News Letter Office, 51-59 Donegall Street, Belfast

The Belfast Newsletter Office, 51–59 Donegall Street, is a symmetrical, terraced, multi-bay, three-storey building with attic, constructed in sandstone in the Gothic Revival style and built approximately 1872–4 to the designs of architect William Hastings. It sits on a rectangular plan facing west onto the east side of Donegall Street. The building is one of Hastings' many Belfast works executed in the High Victorian idiom and represents a significant chapter in the newspaper history of Belfast and Northern Ireland, having served as the head office of the oldest continuously published daily newspaper in the English-speaking world.

The roofline is particularly animated. A pitched natural slate roof terminates at either gable end with cement verges, and a rendered chimneystack with a sandstone base rises from the north end. At the centre stands an octagonal turret rising from a tapered, weathered sandstone base and capped with a lead-lined conical roof. The turret features alternating pointed-headed openings and square carved floral panels, all flanked by slender colonettes with stiff-leaf capitals, finished above with a moulded iron gutter. Flanking the turret are gabled wall-head dormer windows with moulded copings, each containing paired pointed-headed windows with central colonettes, squat piers with stiff-leaf impost mouldings, and single-pane timber sash windows. Replacement moulded metal guttering is supported on a moulded eaves course carried by a series of foliate console brackets, with square-profile downpipes below.

The façade itself is sandstone ashlar with a central shallow breakfront. Continuous foliate sill courses and a moulded plinth course run across the elevation, and a series of medallions at first-floor level carry portrait heads in relief. These spandrel heads represent, from right to left: Gutenberg, who introduced printing to Europe; Mercury, messenger of the gods; a female personification of Belfast; Caxton, who introduced the printing press to England; Goldsmith, the Anglo-Irish playwright, novelist and poet; the Duke of Abercorn, formerly Viceroy of Ireland; Dr Henry Cooke, Presbyterian minister and political leader; and the Earl of Derby, three times Prime Minister of Great Britain and Ireland.

Pointed-headed window openings are arranged in groups of three throughout, with replacement Y-tracery fixed-pane windows framed by slender polished granite colonettes with stiff-leaf capitals. The elevation is seven windows wide with a central shallow entrance breakfront corresponding to the turret above. At second-floor level, the pointed-headed openings have voussoired sandstone and polished granite heads with cable mouldings rising from continuous stiff-leaf impost mouldings, set within deeply coved surrounds. The first-floor windows are detailed similarly and run beneath a continuous hood moulding; the central window is flanked by polished granite columns with stiff-leaf capitals, embraced by a gabled surround surmounted by a fleur-de-lys finial, and opens onto a stone balcony supported on decorative brackets with a decorative wrought-iron balustrade. At ground-floor level, all openings are shouldered and flanked by slender pilasters. The window openings have replacement timber fixed-pane windows; the door opening has double-leaf hardwood panelled doors with a plain overlight, flanked by polished granite colonettes and a further pair of engaged piers.

Both side elevations are abutted by neighbouring buildings. To the rear, approximately 1980, a triple full-height gabled extension was added, with painted cement rendered walling and square-headed openings fitted with replacement timber windows.

The building stands street-fronted, forming part of a terrace of buildings dating from the late 19th to the late 20th century, within a conservation area.

The Belfast Newsletter is the oldest continuously published daily newspaper in the English-speaking world. It was established by Francis Joy in September 1737 as a single printed sheet issued from premises in Bridge Street. In 1776 it became the first newspaper in the British Isles to report that America had declared its independence: a ship carrying a copy of the Declaration of Independence was bound for London but was forced by a storm to seek shelter at Londonderry, and the Newsletter's editor gained access to the document as it passed through Belfast, printing it on the front page in support of the colonists' claim for independence. Proprietorship passed through the Joy family until 1795, when it was purchased by an Edinburgh company of which Alexander McKay was a director; McKay became sole proprietor in 1804. In 1844 the Henderson family, close friends of the McKays, assumed control and retained ownership until 1991, when the Newsletter group was bought by the publishing consortium Tinsdale Press. James Alexander Henderson introduced many changes at the paper, purchasing a new and elegant typeface in 1846 and increasing the number of editions from two to three a week. The first pictures appeared in 1852, with coverage of the Duke of Wellington's state funeral.

By 1861, during Henderson's proprietorship, the newspaper had outgrown its Bridge Street premises and moved to larger offices in Donegall Road, which were given a new front and altered to designs by W. J. Barre. The paper continued to grow and construction of the present building began around 1872, with Hastings as architect — he was also responsible for the Lytle and McCausland seed warehouses. The contractors were Messrs McCracken, the ornamental ironwork was supplied by Messrs Riddel & Co, and Messrs Harper & Co of Donegall Street fitted out the offices. The work was completed by April 1874, as recorded in the Belfast Newsletter of 22nd April that year. The building first appears on the third edition Ordnance Survey town plan of Belfast of 1883–4, and entered valuation records in 1873 at a valuation of £245, replacing earlier houses, shops and workshops on the site.

In 1886 the printing department was rebuilt to designs by William Batt, with H & J Martin as contractor. Further alterations and additions were carried out in 1915 and 1924 to designs by Thomas Houston. The building sustained heavy damage in a bomb blast in the early 1970s, an attack that killed seven people and seriously injured many others, including Newsletter staff. Subsequently, a modern brown-brick building was constructed on an adjacent plot to provide additional space (architect A. F. Lucy), and the present building was painted brown to match.

In the 1990s the Newsletter relocated to Boucher Crescent and sold the Donegall Street premises. The building was acquired by Wills & Doherty Insurance Brokers and Turkington Magowan Partnership were engaged to carry out renovation. Much of the internal ground-floor partitioning was removed, exposing original detailing. The sandstone façade was stripped of paint, then cleaned and consolidated. The windows and first-floor balcony were replaced, the dormers were restored, and the central octagonal turret was converted for use as a staff shower. Financial assistance towards the cost of refurbishment was provided by the Department of the Environment. Although the building has been compromised by 20th-century renovations and alterations, much historic fabric survives.