Halifax, 11-15 DONEGALL SQUARE NORTH, BELFAST

11–15 Donegall Square North, Belfast

This three-storey commercial building was constructed between 1895 and 1900 for the Belfast Banking Company, to designs by the prominent Belfast architect W. H. Lynn (1829–1915). Built in a bold Classical style using ashlar Dumfries sandstone, it occupies a prominent position on the north side of Donegall Square — the civic heart of Belfast — facing the grounds of Belfast City Hall and in the company of several other listed buildings, including the Linenhall Library to the west and the Scottish Prudential building to the east. The building was refurbished in 1990 by MacRae, Hanlon and Spence, at which point the original interior was entirely stripped and reconstructed, though Lynn's listed Classical façade was retained. The stonework bears evidence of past bomb damage in the form of fractures and impact marks.

Architectural Description

The principal south elevation is eleven windows wide and symmetrical in composition. The walls are of ashlar Dumfries sandstone, with the ground floor treated in banded rustication. Moulded, heavily projecting cornices run at each floor level; those at ground and second floor are dentilled, with plain friezes between. At first floor level, the cornice extends to form pediments over the slightly projecting bays at each end of the façade. A continuous moulded string course runs at second-floor cill level.

At ground floor, the cornice projects forward in curved and canted bays to form balconettes to the first-floor windows above. Those balconettes over the doorways are of stone; those over the windows are of timber. All balustrade infill panels are timber. The ground-floor end windows have segmental arched heads; the remaining ground-floor openings have flat lintels. The ground-floor doorways are framed by black marble columns on octagonal bases with sandstone Ionic capitals carrying a full entablature. The columns to the side doorways are engaged. The central door opening is arched, with a moulded archivolt and an exaggerated keystone.

First-floor windows have flat lintels and plain surrounds with cavetto reveals, with the exception of the central window, which has a moulded architrave and a canopy carried on volutes, forming a balconette to the window above. Paired and tripartite windows at this level are separated by pilasters with simple moulded capitals. The first-floor cornice extends to form pediments over the projecting end bays; the central section of seven windows projects slightly, and the pedimented tripartite window at first floor projects slightly further still.

Second-floor window openings have segmental arched heads with moulded architraves and exaggerated keystones.

The south elevation reads (from second floor): 2/1/2/1/2/1/2 windows; (at first floor): tripartite/1/2/1/2/1/tripartite. Three columned doorways at ground floor are flanked by plate glass shop fronts.

All windows are two-pane timber replacement sashes. Ground-floor shop fronts and doors are modern replacements.

The roof is modern and sits unseen behind a parapet with urn balusters. A round metal rainwater downpipe is located at the west corner.

The west elevation is abutted by the Linenhall Library, and the north elevation is abutted by the adjacent listed building. The east elevation has projecting cornices at each floor level matching those of the south front; its ashlar stone wall contains three blind windows at ground floor, three at first floor, and two at second floor.

Historical Background

W. H. Lynn was the pre-eminent architect of Belfast's Victorian and Edwardian period. He began his career in the partnership of Lanyon and Lynn, and by the turn of the 20th century had established an independent practice. He had previously designed the Italian Gothic linen warehouse at 1–3 Donegall Square North, three decades before undertaking this commission. Upon completion of the building, Lynn himself took one of the upper rooms as his main office, which he shared with architect Samuel Patrick Close (1842–1925) until Lynn's death in 1915.

Construction began in 1895 and was completed by 1900, though the building first appeared in the Annual Revisions in 1896, when the unfinished structure was valued at £1,281. By 1901 it comprised three ground-floor retail units and office space on the upper floors. The Belfast Street Directory of that year records the ground-floor occupants as the Belfast Banking Company, the Patriotic Assurance Company, and the Princes' Restaurant, with the upper floors taken by an accountancy firm, a solicitor's office, a photographer, and a clothing merchant.

The Belfast Banking Company — originally established in 1827 — opened its Central Branch here in 1897, midway through construction, and the building was described as the most profitable of the bank's branch offices. In 1907, spirit and wine dealers Lyle and Kinahan took over the Princes' Restaurant and converted it into a licensed store; in the same year the Commercial Union of London Insurance Company took over another ground-floor unit. In 1918 the Belfast Banking Company expanded into the adjoining unit formerly occupied by the Patriotic Assurance Company, and also into upper-floor office space.

Under the First General Revaluation of Property in Northern Ireland in 1935, the building was valued at £2,270. During the Second World War the Belfast Banking Company and Commercial Union of London Insurance Company continued to occupy the ground floor, and the upper offices housed several architects and surveyors, including Hugh Gault, Smith and Cowser, and W. H. Stephens and Sons. By the end of the Second General Revaluation (1956–72), the value had risen to £3,508 10s., and the building was by then occupied by clothing retailers including Jaeger Company Shops Ltd. and Renee Meneely Ltd.

The Belfast Banking Company vacated the premises in 1961 when the Central Branch relocated to new purpose-built premises immediately next door at No. 9 Donegall Square North (Bank House), erected to designs by Smith and Cowser.

The building occupies a site previously held by a number of three-storey structures, recorded in the 1880 Belfast Street Directory as including the Springfield Bleaching Company and the offices of a flax spinner, a bleacher, and an oil and chemical merchant. The building was listed in 1987. At the time of writing, it continues to be occupied by banking tenants — a fitting continuation of its long association with the Belfast Banking Company.