Malcolm Jewellers, 16-18 Chichester Street, Belfast, County Antrim, BT1 4LB

Malcolm Jewellers, 16–18 Chichester Street, Belfast

This four-storey corner building at the junction of Chichester Street and Arthur Street was designed by Thomas J. Houston and constructed in 1906. It holds the distinction of being the first steel-framed building erected in Belfast. Although its original Elizabethan-style upper façade has been lost, the ground-floor Art Nouveau shopfront survives as a rare example of an Edwardian shopfront in the city, and the building as a whole reflects the ongoing development of commercial life in Belfast city centre during the early 20th century.

Architecture and Exterior

The building is constructed in brick and reclad on its upper floors in rustic brick, with a pitched roof over part of the structure covered in Bangor blue slates with blue clay ridges and squat wallhead chimneys in matching rustic brick. A former courtyard at the north-west corner has been roofed over to form a staircase, though this roof is not visible from outside. Windows throughout the upper floors are generally metal casement units set in concrete frames.

The front elevation to Chichester Street faces south. The upper three floors are finished in stretcher-bond rustic brick with vertical soldier courses over individual windows. The first, second and third floors share a consistent arrangement: a window with transom and mullion, followed by a blank bay, then three three-light metal casement windows with opening top lights set in a concrete frame with a projecting cill; a further blank bay leads to another three-light window on the curved corner turning onto Arthur Street. A projecting eaves and cornice above the ground-floor shopfront marks the boundary between this restrained upper section and the exuberant shopfront below.

The shopfront is in an entirely different and far more decorative style, featuring Art Nouveau ornament including vertical rods in the fanlights over the doors and pilasters in the manner of Charles Rennie Mackintosh. It is divided by vertical columns clad in black glazed brick with bases and baroque shields used as capitals, one of which incorporates the rainwater downpipes. The door at the west end has an Art Nouveau fanlight and an undulating lintel carrying the legend "Chichester Buildings" in condensed Roman lettering. The double doors in this opening incorporate further decorative detailing along with more conventional panels, though they appear to be replacements. The main double doors at the centre of the elevation — also modern replacements, as the doorcase originally had deep reveals leading to a recessed single door — are glazed with baroque main panels and triple upper glazed panels; the doorcase itself has a convex broken pediment supporting a large clock face bearing the name Fred J. Malcolm. Black granite stall risers and modern glazing to the shop windows incorporate etched upper panels.

The elevation to Arthur Street is similar in character to the Chichester Street front, with three equally spaced windows to the upper floors and two pilasters between the end brick pilasters at the curved corner and the end of the building.

Roof covering is slate; walls are brick; windows are steel; rainwater goods are cast metal.

Architectural Character and Authorship

Thomas J. Houston (1873–1938) was a Belfast-based architect born in Coleraine who served his apprenticeship with Young & Mackenzie, the principal commercial architectural firm of the late Victorian and Edwardian period. He established his own independent practice in 1901, taking on commissions for hospitals, churches and commercial premises, though he is best known as a domestic architect who designed a large number of houses in the Malone Road area of south Belfast in an Arts and Crafts style. In his early career Houston was a student of English architecture while also embracing the emerging aesthetic of Art Nouveau. Nos 16–18 Chichester Street, one of his earliest independent works, reflects both interests: the surviving Art Nouveau shopfront at ground level originally contrasted with an Elizabethan-style façade on the upper floors.

History and Occupancy

Upon completion in 1906, the building was valued at £368 10s. and leased by Mr Reuben Payne, recorded in the 1907 Belfast Street Directory as a merchant and ladies' tailor, who also operated from Payne's Buildings at nos 2–4 Chichester Street and owned a number of plots along the rest of the street. The building was divided between a ground-floor shop (individually valued at £185) and upper-floor offices (collectively valued at £183 10s.), which were occupied by several different tenants. The shop stood vacant in 1907 but by 1908 had been taken by J. B. Ferguson Ltd., automobile engineers. Contemporary photographs from the Edwardian period, when Ferguson occupied the ground floor, show that the upper three floors then presented a distinctly Elizabethan appearance.

J. B. Ferguson continued in occupation until around 1913, when Charles Hardy, a musical instruments merchant, took over the premises. Hardy vacated around 1925, at which point Frederick J. Malcolm Ltd. took over the ground-floor retail unit and converted it into a jeweller's shop. By the end of the Annual Revisions — cancelled in 1930 — the building's value stood at approximately £319 10s. Under the First General Revaluation of property in Northern Ireland, carried out in 1935, this was substantially increased to £621 10s.

The building escaped damage during the 1941 Belfast Blitz, which caused widespread destruction to neighbouring buildings including a direct hit on Belfast City Hall. Malcolm's Jewellers continued to trade throughout, and the 1943 Belfast Street Directory describes the company as "Fred. J. Malcolm Ltd., Diamond Merchants, Goldsmiths and Silversmiths." The second general revaluation, conducted in the mid-1950s, increased the total assessed value of the building to £1,201 10s. (£640 for the ground-floor shop and £561 10s. for the upper offices), a value that remained unchanged through to the end of the revaluation period in 1972.

Alterations

The original Elizabethan-style façade to the upper three floors has been replaced entirely with the current dark rustic brick cladding. Photographic evidence shows the original façade was still in place during and immediately after the Second World War, so the reclad cannot have occurred before 1945; it was certainly complete by the time Paul Larmour was writing in 1987, possibly connected with damage sustained during the Northern Ireland Troubles. This alteration also resulted in the loss of the original Jacobethan chimneys. Despite this change, the reclad in rustic brick may itself reflect a period shift in architectural fashion and is noted as having some interest on that account. The main entrance doors are modern replacements, as noted above, and the doorcase originally had deep reveals leading to a recessed single door rather than the current arrangement.

Setting

Before the upper floors were reclad, the building would have been visually echoed at the other end of its terrace by the curved corner and gables of Payne's Buildings at no. 2. The building now occupies a city-centre corner site surrounded by buildings of various ages and styles.