Masonic Building, 13-14 Arthur Square, Belfast, County Antrim, BT1 4FF

Masonic Building

This corner-sited multi-bay four-storey Masonic Hall was built in 1870 to the designs of Lanyon, Lynn & Lanyon and underwent restoration around 2007. The building occupies a wedge-shaped plot with its principal elevation facing Arthur Square, a secondary elevation facing Ann Street, and a chamfered single-bay elevation between the two.

The roof is hipped with natural slate covering, clay ridge tiles, and several decorative rendered chimneystacks topped with clay pots and disc mouldings. Cast-iron guttering with ogee moulding and quatrefoil panels is carried on decorative brackets rising from a string course and framing ventilation discs, beneath overhanging eaves.

The rendered walls are painted with ruled-and-lined detail and have continuous sill and impost mouldings. The ground floor has been refaced with replacement sandstone cladding and a replacement polished granite plinth course. Windows throughout are timber casements with fixed-pane overlights set within stop-chamfered pointed-headed openings topped with hood mouldings.

The principal west elevation displays diminished fenestration at third-floor level arranged in groups of three with deeply set cusped heads. The outer pointed-heads spring from squat colonettes with stiff-leaf capitals. Those to the right are largely blind except for a large circular panel at the left end, which frames a star motif within a cinquefoil. Second-floor windows are arranged in pairs and a single group of three, all featuring slender banded colonettes. First-floor windows repeat the second-floor configuration but include chevron enrichment to the impost moulding, label-stops to the hood mouldings, stiff-leaf details to the stop-chamfered reveals, and paired colonettes to the arched heads, all resting on a continuous deep moulded sill course framing the ground floor.

Above the principal entrance is a single cusped-headed window set within a pointed-headed opening springing from colonettes. French doors open onto a replacement stone balcony on plain brackets inscribed "FOR THE BENEFIT OF ALL WHO ENTER" and supporting replacement railings with Masonic motif.

The recessed principal entrance is set within a round-headed opening and comprises double-leaf hardwood doors with raised-and-fielded panels, a semi-circular fanlight with gilt lettering, and a polished granite frame. The far right bay houses the stairhall with smaller paired window openings, shouldered to the upper level with decorative reveals, single colonettes, and plain hood mouldings. A rectangular panel above depicts the Freemason motif with raised lettering reading "5870 / AD1870". Below are segmental-headed openings with stepped reveals and single colonettes, with square-headed openings over the ground floor featuring bowtel moulded heads and stepped stop-chamfered reveals. A pointed-headed door opening to the ground floor is partially obscured by advertising.

The replacement ground floor features a series of round and pointed-headed door and window openings with continuous hood moulding and Freemason carvings to the spandrels. The chamfered single-bay corner is detailed as per the principal elevation.

The secondary elevation facing Ann Street is three windows wide, with a single window to the centre, paired windows to the right, and windows arranged in groups of three to the left, all detailed as per the principal elevation. A gabled east elevation is abutted by a central chimneystack.

The building is located at the junction of Arthur Square and Ann Street, overlooking a pedestrianised civic space at the entrance to Victoria Square shopping centre.