Transport House, 102 High Street, Belfast, Co Antrim, BT1 3ET

Transport House

A freestanding multi-storey modernist office building built around 1959 to designs by J.J. Brennan in the International Style. The building is wedge-shaped on plan and comprises two co-joined blocks of frame construction: one five storeys in height and one seven storeys, largely clad in green faience tiles. The seven-storey block projects and is supported at the south end by pilotis. The building has a flat concrete roof edged in concrete coping, with a boiler house located on the roof and aluminium downpipes.

The principal south and east elevations are clad in green faience tiles embedded in red mortar over a recessed white tiled ground floor and rock-faced granite plinth. The north elevation has a brown brick base beneath a cast concrete string course, with upper storeys clad in concrete cladding panels with exposed aggregate, framed at either side by three vertical courses of green tiles. The west elevation is entirely of brown brick. Metal framed glazing is used throughout with cast concrete cills, detailed appropriately to each elevation.

The principal south-facing elevation is split level. The narrower seven-storey block at left has a slightly concave profile and is supported on two circular pilotis clad in black glazed tiles over a mosaic base. This block bears a full-height tiled mural in Russian Constructivist style depicting the industries of Ulster – planes, cranes, a ship, a factory, and a group of workers. A concrete canopy is cantilevered over the entrance, which comprises a recessed porch addressed by three steps wrapping around the building at the south-east corner, supported on three further columns to the east. The interior of the porch is clad in white glazed tiling and bears a black polished granite foundation plaque at left inscribed with the date 1958. Above the entrance, each floor of the five-storey section is lit by a panel of curtain glazing divided by full-height cast concrete mullions and having black apron panelling between floors. Lettering is applied to the elevation: replacement lettering to the top reading 'Unite the Union', and original lettering arranged vertically to the right side reading 'Transport House'. The projecting seven-storey section contains the stairwell, lit to the right cheek by a full-height glazed opening with staggered lights arranged in three vertical strips.

The west elevation has similar detailing. The section containing the stairwell has a full-height glazed opening opposite, with green-tiled wall to the extreme right terminating at an oblique angle. The southernmost section rises to seven storeys; the stairwell and top two storeys of the remaining seven-storey section are tiled and contain services. This section has irregular fenestration generally comprising wide horizontal windows to all levels. The remainder of the elevation is of five storeys, with the top three storeys lit by a panel of glazed curtain walling as before. The first and ground floor have a series of windows divided by brick mullions. To the extreme left is a full-height stairwell light as on the east elevation.

The north elevation is narrower and is lit to the centre by a single full-height glazed strip lighting the north stairwell. The east elevation is dominated by a large glazed curtain walling panel, slightly recessed into the face of the wall with a narrow drip mould over, lighting floors one to four, with full-height concrete mullions between lights. The ground floor has a porch at either end, with the ground floor between lit by a long horizontal glazed strip, each window having four lights divided by a concrete mullion. The porch at left is as described for the south elevation; that to the right is also supported on a black tiled column at the north-east corner.

The building is located on a tight corner site at the junction of Victoria Street and High Street, in a busy urban location east of the city centre. Opposite to the south is St George's Church and to the east is the Albert Memorial Clock.