17-21 Castle Place, Belfast, Co Antrim, BT1 1EL

17-21 Castle Place is an attached single-bay, three-storey red brick Victorian commercial building with an attic storey, built around 1867 to designs by the Belfast architect William Hastings (1814–1892). A polished granite shopfront was inserted to the ground floor around 1917 to designs by the Liverpool architect W. Eccles. Although the building has been extensively remodelled, much historic fabric survives, and it remains one of the very few 19th-century structures still standing on Castle Place. Its highly decorative façade and layered history make it an important record of commercial development in Belfast city centre.

Architectural Description

The building is irregular on plan with a three-storey brick return, facing south onto Castle Place. The roof is a mansard form clad in natural slate with roll-moulded clay ridge tiles and a single decorative profiled brick and rendered chimneystack to the raised east gable. Pedimented dormer windows to the front pitch are flanked by decorative finials with ornamental tympanums and single-pane timber sash windows. Replacement steel box guttering and square-profile iron rainwater goods are supported on sandstone eaves, which in turn sit on a series of decorative corbels forming a full-span frieze punctuated by foliate blocks supported by scrolled console brackets.

The walls are red brick laid in Flemish bond. Window openings are deeply recessed and formed in gauged brick: segmental-headed at second-floor level and round-headed at first-floor level, with bipartite timber casement windows and fixed-pane overlights throughout. The south front elevation is five windows wide with continuous hood mouldings rising from decorative foliate impost mouldings. The second-floor windows have stepped heads and reveals over blind apron balustrades with interlacing carvings. The first-floor windows have stepped reveals, decorative keystones, and polished granite balustrades flanked by squat piers resting on the shopfront cornice.

The ground-floor shopfront, inserted around 1917, comprises three central square-headed window openings with replacement fixed-pane glazing, flanked by Doric pilasters with apron panels and decorative bronze sill guards. The pilasters support a full-span fascia and cornice with mutules. To the left is a square-headed door opening with a replacement aluminium glazed entrance screen, an architrave surround, and a pediment supported on concave console brackets.

The west side elevation is abutted by an adjoining infill building, as is the east side elevation. The rear elevation is abutted by the three-storey red brick return.

Historical Background

The building was constructed in 1867 on a site formerly occupied by three separate properties. The Irish Builder records that it was designed by William Hastings, who served as Surveyor of Works for Belfast between 1849 and 1857 before operating a private practice for the rest of his career. He designed a number of commercial buildings in Belfast city centre and was also responsible for the mannerist design of No. 3 Donegall Street. The builders contracted to realise Hastings's Renaissance-style design were Fitzpatrick Bros. The building was constructed for a Mr Charles Thompson, a local cook who had previously managed a restaurant from the earlier No. 19 Castle Place. On completion, the building was valued at £355 in the Annual Revisions.

The ground floor was originally divided into two retail units. Nos 17–19, which also included the upper floors, was the easternmost unit and was occupied by Cramer & Co., a pianoforte, harmonium, and music company. No. 21 referred only to the ground-floor western shop, which was occupied by J. Braddell & Son, a local gunsmith. The Belfast Street Directories described J. Braddell & Son as makers of improved barlock and other breech-loading guns, patent long-range rifles, revolving pistols, and air canes — a walking cane that doubled as an air-powered firearm — as well as sellers of fishing tackle and preferred gunsmiths to the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland.

Around 1880, the Belfast Revaluation records that the building was partially rebuilt following minor fire damage. Both Cramer & Co. and J. Braddell & Son continued to occupy the building after the works, and the rateable value was increased to £460. It is likely that the mansard dormers, noted by historian Marcus Patton as replacing an original iron parapet of around 1890, were actually added during this post-fire rebuilding. Patton described the building as a "three-storey redbrick building with mansard dormers and idiosyncratic sandstone detailing, including varied keystones to first-floor windows and capitals between the second-floor windows supporting corbels to the main cornice; dormers have strapwork apexes and side piers with newel-like tops."

Around 1913, Cramer Wood & Co. (successors to Cramer & Co.) vacated nos 17–19. No. 21 similarly fell vacant shortly afterwards due to the outbreak of the First World War and a sharp decline in domestic demand for firearms. During the war the vacant building was converted into a rest home for wounded sailors and soldiers, operated as a voluntary charitable organisation by Lady McCullagh, wife of Sir Crawford McCullagh, who served as Lord Mayor of Belfast for much of the war.

Before the end of the First World War, nos 17–21 were acquired by the Belfast Estate Company, who commissioned W. Eccles of Liverpool to carry out conversion works in 1917. These alterations unified the two original ground-floor shopfronts into a single commercial unit, converted the upper floors into office space, and added the polished granite balustrades to the first-floor windows. Following the war, the ground floor was occupied by the London City and Midland Bank, while the upper offices were leased to W. F. Coates & Co. (stock and share brokers and insurance agents) and Watt, Tulloch & Fitzsimons, an architectural practice which used the building as their head office. The total rateable value had risen to £1,085 by the mid-1920s.

In 1932 the London City and Midland Bank vacated and the ground floor and second-floor offices were taken over by the Belfast Banking Co. By 1935 the First General Revaluation of Northern Ireland noted that Watt, Tulloch & Fitzsimons had left, with Corry & Henderson, an accountancy firm, taking over the vacant offices. The total value was increased to £1,347. The building survived the heavy bombardment of central Belfast during the 1941 Blitz, which destroyed many neighbouring properties.

By the time of the second general revaluation, commencing in 1956, all tenants other than the Belfast Banking Co. had vacated the upper offices, and the building was valued at £2,250, later reduced to £1,584 following appeals by the end of the revaluation period in 1972. Around 1990, the ground-floor retail unit was occupied by the Woolwich Equitable Building Society; in more recent years it has been occupied by Barclays Bank.

Setting and Wider Context

The building is located on the north side of Castle Place, to the east of the junction of Donegall Place and Royal Avenue. Castle Place was originally part of High Street; a 1685 map of Belfast shows that it ran along the original course of the River Farset. Belfast Castle, burned down in 1708, stood on the south side of the river and gave its name to the surrounding streets, lanes, and entries. By 1791 the western portion of High Street was known as Grand Parade, a thoroughfare used for military processions — in the late 18th century the Volunteers marched through it as part of their Bastille Day celebrations. The street was not renamed Castle Place until the early 19th century. Described by Marcus Patton as "the hub of Victorian Belfast," Castle Place was extensively demolished and redeveloped during the 20th century. Nos 17–21 is one of only two surviving 19th-century commercial buildings on the street, the other being nos 20–22 Castle Place. The building was listed in 1979.