Complete Entertainment Exchange, 36-40 Ann Street, Belfast, Co Antrim, BT1 4EB

Complete Entertainment Exchange

A symmetrical, three-storey, three-bay steel-framed building of the Art Deco movement, built circa 1933 as commercial premises for Montague Burton to the designs of Harry Wilson. The building is located on Ann Street at the corner of Telfair Street in Belfast.

The building is largely rectangular on plan. The primary elevations are clad with faience panels featuring ornate decorative motifs, while a lower three-storey red-brick return faces the rear. The flat roof, of undetermined material, is concealed behind a parapet. The northern portion has stepped faience-clad solid parapets, while the southern end has red-brick parapets. Rainwater goods are concealed, with some uPVC elements and replacement metal downpipes serving the south block. The walling is generally clad in faience panels across the upper floors of the principal elevations; the remainder is red-brick laid in English garden wall bond.

The main façades are embellished with a variety of ornate panels displaying variegated influences including classicism, the zigzags of Cubism, and most notably, a pair of stylized elephant heads. Windows are generally recessed, multi-pane timber-framed arrangements of frosted glass. A panel containing a zigzag motif separates the first and second floors, with a heavily moulded continuous cill course to the first-floor windows.

The principal elevation faces north and is three openings wide. The central windows are flanked by narrow windows on each side. Windows are vertically separated by moulded piers on either side of the centre, which extend from above the fascia and rise to the lintel of the second floor. Each pier is topped by a stylized elephant head. Similar panels with an interlinking zigzag motif flank the outer side of the central windows, linked by a horizontal panel extending across the central bay. This arrangement is surmounted by a blank elongated panel with triangulated motifs to the outer edges, above which is a stepped parapet with decorative motifs to its centre. The ground floor of the main north portion has been entirely converted to commercial use, with aluminium-framed windows, a door, and a modern plastic fascia and signage.

The east elevation has a stepped parapet. The remaining elevation is blank and is abutted by an adjoining building. The south elevation is three storeys of blank red-brick with a recessed section to the far left, with vestiges of a previously abutting building remaining. The west elevation has faience cladding on its left side with a single window on the upper floors, similarly detailed to the principal elevation but without vertical elements. The ground floor is shopped. The remainder is red-brick, some painted, with plain window openings having reconstituted stone lintels (painted) and projecting cills. To the left of centre are two openings wide with irregular window arrangement; to the right are three openings wide. All windows are blocked except those on the second storey.

The building is situated on the southern side at the centre of Ann Street, at the junction of Telfair Street, which was formerly a street but is now a passageway with no through access. It is abutted to the east by a lower three-storey red-brick building, with further three-storey commercial premises sited on the opposite side of Ann Street and Telfair Street.