1-21 Bridge Street, Belfast, BT1 1LT

A four-storey, fourteen-bay reinforced concrete framed building in Festival of Britain style, built 1957–59 to designs by Young & Mackenzie for Arnott's department store. Located to the west of Bridge Street in central Belfast, the building is rectangular in plan facing east with canted corner features. The return to the north along Rosemary Street is three storeys high.

The roof is flat with bitumen covering behind a tall parapet featuring cast-iron hoppers and circular downpipes to the rear.

The front façade on Bridge Street has ground floor walling clad in polished black and green granite with black, green and white mosaic between shopfronts. The first and second floors are clad in ribbon glazing between green slate cladding panels. The third floor is set back behind geometric steel railings and clad in geometrically designed precast concrete and green slate units in octagonal concrete and square slate patterns. The full-height end bays are clad in rustic brick above ground floor. A deep overhanging concrete canopy extends across the ground floor.

The principal east elevation has ground floor shop fronts of plate glass under the canopy. The original geometric design and equally spaced lights to the soffit are visible to the right; the remainder is clad in modern uPVC sheeting. Sections of the leading edge of the canopy support various modern shop signs and short lengths of modern steel railings. The middle twelve bays at first and second floor levels have large multi-pane windows filling structural bays with slate cladding to cill height and slate-clad projecting columns. Second floor windows are surmounted by blue-green framed panels. The third floor is stepped back behind railings with eighteen single square window openings in projecting precast concrete surrounds. The façade is topped with an in-situ reinforced concrete parapet with thin overhanging concrete coping. The end canted bays are clad in rustic brick with windows and wall panels to upper floors as on the main elevation, with the addition of full glazing at third floor level set behind railings, all within projecting concrete surrounds. The canted bay to the north has been painted with a large sign obscuring the wall panelling. The same overhanging concrete coping tops the parapet.

The south elevation on High Street has modern shop units of plate glass under the canopy. The central section is one and a third bays wide with upper floors detailed as the main façade, featuring three square windows on the third floor. This is flanked by rustic brick-clad walls of the canted corner bay. The façade is topped with a parapet as before.

The north elevation on Rosemary Street has modern shop units of plate glass under the canopy. The original decoration and lights to the soffit are visible to the left; the remainder is clad in modern uPVC sheeting. The left section of the leading edge of the canopy has a modern shop sign; the right has steel railings. Upper floor detailing differs from other elevations, with smooth rendered walling in which are set five equally spaced openings with uPVC-framed glazed doors with square overlights at first floor and five square windows above, set in surrounds as before. These are flanked by rustic brick-clad walls rising to parapet level, topped with coping as before and railings above and between brick bookends. Behind the railings is a precast concrete three-bay loggia at third floor level.

The rear west elevation is abutted by various neighbouring buildings at ground and first floor levels. The end bay to the right is entirely abutted by a neighbouring building. Exposed sections of ground and first floors are constructed in rustic brick with variously sized and located windows. Parts of the second floor are set back, forming large rooftop areas guarded by steel tubular railings and accessed by steel stairs and ladders. Georgian wired glass rectangular rooflights provide light to first floor rear rooms. The second floor has multi-pane windows set within an exposed concrete frame with brick infill panels. Some second floor openings are infilled with glass blocks. The third floor is set back again, forming a long rooftop area guarded by galvanised steel railings and providing access to small narrow rooms running the length of the building. Multi-pane replacement uPVC windows are set within the exposed frame with infill as before. Two multi-sided timber and glazed garden rooms have been constructed on the landscaped roof terrace. A steel ladder provides access to the rooftop and a tall exposed reinforced concrete framed parapet with red brick infill panels and precast concrete insets equally spaced at four per bay.

Windows throughout are steel casements in timber frames unless otherwise noted. Materials include granite, slate and precast concrete walling, timber, steel and uPVC windows, and cast-iron rainwater goods.

The building is located opposite the listed Northern Whig and the former Arnott's Building, both designed by the same architects for the same clients a few years earlier.