'David Alexander Builders' Merchant', 136-210 Tennent Street, Belfast, Co Antrim, BT13 3GG

David Alexander Builders' Merchant

A large and somewhat altered builders' merchant's warehouse, probably dating from around 1910, located on the west side of Tennent Street off Shankill Road, northwest of Belfast city centre. The building may originally have comprised two separate properties. It features a painted brick and render façade and a Belfast Truss roof—a large and increasingly rare example of this construction type, though bearing signs of considerable alteration.

The building has a long rectangular plan measuring approximately 52 metres by 14 metres and is entered via a large vehicle doorway on the east elevation of the neighbouring building to the north, with which it is internally integrated. Only the long east elevation is visible from the street. This elevation is rendered and painted in a mixture of brick and render. To the left-hand side are the outlines of what were once tall segmental-headed window openings, now completely blocked up. The centre and right-hand section contains ten tall semicircular-headed windows with mullioned and transomed frames glazed only within the arched portion at the top of each window. Internal evidence shows that the lower third of all windows is in fact blocked up behind the frames. The variation in the shape of the window openings suggests the building was originally two separate properties. The elevation has a deep rendered eaves course. Only a small upper portion of the south gable remains visible, constructed in a mixture of red brick and concrete breeze-block-type bricks with timber cladding to the gable area itself. The rear elevation was not accessible for survey.

The curved roof is covered in corrugated metal over at least the southern half; the northern half could not be seen, but internal evidence suggests it is also in corrugated metal. A long central roof light with corrugated Perspex is evident from inside. A noticeable join in the roof reinforces evidence that this building was once two separate properties.

The Belfast Truss, developed in the mid-nineteenth century, was created to meet the demand for efficient, lightweight, and long-span roofs brought about by the Industrial Revolution. The first known reference to a curved wooden felted roof structure supported by bowstring girders appears in an 1866 advertisement in the Dublin Builder by the Belfast firm of felt-makers McTear & Co., which continued producing trusses until going out of business in 1908. A second Belfast felt supplier, Anderson & Co., began producing trusses to a slightly different design in 1886. In 1896, Anderson's launched their Mark II version, promoted as maximising long spans while maintaining light weight. This model was subsequently used by other companies and is referred to by historians as the Belfast Truss, although the term is widely applied to all timber bowstring trusses where the internal bracing members meet not on the bottom of the truss as was conventional, but on the top curved member.