'The Regency Hotel and Metro Brasserie', 13 Lower Crescent, Belfast, Co Antrim, BT7 1NR

The Regency Hotel and Metro Brasserie

A large, double-fronted four-storey town house built in 1874–75 in French Mannerist style, now converted to a hotel. The building occupies a corner site at Lower Crescent and Botanic Avenue in Belfast, with its front elevation facing roughly south.

The original structure was three storeys with an attic; the attic level was heightened in brick around 1965, creating the present flat roof and giving the building a block-like appearance. A large two and a half storey hipped roof return extends to the rear, which evidence suggests originally housed a dancing academy.

The front elevation is almost symmetrical. At the centre of the ground floor is the main entrance, consisting of a panelled and glazed double door with a segmental arched fanlight, enclosed in a moulded surround with decorative keystone. The doorway is flanked by prominent pilasters with tall bases, topped with curved brackets supporting a cornice-like hood with blocking course above. These pilasters are themselves flanked by broad quoin-like pilasters that ascend through the first and second floors across the full height of the original facade. Projecting period lanterns have been attached to these pilasters at ground floor level. Identical quoins frame both this elevation and the east elevation.

To the left of the entrance are two segmental-headed sash windows with Georgian-like panes (9/9 arrangement) and lugged and heeled moulded surrounds with keystones. Two identical windows flank the entrance to the right. These are set on a plain cill course, each with a recently added cheval de fris and equally recent awning.

The first floor has five windows, all with recent top-hung frames made to resemble sash. Each has a moulded surround set on a cill course. The surrounds to the 1st, 2nd, 4th and 5th windows are lugged with small decorative arched moulding above and brackets below cill level. The centre window has a heeled surround with segmental hood above supported on curved brackets and decorative mouldings in the tympanum space.

The second floor has five shorter windows with frames as the first floor. All have lugged and heeled surrounds with small decorative arched panels above, set on a cill course. The centre window has a segmental arched head with keystone, while the others are flat-arched.

The third floor (the circa 1960s addition) has three unevenly spaced, smaller windows with modern frames, set on what was the original cornice-like eaves course with dentillations beneath.

Moulded string courses run between the ground and first floors, and between the first and second floors. The front facade is finished in plain painted render except at third floor level, which is painted brick.

The east elevation comprises the main four-storey block to the left and a long two and a quarter storey hipped roof return to the centre and right. At ground floor of the four-storey section is a pair of windows to the right, matching those on the front. At the second floor directly above are two windows as those on the first floor front. At the second floor to the right is a window as those on the second floor front. The third floor is blank. At the centre of the third floor, the lower section of the chimney stack remains visible. The heightening of the attic storey has left only the uppermost third of the chimneystacks on the east and west elevations standing free.

The east face of the return has four evenly spaced segmental-arched windows to ground floor, relatively short compared to other ground floor windows, with recent frames, moulded surrounds, and a cheval de frise to each. At far right is a large flat-arch doorway of garage-like proportions.

The first floor (set at a lower level than the main building) has two widely spaced windows with lugged and heeled surrounds filled with recent frames and ventilators, set on a cill course. Between these windows is a projecting chimney breast with a moulded shield motif set within a moulded quatrefoil. The chimney stack itself has been removed.

The second floor has two wide but squat windows with recent casement frames with Georgian-like panes. To the far right, the facade is recessed at first and second floor levels, appearing to be an addition.

The entire east elevation is finished as the front elevation, though without quoins on the return. The short north face of the return is blank.

The west face of the return is almost completely obscured by a relatively recent two-storey flat-roofed extension; only a gabled portion to the left is visible, containing a fire escape door.

The rear (north) facade of the main building is visible only at third floor level, where there is a fire escape door to the right of centre, with windows at far left and far right, both with recent frames. This level is finished in the same painted brick as the east and south elevations at this height.

The main portion of the building has a flat roof with a broad potless chimney stack to the east and west. At the centre of this roof is a small single-storey flat-roofed projection, apparently a water tank.