The Beehive Bar, 193 Falls Road, Belfast, Co. Antrim, BT12 6FB

The Beehive Bar is a two-storey with attic, 12-bay High Victorian public house on the north side of Falls Road at the top of Broadway Avenue, Belfast, dating from around 1888. It was designed by architect John Joseph McDonnell and is notable for its rendered principal elevation with elaborate stucco decoration. The building suffered extensive bomb damage in the 1970s, resulting in the loss of much of its interior and the western part of the principal elevation, which has since been rebuilt to reflect the original scale and general arrangement, though the rebuilt section is much simplified and lacks the craftsmanship and detail of the original. The building is considered of local interest only and is not listed.

The building has a rectangular plan with single- and two-storey returns to the rear and a large flat-roofed modern extension to the north-east. It is currently divided into three separate properties: No. 197 occupying the three bays to the east, No. 195 occupying the fourth and fifth bays from the east, and No. 193 — the Beehive Bar itself — occupying the seven bays to the west. The roof is pitched natural slate. Two plain rectangular red-brick chimney stacks sit to the east. Rainwater goods are uPVC. The walling is red brick, rendered to the principal elevation, with replacement top-hung uPVC casement windows throughout.

The principal elevation faces south. Originally symmetrical, it presents two storeys plus an attic across 12 bays with five dormers, though a further two-storey bay has been added to the eastern end. The ground floor has modernised shopfronts throughout. The upper floors are rendered with elaborate plasterwork surviving to the central and western bays.

The first three bays to the east — rebuilt after bomb damage and replicating the original size and scale but not the original detailing — have segmental-headed window openings to the first floor with elaborate architraves supporting moulded hoods on dentilled cornices. A fluted pilaster marks the eastern end. A decorated frieze and cornicing run between the first floor and the attic. Above, a gabled dormer with scrolled kneelers features a round-arched window opening with projecting keystones and a decorated tympanum, with dentilled cornicing and a finial.

The bay immediately to the west of these has a three-sided recessed canted and pedimented bay to the first floor with square-headed window openings on all three sides, flanking shallow pilasters with decorated capitals, a moulded frieze, and a pediment above. The canted bay has projecting elaborate detailing at the base of the attic storey, supported on narrow pilasters.

At the centre of the elevation, the principal bay has paired round-arched first-floor windows with a moulded architrave to the arch carried on circular pilasters. Above, at attic level, a large stucco beehive sits within a square-headed niche bearing the inscription BEE HIVE. A central pedimented gable with a moulded tympanum and weathervane crowns the composition.

The rebuilt bay directly to the west of the central bay has a plain three-sided canted bay to the first floor with square-headed windows. The remaining bays to the west have segmental-headed window openings with moulded triangular hoods and raised plaster detailing at cornice level. Two dormers with kneelers sit at attic level over this section.

The rear elevation faces north. No. 197 has single- and two-storey returns. No. 195 has a two-storey red-brick flat-roofed return with square-headed openings. A large modern flat-roofed two-storey extension occupies the rear of the western end of the building. Square-headed doors and windows open onto a tarmacked rear yard, and a metal staircase leads to the first floor. The eastern elevation overlooks the grounds of St Mary's University College. The western elevation is abutted by a neighbouring three-storey modern building of little interest. All three properties have enclosed rear yards.

The site has a long history as a licensed premises. An unnamed oblong building appears on the 6-inch Ordnance Survey map of 1857. The earliest known reference to the Bee Hive Tavern is in the Belfast Newsletter of 27 April 1867, when the proprietor was a man named Willis. William Willis is listed as proprietor in the 1870 Belfast directory. In 1872, Patrick Cullen took over the spirit licence from Willis. By 1887, Hugh P. McKeown was in possession of the Beehive, and very shortly after taking over he commissioned John Joseph McDonnell to design a new public house. In January 1888, McDonnell advertised for tenders for the rebuilding of the Beehive Spirit Vaults and adjoining premises; the contractor has not been identified. The scale of the works is reflected in the sharp increase in the rateable valuation of the property, which rose from £26 to £50 in 1888, then to £70 in 1891 and £90 in 1894. By 1890 the business was being styled the Beehive Liquor Palace, and it appears on the 1:1,056 Ordnance Survey map of 1905 as Bee Hive (P.H.). According to Neal Garnham, the Beehive served at this period as the headquarters of Belfast Celtic Football Club.

The 1901 census records the McKeown family in residence at 255 Falls Road. The household was headed by Hugh Patrick McKeown, aged 57, a native of Belfast, and his wife Frances Anna, a native of Lancashire. Their eldest daughter, Kathleen De Ricci, was also Lancashire-born and aged 17, while their eldest son Hugh Patrick junior, aged 15, was a native of Belfast, indicating the family's move to Belfast took place around 1884–85. Hugh junior's baptism at St Peter's Catholic Church on 2 August 1885 confirms this, and records that Frances Anna's maiden name was Butler. The 1911 census shows the family still on the Falls Road, by then at No. 251. Hugh Patrick McKeown senior of 251–255 Falls Road died on 18 January 1918; his will calendar gives his occupation as shirt merchant, though this is likely an error for spirit merchant. His estate was valued at £764 and probate was granted to his widow. Mrs Frances McKeown died on 23 August 1927, with her address recorded in the will calendar as Beehive Hotel, Broadway, Falls Road, Belfast, and her estate valued at £86 6s. 8d. The valuation of the property was reduced twice in 1927, first to £64 and then to £51, without explanation.

The building was badly bomb-damaged in 1973, when part of the interior was destroyed. Writing in his Buildings of Belfast (revised edition, 1985), C.E.B. Brett noted that the Beehive has a very fine stucco façade with a most convincing beehive — and bees — incorporated in it, but observed that at the time of writing the façade had still to be restored following bomb damage.