Bradbury Buildings, 48-58 Bradbury Place, Belfast, County Antrim, BT7 1RU

Bradbury Buildings is a two-storey red-brick block of commercial units built around 1935 to designs by the Belfast architect J.D. Gordon, located east of Bradbury Place in Belfast city centre. The building is significant as an example of inter-war commercial architecture by a local architect and contributes notably to the architectural character of this part of the city.

The structure has a rectangular plan with a two-storey hexagonal pavilion projecting at the south end. The main block has a flat roof, while the pavilion features a decorative copper roof with finials and a galleon weather-vane. The walling is stretcher-bonded red-brick with cement pointing and a corbel course between floors. Rainwater goods are cast-iron with hoppers; plastic rainwater goods are fitted to the overhanging corbelled eaves of the pavilion.

Windows comprise a variety of plate-glass timber casements. The pavilion's first floor has transomed and mullioned windows surmounted by leaded-and-stained glass panels with chamfered heads, divided by a decorative egg-and-dart band. Some metal-framed casements appear to the rear.

The principal elevation faces west and features modern shop fronts with plate-glass windows at ground floor. The central bay has a decorative gable and is three windows wide at first floor, with the central window being wider. This central section is flanked by slightly narrower bays with brick pilasters surmounted by masonry urns. To either side of this central section are bays three windows wide, with the hexagonal pavilion at the extreme right.

The north elevation is abutted by an adjoining building. The east (rear) elevation has irregularly arranged fenestration. The left bay contains two windows at first floor left and a window to landing level on the right with a modern timber door below. The right bay has four irregularly spaced windows at first floor and a timber-sheeted door with side-lights and transom light to the far right. At ground floor there are four windows (some blocked) and doors to left and right of centre. The south elevation is partially concealed by the hexagonal pavilion at its left.

The building is accessed directly from the public pavement and forms part of a modern terrace to the north, with an enclosed garden to the rear.

Bradbury Buildings was designed by Joseph Davidson Gordon and constructed between 1932 and 1933 for Martin Wallace, a painter and decorator, with H & J Martin as contractors. The building first appears in valuation records in 1934, when it comprised six units mostly vacant at first, valued between £21 and £38. One unit was taken by the Seventh Day Adventists as a Mission Hall in 1935, another by 'Madame Moya', with further units occupied as shops and a house. Martin Wallace himself occupied number 56. A series of houses known as Albion Place previously stood on this site until demolished in 1866 to make way for the Central Railway. Martin Wallace had lived in Albion Place in 1880, and his son Martin Kelso Wallace, born 1897 or 1898, went on to become an Ulster Unionist politician and Lord Mayor of Belfast from 1961 to 1963. The building first appears on the 1938 Ordnance Survey map.

J.D. Gordon (1894 or 1895–1978 or 1979) had established private practice in Belfast by early 1927, working largely on domestic dwellings. Bradbury Buildings appears to be one of his last private commissions before his appointment as surveyor to Lurgan Urban Council in 1934. In 1947 he was appointed county planning officer for County Armagh, a position he held until 1974.

The design demonstrates quiet Neo-Georgian symmetry offset by the distinctive hexagonal pavilion overlooking the railway line, which has been described as pagoda-like with its copper galleon finial. Despite loss of interior detailing through refurbishment over the years, the building remains in use as commercial premises and offices, though some units are vacant.