Waterman House, 5-23 Hill Street, Belfast, Co Antrim, BT1 2LA

Waterman House, 5–23 Hill Street, Belfast

Waterman House is a street-fronted, attached two-storey former warehouse and whiskey distillery building, purpose-built in 1896–97 for the Old Bushmills Distillery Co. Ltd. It has since been extended and remodelled to serve as offices. Much of the historic fabric survives, with a robust form and confident late 19th century detailing, though this is compromised in places by modern interventions. The building's association with the Old Bushmills Distillery of north County Antrim is of particular note, and it represents an important element of Belfast's mercantile history in the area of the early city. It sits within a conservation area and currently houses the Northern Ireland Environment Agency's Built Heritage division.

Situation and Plan

The building faces west onto Hill Street, a narrow street running from Waring Street to Talbot Street, first recorded on a 1757 map of Belfast as an entry then known as Pott-house Lane, after a pottery shop on the street. By the time of the 1822 map it had taken its present form and character. Waterman House occupies the east side of Hill Street on a rectangular plan, with its principal block aligned north to south. It is extended at the north and east, and a formerly attached building at the south has been demolished. An enclosed yard lies to the rear.

Exterior — Principal (West) Elevation

The walls of the principal elevation are finished in ruled-and-lined painted render. At first floor level a moulded architrave and a continuous ogee-moulded sill course run the full width. The windows throughout are replacement aluminium casements. At ground floor the openings are large, multi-paned and segmentally arched, each with a double ovolo-moulded architrave with plain stop-chamfer and splayed flush sills; at first floor the openings are diminished segmental arches with moulded architraves.

The centre of the ground floor is occupied by a principal entrance: a segmentally arched opening containing a pair of diagonally sheeted timber doors with a glazed segmental arched transom light above, the whole set within a deep reveal with a double ovolo-moulded architrave with plain stop-chamfer. The transom light bears the inscription "WATERMAN / HOUSE / 2–33". The entrance is flanked on each side by two windows. To the left, a segmental carriage arch contains a pair of diagonally sheeted vehicular entrance doors reinforced with steel bracing, giving access beneath the first floor rooms into the enclosed yard to the east. All ground floor openings are surmounted by moulded architraves following the segmental lines of the fenestration.

At first floor, a single window sits above the principal entrance and is flanked by two pairs of windows to the right and three windows to the left. All first floor windows are set centrally within recessed panels, above which runs a Lombardy frieze that supports the eaves and rainwater goods below the parapet.

The roof is pitched and covered in natural slate, with blue and black ridge tiles, lead valleys, and a dentilled eaves course. Rainwater goods are of ogee-profile cast iron. The parapet carries a cavetto-moulded coping to the west, and there is a stone verge at the south. Two chimneys have been removed, and a small pediment that originally sat above the entrance door has also been removed; this pediment bore the inscription "1897 / THE OLD / BUSHMILLS DISTILLERY LTD."

Exterior — North and East Elevations

The north gable is fully abutted by a modern three-storey red-brick extension built around 1990, which is of no architectural interest.

The east elevation is largely concealed by a lower two-storey extension, also dating from around 1895, which abuts all but the carriage arch bay. The walling of this extension is English garden wall bonded brick at first floor and smooth render at ground floor. The exposed first floor section contains eleven square-headed window openings with sandstone heads and masonry sills. The north gable of this extension, facing into the carriage entry, contains a modern electric door to the left and a window to the right. The extension roof is pitched in alignment with the main block and is clad in powder-coated profiled roofing, with a continuous rooflight running the full length of each pitch. The first floor gable facing into the enclosed yard carries various surface-fixed air-conditioning units and pipework. At ground floor the yard-facing gable is smooth rendered and has a large multi-paned door and glazing at the centre.

The east elevation is further extended by a three-storey, square-plan block with a flat roof and parapet, finished in English garden wall bonded red brick, with square-headed aluminium casement windows having sandstone heads and masonry sills, and cast-iron rainwater goods. This extension is of no architectural interest.

Historical Background

The site on which Waterman House stands was previously occupied by a number of minor private dwellings that were demolished in 1872, leaving a large empty plot on the north side of Hill Street for over two decades. The building was completed by 1897. Plans held by the Northern Ireland Environment Agency confirm that the façade and the Hill Street elevation have not been significantly altered in over a century.

When first assessed, the building was valued at £170 and described as "offices and stores" occupied by the Old Bushmills Distillery. The site was leased to Bushmills by a Captain Samuel B. Hamilton of Kilmannock House, County Wexford. By the Belfast Revaluation of 1900 — just three years after completion — the value had risen to £190, with the total construction cost of the new offices recorded as £1,718 and an annual rent of £125 payable by Bushmills.

The 1901 Belfast Street Directory records the Hill Street premises as a subsidiary branch of the Old Bushmills Distillery, Pure Malt Whiskey Distillers of County Antrim. The stores served as a depot for the export of whiskey from Belfast, with goods dispatched to the Bushmills branch in Norfolk Street, London; the building's proximity to Belfast's docks made it an ideal location for this purpose.

The building survived the heavy bombardment of the Belfast docklands during the 1941 Blitz and was subsequently included in the second revaluation of Northern Ireland property. By the end of the revaluation period in 1972, the building's value had risen to £590. The value of the site had already been increased to £390 under the First General Revaluation of Northern Ireland property in 1935.

The Old Bushmills Distillery Co. Ltd. vacated the Hill Street site in 1959, after which the building stood empty and was recorded on the Ordnance Survey map of 1959–60 simply as a "warehouse," still retaining its original rear return at that time. The building was not reoccupied until July 1990, when the Historic Monuments and Buildings Branch of the Department of the Environment took over the property.

Waterman House was listed at Category B in 1982. In 1990, the original building (nos. 3–23 Hill Street) was extended to the north (nos. 25–33) by a modern four-storey extension in beige brick with a central glazed section, carried out by Barrie Todd Architects. The three-storey red-brick extension to the rear is also modern, having replaced the covered yard and small outbuildings that originally lay behind the main block.