and foliate volute capitals in unpolished red granite. The polished black granite plinths support a modern polished granite frieze. The ground floor cornice features carved sandstone work including a shield dated '1907' over the west pilaster, carved bracket volutes and foliate decoration to the soffit of the turret's oriel projection, and a wave-topped pediment with crown and lettering reading "IMPERIAL BUILDINGS" above the entrance.

The main south elevation displays three window bays running between the first and third floors. The slightly projecting flat bay to the left is surmounted by a gabled dormer with tripartite windows. The central curved bay features tripartite windows with round-headed openings to the first floor, and the slightly projecting flat right bay has bipartite windows. The octagonal turret, corbelled out from the first floor at the right corner, has windows to three sides. The entrance beneath the curved bay is set back in a porch with a wave-topped pediment. The entrance arch is infilled with a beaten iron fanlight and fitted with modern metal grille doors, with a glazed timber door set behind featuring stained glass lights.

Most windows are square-headed with the exception of the first-floor curved bay windows, which are round-arched. The first-floor openings are divided in two by stone transoms. Windows are metal-framed throughout: two-paned to upper floors and single-paned to the ground floor.

The north rear elevation features a projecting wing above ground floor to the east with a blank red brick gable. The rear wall and return wall are faced with white ceramic brick. The rear wall has two flat-arched windows to the first, second and third floors and a box dormer to the attic. A spiral metal fire escape stair is positioned against the return wall.

The east side elevation is seven windows wide with the turret positioned at the left corner. A tall freestanding chimney stands to the left, and to the right a chimney stack continues to the ground floor cornice, positioned centrally in a gabled dormer flanked by two windows. The second and third-floor windows are square-headed with masonry lintels and projecting concrete cills. The first-floor windows are varied: a quatre-partite window with heavy transom, stone architrave, moulded cornice with central arch and decorated tympanum sits beside a stone panel with two square grille openings. Eight paired windows with heavy stone transoms and a running stone string at transom level occupy the northern section. All windows are metal-framed casements, four and two-paned to upper floors and single-paned to the first floor.

The ground floor of the east elevation matches the south elevation in design but features paired pilasters. The west elevation is abutted by the former Belfast Bank building.

When first recorded in valuation records in 1908, the building comprised two ground-floor shops valued at £83 and £110, with 33 offices on the first to fourth floors valued between £3.10s and £29. The fourth floor contained attics housing further offices and caretaker accommodation. A lift served the ground to third floors. The original construction cost was estimated at £9-10,000. Over its history the building has housed various tenants including Farrow's Bank Ltd, the Ulster Teachers' Union, and local newspaper offices for the Daily Mail and others. Since the 1970s the ground floor has been occupied by a sports goods retailer.

The building is a notable example of early twentieth-century commercial architecture and demonstrates the ongoing development of Belfast's city centre during that period. It represents the work of a significant Belfast architect and survives as a rare example of the city's built heritage from before the Belfast Blitz, even though its upper storeys required substantial post-war reconstruction. Imperial Buildings sits prominently on High Street, terminating the view north along Church Lane and framing the view east along High Street towards The Albert Memorial. It stands adjacent to the elaborate former Belfast Bank building to the west and faces St. George's Church across High Street to the east. The building is situated within a conservation area.