13-17 Lombard Street, Belfast, BT1 1RB

A four-storey six-bay attached stone-clad Victorian building located on the east side of Lombard Street in central Belfast, built between 1875 and 1878 to designs by Thomas Jackson & Son as a new premises for Patrick McGinnes. The building is now in mixed use.

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

The front facade combines painted masonry and a modern shopfront. Ground floor features Dalbeatie granite door surrounds and columns, while upper floors are clad in ashlar sandstone. The side and rear elevations expose red brick in English garden wall bond. Windows are predominantly painted timber 1/1 sliding sashes on masonry cills, with arched windows at first floor, segmental windows at second floor, and grouped segmental windows at third floor.

The ground floor principal elevation includes the Monico Bars on the left, comprising two square-headed openings with timber fixed six-light transom and mullion windows—the top three with stained and leaded glass—and a shallow Tudor entrance with internal steel roller shutter and stained and leaded overlight over a dentil course. A moulded columns on chamfered plinth separate the openings. An entablature above contains individually raised modern signage lettering in a plain frieze with console brackets at each end and dentilled cornice; a full-length retractable awning sits below. An angled modern painted timber sign with applied lettering is positioned above the entry. The modern Caffe Uno shop front retains Dalbeatie granite panelled pilasters with plain capitals and sandstone console brackets. An office entrance comprises a four-panelled timber door with segmental overlight in a chamfered granite surround.

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 moulded surrounds with projecting keystones and plain friezes above with triglyphs directly over keystones. The elevation is divided by unstep deeply chamfered quoins in the form of pilasters arranged as (2,3,1). The entablature cornice forms a continuous full-width cill course for the first-floor windows.

The second floor has widely spaced windows with moulded surrounds featuring lugged bases and projecting carved scroll keystones on a continuous moulded cill course. The division mirrors the first floor, but with panelled pilasters bearing 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 keystones above each group. Inset granite columns with foliate sandstone capitals separate windows within each group. The division follows the second floor pattern but with plain capitals and scroll bases topped by a dentilled cornice with flat-capped moulded pinnacles above. The cill course, impost string course, and bracketed cornice align with those on the adjoining building to the south (HB26/50/281), designed by the same architect a few years earlier. The main bracketed cornice matches the pattern at 5-11 Lombard Street.

The south elevation is abutted by the adjoining building (HB26/50/281). The north elevation is abutted at ground floor level; the exposed section above is blank with flat parapet, sandstone copings, and two chimneystacks. The rear elevation is abutted at ground floor; the exposed section features projecting stairwell end bays and a red brick English garden wall bond wall with various window openings on each floor.

The building occupies a prominent position on the pedestrianised Lombard Street in central Belfast, adjacent to and north of 5-11 Lombard Street.