25-27 Donegall Place, Belfast, Co Antrim, BT1 5AB

25–27 Donegall Place is a terraced three-storey stucco-fronted former house, built around 1790, with a replacement shopfront inserted to the ground floor. It is rectangular on plan, facing east onto Donegall Place.

This building is the sole surviving structure of the Georgian period on Donegall Place. Every other building along the street dates from the late Victorian period — the only partial exception being the slender two-bay No. 12, a fragment of the much larger Castle Buildings constructed in 1846 and mostly demolished around 1986. Nos 25–27 was originally part of a terrace of three similar houses constructed around 1790, believed to have been built by Roger Mulholland (c.1740–1818), a Belfast-based architect who enjoyed the patronage of the 5th Earl of Donegall. During the 1780s and 1790s Mulholland developed the streets around St Anne's Church whilst leasing ground and constructing his own properties, of which this building is an example. He is also believed to have been the likely architect of the White Linen Hall and designed the First Presbyterian Church in Rosemary Street. According to Brett, Mulholland's terrace on Donegall Place was much plainer in design than his other known work: "none of them displayed the elegant fanlights, porticoes or commanded high rents."

The plot was leased from the 5th Earl of Donegall in 1786 by a Mr William Stewart, who had the building constructed shortly afterwards. The street itself — originally known as Linen Hall Street — was laid out in the 1780s to provide a link from the original 17th-century centre of the town to the White Linen Hall, erected in 1783–85. It was renamed Donegall Place around 1810 when the surrounding area was rechristened Donegall Square in honour of the Second Marquis of Donegall. At the time of construction, Donegall Place stood at the very edge of Belfast and consisted mainly of private dwellings occupied by the town's leading citizens. The street itself occupies the site of Belfast Castle's former gardens, the castle having been destroyed in 1708.

By the 1830s, the Townland Valuations recorded a house at No. 9 Donegall Place (as it was then numbered) valued at £161 and occupied by a Mr John Sinclair, a local merchant, though it is more likely that the building at that time was one of nos 3–7 Donegall Place, similarly valued between £74 and £94. By 1852 the building was no longer a private dwelling: it was occupied by Moses Staunton, who operated a wholesale wallpaper, carpet, damask and furniture warehouse from the ground floor, with the upper floors used as office space by William Benn, a commission agent, and Robert and Alfred Cassidy, local solicitors. By 1860, Griffith's Valuation recorded that Staunton had purchased the lease; the building was then valued at £75, with Richard Staunton running the warehouse and Charles Coates, a merchant, occupying an upper-floor office. By 1868, the upper floors were occupied by Samuel McLorn and Co., shirt manufacturers, and Robert Carswell, a bookbinder and account book manufacturer, the building's value having risen to £90. By 1877 Carswell had expanded to occupy the entire building, operating as a wholesale stationer, bookbinder, account book manufacturer, lithographer, engraver, paper bag manufacturer and printer.

Around 1889 the building was purchased by a Mr William Wallace, under whom the current Victorian features were added to the façade — including the pediments over entablatures, fillets and central rosettes — resulting in a rise in rateable value to £240. In 1889 Carswell was replaced by Lowry and Co., silk merchants and fur manufacturers. By 1900 the Belfast Revaluation more than doubled the building's value to £575; the valuer noted that the building was installed with electric light and consisted of seven office rooms and two attic spaces. In 1912 the building was converted into a restaurant known as the Carlton Café and Restaurant by F. W. Henry, its managing director; the café extended back to include nos 30–32 Fountain Street to the rear, and the conversion raised the value further to £790. In 1927 a stained-glass canopy was added to the façade, valued at £3 5s; by 1930 the total value of the property had risen to £911 5s. The 1935 First General Revaluation of property in Northern Ireland set the rateable value at £1,892 10s. By the 1950s the Carlton Café had vacated and Saxone Shoes and Co. Ltd had taken possession, installing a modern shopfront and removing the stained-glass canopy. The shoe store, later renamed Freeman, Hardy and Willis, continued to operate from the premises until at least 1976, when the upper floors were advertised to let. The building was listed in 1979. By 1993 it had been taken over by Trueform and at the time of assessment was occupied by Oasis, a clothing retailer.

The building is recorded as currently derelict and lies within a conservation area.

Architecturally, the building presents a pitched natural slate roof with moulded cast-iron guttering to a dentilled eaves course, and cast-iron box hopper and downpipe. The walls are painted rendered masonry with a string course over the second floor and a single console bracket to the north. Window openings are square-headed with architrave surrounds, painted masonry sills and single-pane timber sash windows. The east front elevation is three windows wide, with a continuous sill course to the second floor and decorative heads to the first-floor windows only: fluted friezes with central rosettes surmounted by pediments — triangular to the central window and segmental to the outer windows. A stone-clad glazed shopfront was inserted around 2000, with a square-headed door opening to the right containing an aluminium glazed door providing access to the upper floors. The south side elevation abuts the adjoining building, and the rear elevation is abutted by a full-height flat-roofed rendered extension. The north side elevation abuts an adjoining commercial building.

The building sits on the west side of Donegall Place, forming part of a terrace of commercial buildings of varying heights and dates. To the rear of the site stands an early 20th-century industrial red brick building, now occupied by Queens Arcade. Although the original interior fabric and detailing have been lost, the Georgian façade with its Victorian alterations — the stuccoed render dating from the late 19th century — retains much historic character. As one of the few smaller commercial premises surviving on this street, and as the last remnant of the Georgian streetscape that once characterised Donegall Place, it is of considerable local architectural and historical interest.