Head Line Building, 10-14 Victoria Street, Belfast, Co Antrim, BT1 3GG

Head Line Building, 10–14 Victoria Street, Belfast

This is an attached, symmetrical, multi-bay, three-storey-over-basement office building with an attic storey, built around 1863 to the designs of architect Thomas Jackson for the Scottish Amicable Life Assurance Company. It is constructed in sandstone and brick in the Italianate style — described at the time as "modern Italian" and inspired by the Venetian Renaissance palazzo. Square on plan, it faces west onto Victoria Street, with a full-height shallow entrance breakfront projecting from the centre of the facade and curved corner bays. It was the first purpose-built insurance office in Belfast.

The building was constructed of Dungannon sandstone by contractors Messrs John Lowry & Son of Great George's Street at a cost of between £12,000 and £14,000. The floors and stairs were built on the "fireproof principle". The central portion was designed for the insurance company's own use — offices, boardrooms and a medical examination room — while the basement was partly fitted out as strong rooms and partly let for storage. Additional offices and warerooms for letting were arranged at the sides and rear, accessed from the corners of the main front and from the side streets. The building first appears on the second edition Ordnance Survey town plan of Belfast, dated 1871–3.

The hipped natural slate roof has two central valleys running perpendicular to the front elevation. Several yellow brick chimneystacks with machicolated stone coping and clay pots rise from the roof, which is hidden behind a sandstone parapet set above a crown cornice supported on decorative console brackets over a plain frieze and corbelled architrave. Rainwater goods are concealed.

The front elevation is faced in sandstone ashlar. The side elevations are yellow brick with sandstone dressings. All elevations are set on a tooled limestone ashlar plinth course that rises to first-floor sill level, with part of the basement exposed. Continuous moulded courses frame each floor.

The symmetrical west front elevation is five windows wide. Window openings are round-headed and segmental-headed with decoratively carved surrounds, apron panels, and single-pane timber sash windows throughout.

At second-floor level, round-headed window openings have moulded archivolts and keystones rising from slender Ionic columns resting on stepped sills with pierced apron panels. This arrangement is repeated in the curved windows of the corner bays. The central triple-light window has a continuous archivolt with scalloped keystones rising from slender Ionic colonettes on squat plinth blocks, forming a balcony with pierced stone panels supported on elaborate paired console brackets. All second-floor openings are flanked by paired pilasters — Composite to the breakfront, Doric elsewhere.

At first-floor level, segmental-headed window openings have stilted architrave heads with cartouche keystones rising from engaged Doric pilasters on stepped sills with pierced aprons, and are flanked by rusticated pilasters to the end and corner bays. The central window is a Venetian opening with an embellished entablature, impost moulding, and a continuous hood moulding with a foliate enriched head, flanked by rope-moulded blind roundels and resting on a stepped sill with pierced aprons. To either side of the Venetian window are round-headed openings with enriched heads and pierced aprons, all flanked by Doric pilasters with a central fillet.

At ground-floor level, segmental-headed window openings are detailed as per the first floor, with foliate enriched keystones and foliate apron panels, flanked by rusticated pilasters with a dentilled course below a continuous platband. The corner bays have round-headed window openings with foliate enriched keystones, stepped lintels supported on polished granite Ionic columns, and decorative aprons. Round-headed window openings also flank the principal entrance, with a fluted entablature spanning the entire breakfront.

The principal entrance is a deeply set round-headed door opening with a compound moulded archivolt supported on pairs of polished granite Composite columns rising from the plinth course, surmounted by an elaborate carved coat of arms with unicorns. The double-leaf hardwood doors have diamond-faced panels and bolection mouldings below a foliate enriched lintel cornice, a plain semi-circular fanlight, and stone steps with mosaic risers. Shouldered basement lights are set within the limestone plinth course with iron grilles.

The north side elevation onto Waring Street is five windows wide. The upper floors are yellow brick, with all windows framed by pilasters — yellow brick to the upper floors and rusticated sandstone to the ground floor. Round-headed window openings to the second floor have archivolts and keystones rising from Ionic pilasters and resting on pierced aprons. Stilted segmental-headed window openings to the first and ground floors rise from Doric pilasters on stepped sills with pierced aprons, with foliate enriched apron panels at ground-floor level. A deeply set round-headed door opening to the left has an archivolt with an enriched keystone rising from impost blocks and polished granite Composite columns on a limestone plinth course. The double-leaf hardwood doors have foliate bolection mouldings and diamond-faced panels, with a semi-circular fanlight, opening onto four concrete steps.

The south side elevation onto Ulster Street is five windows wide and is detailed in the same manner as the north elevation. The former door opening here now serves as a window but retains a similar surround. To the right, a window opening has been adapted to accommodate a vehicular entrance to the basement, fitted with a sandstone surround and steel roller shutter. The rear elevation is red brick and is abutted by an eight-storey apartment development.

The building was severely bomb damaged in 1976. It subsequently entered the ownership of a development company by around the year 2000, when it was refurbished and renovated to designs by Alan Cook Architects. In the course of this work the central light-well was floored over, basement parking for nine cars was provided, floor levels were raised by 37 centimetres to accommodate computer services and air conditioning, and a new lift and staircase were installed. The impressive central dome was reinstated as part of this refurbishment, and much of the original detailing throughout the building survives.

The building entered valuation records in 1864 as the Scottish Amicable Society's Buildings, valued at £230 in total. Stores and offices were let to a number of firms, and the Plymouth Brethren used a meeting room on the third floor. By 1877 the tenants included William Carson, solicitor; J C Pinkerton, Italian consul, steamship and insurance agent; solicitors; insurance agents; the Vice French Consul; John Milligen, agent for the Gauchalland Coal Company; Finlay & Co, American produce merchants; John McConnell Higginson, registrar of the Court of Probate; the office of the Belfast training ship Gibraltar; and Samuel P Close, architect.

Shipping agents, who were frequently also marine insurance agents, occupied parts of the building from the outset. Around 1920, G Heyn and Sons Ltd — managers of the Ulster Steamship Company and owners of the Head Line and Lord Line steamers, from whom the building takes its current name — took over the building entirely. The Ulster Steamship Company had been founded by the family of the Chevalier Gustavus Heyn, who came to Belfast from Danzig, became a shipping and marine insurance agent, and married into the Pirrie family. In 1879 the steamer Fair Head was built for the company by Harland and Wolff; later vessels included Fanad Head, Ramore Head, Rathlin Head, and Carrigan Head. The Head Line ships operated between Belfast and the Baltic ports, as well as to Canada, New Orleans, and Galveston, while the Lord Line steamers ran to Baltimore. Several vessels were lost in both World Wars, including the Fair Head, which was bombed during air raids in Belfast Harbour, killing two firewatchers. Competition from air travel and containerisation led to the sale of the last Head Line vessel in 1979, though the company appears to have retained ownership of the building for some years afterwards.

The building fronts directly onto Victoria Street, with its north side elevation fronting onto Waring Street and its south side elevation fronting onto Ulster Street.