13-17 Lombard Street, Belfast, BT1 1RB

13-17 Lombard Street, Belfast

An attached four-storey six-bay Victorian stone-clad building erected between 1875 and 1878 to designs by Thomas Jackson & Son as new premises for Patrick McGinnes. The building is located on the east side of the pedestrianised Lombard Street in the centre of Belfast, adjacent to and north of 5-11 Lombard Street (which was constructed a few years earlier to designs by the same architect). It represents a good and intact example of the type of commercial building that is becoming increasingly rare in the city, and has group value with its neighbouring building to the south.

The building is U-shaped on plan, facing east. The pitched natural slate roof features a flat lead section at the ridge and six chimneystacks at various positions. Those to the front are sandstone; those on the north wall are part sandstone with upper sections in blue and grey brick; those to the rear are red brick. All have sandstone copings and various fired clay chimney pots, plain and decorative. Parapet gutters are fitted with circular cast-iron downpipes.

The front facade walling comprises part painted masonry with a modern shopfront featuring Dalbeatie granite door surrounds and columns at ground floor level, and ashlar sandstone to the upper floors. The side and rear elevations expose red brick in English garden wall bond. The facade displays evenly spaced arched windows at first floor level, evenly spaced segmental windows at second floor level, and grouped segmental windows at third floor level. Windows throughout are painted timber 1/1 sliding sashes on masonry cills except where otherwise noted.

The principal (west) elevation at ground floor contains Monico Bars to the left, an off-centred passageway leading to Winecellar Entry, a modern shop front of plate glass to the right, and an entrance to the upper floors beside the latter. The Monico Bars frontage comprises two square-headed openings with timber fixed six-light transom and mullion windows, the top three lights featuring stained and leaded glass, to the left; a shallow Tudor entrance with internal steel roller shutter and stained and leaded overlight over a dentil course to the right. The openings are separated by moulded columns on a chamfered plinth. The entablature above contains individually raised modern signage lettering in a plain frieze with console brackets at each end and a dentilled cornice above, with a full-length retractable awning below. The modern Caffé Uno shop front, with projecting sign and retractable awning, retains Dalbeatie granite panelled pilasters with plain capitals and sandstone console brackets over on either side. An office entrance comprises a four-panelled timber door with segmental overlight within a chamfered granite door surround. The cornice of the entablature above forms a continuous full-width cill course for the first-floor windows.

The first floor features widely spaced arched windows with a moulded plinth course between them and an ornately carved string course at impost level. The arches have a moulded surround with projecting keystone and plain frieze above with triglyphs directly over the keystones. The elevation is divided by unstep deep chamfered quoins in the form of pilasters, arranged as 2, 3, 1.

The second floor has widely spaced windows with moulded window surrounds featuring lugged bases and projecting carved scroll keystones, all on a continuous moulded cill course. The division follows the pattern of the first floor, with panelled pilasters featuring foliate capitals and a bracketed cornice above forming a continuous cill course for the third-floor windows.

The third floor windows are grouped 3, 5, 1, with continuous drip moulding and projecting carved scroll keystone over each group. Inset granite columns with foliate sandstone capitals separate windows within each group. The division follows the second-floor pattern, with plain capitals and scroll base surmounted by a dentilled cornice with flat capped moulded pinnacles above. The cill course, impost string course, and bracketed cornice align at the same level as those on the adjoining building to the south, which was designed by the same architect. The main bracketed cornice is also of the same pattern as that at 5-11 Lombard Street.

The south elevation is abutted by the adjoining building. The north elevation is abutted by an adjoining building at ground floor level, with an exposed section above featuring a blank wall, flat parapet, sandstone copings, and two chimneystacks. The rear (east) elevation is abutted at ground floor by an adjoining building, with the exposed section above having projecting stairwell end bays and various window openings at each floor level in the red brick English garden wall bond rear wall.

Most of the interior survives, including the original safes, demonstrating the quality of the fitout for this commercial premises. The building is notable as an example of the minor works of Thomas Jackson, a recognised architect involved with many significant buildings in Belfast.

The building was erected shortly after the construction of Lombard Street itself, which was laid out in the 1870s to join Castle Place and Rosemary Street, replacing "two old tumble-down entries", Leggs Lane and Caddells Entry. These entries appear on the First and Second Edition Ordnance Survey Maps, but Lombard Street and the building first appear on the Third Edition Ordnance Survey Map. The building was not listed in the Ulster Street Directory for Belfast in 1877, indicating it was still under construction. By 1880, No. 13 was occupied by McMordie, H. & R. J., solicitors (first floor), White, John C., solicitor, Baxter, Wm., solicitor, and Darbishire, Jas. M., insurance and commission agent (second floor). No. 17 was recorded as being occupied by Boucher & Thompson, family grocers and wine and spirit merchants, known as The Monico by 1901. The Ulster Society of Architects had their offices at No. 13 in 1910. The building is currently in mixed use.