156-164 North Street, Belfast, Co Antrim, BT1 1LF

156-164 North Street, Belfast

A four-storey sandstone commercial building on the south side of North Street, built around 1899 and designed by architect Thomas Pentland (who was working for J.J. Philips at the time). The building was constructed for Robert McBride, a soap and candle manufacturer, at a cost of £2,500 by contractor Courtney and Co. Known as Windsor Buildings, it originally comprised four shops at ground level with offices to let on the upper floors, served by a central gateway providing access to McBride's substantial soap factory on the adjoining plot to the rear.

The building displays Baroque styling with impressive scale and bold symmetry, contributing notably to the visual rhythm of North Street's terrace. It is constructed of ashlar red sandstone with a pitched natural slate roof topped by four tall central freestanding red brick chimneys with stepped brick cornices, and one red brick chimney to each of the east and west gables. The gutters are concealed behind a balustraded, machicolated parapet with moulded coping that continues over pediment dormers. The composition features staged semi-fluted pilasters with Corinthian capitals, moulded strings to window cills and heads, and moulded roundels with shields to dormer apexes. Panels with swags and initialled shields bearing the monogram "McB" are positioned beneath the dormers. Foliage-decorated friezes run over the first and second floor window heads, with a moulded cornice to the ground floor.

The front elevation is symmetrical, composed of a diminutive central triangular pedimented dormer over windows flanked by two larger truncated shouldered pediment dormers, with pilasters positioned at the corners. The central windows diminish in size as they rise on each floor and are arched with moulded archivolt and exaggerated keystone detail. The first and second floors feature distinctive timber canted oriel bays with decorative carving that matches the adjacent stone friezes—an unusual feature of the building. The third-floor side windows are paired and square-headed with moulded architraves. Windows to the third floor are single-paned timber; the central windows are replacement with 2 and 3 panes; the bay windows contain replacement single-paned timber fixed lights and casements within original heavy timber mullions and transoms.

The ground floor has been substantially altered with modern fascia and shopfronts, though the building retains sufficient historic fabric in its highly ornamented façade and intact plan form to demonstrate special architectural and historic interest.

The east elevation abuts the adjacent building numbered 150-152 North Street. The rear elevation features an off-centre full-height pitch-roofed projection of brick and corrugated metal. The rear south wall is brick laid in English garden wall bond and rendered below second-floor cill level, with flat-linteled replacement windows to the second and third floors. Three doors to the ground floor are constructed of timber sheeting over steel. The west elevation is abutted by the building numbered 166-174 North Street. In the yard to the rear—now a car park—vestiges of a red brick wall and gable remain, and two 6 over 6 multi-pane timber sliding sash windows survive at what was first floor level.

Historical Context

The Belfast Newsletter began advertising "excellent shops and offices" in the newly completed Windsor Buildings in May 1899, highlighting their "lofty ceilings" and "good light". Robert McBride had occupied premises in North Street since at least 1877. In the late 1890s he built a substantial soap factory on a plot to the rear of his property and rebuilt his street-facing premises to create the four-shop, office, and factory-access arrangement that survives today. The Belfast Revaluation of 1900 valued the factory at £230 and the ground floor at £80. The upper three floors were divided into 23 offices with valuations ranging from £4 to £25. A caretaker named William Logan lived on the third floor and, according to the 1901 census, also worked as a bookkeeper for the soap business. The building is first shown on the fourth edition Ordnance Survey map of 1901-2.

Over its lifetime, the building has accommodated various organisations, including the British Order of Ancient Free Gardeners and the Irish Cyclists' Association. It continues in commercial use.

Alterations

Documented alterations have been made throughout the building's history: alterations to rear buildings in 1918 and 1921; shopfront alterations in 1961 and 1963 (by Young & Mackenzie Architects); and further shopfront alterations in 1974 (by William Mitchell Shop, Office & Bank Fitters). A modern escape stair has been added to the rear elevation.