NORTH ST. ARCADE, (1-34 NORTH ST. ARCADE, 26-30 DONEGALL ST., 35-37 NORTH ST.), BELFAST

North Street Arcade, Belfast

This arcade building complex runs between North Street and Donegall Street, comprising two principal structures: a three-storey Art Deco building facing Donegall Street, designed by Cowser and Smyth and built in 1936, and a three-storey Victorian building with attic facing North Street. The arcade itself connects the two streets. The complex was severely damaged by fire in 2004.

The Donegall Street elevation presents a flat roof concealed behind a parapet with rainwater goods hidden from view. The walls are constructed in reconstructed ashlar stone with projecting string courses at parapet and second floor levels, beneath which are decorative roundel motifs. The ground floor is faced in grey marble. Second floor windows have flat lintels with fluted uprights set into slightly recessed openings; ground and first floor windows also have flat lintels, with the small north window framed top and bottom by a floral motif. All windows are metal-framed.

The northeast elevation is generally symmetrical around a two-storey canopied entrance. The diminished second floor contains five square single-paned windows on either side of three blank windows, the central one rectangular in form. The first floor features horizontal windows with large panes and small top-hung lights flanking the central entranceway; to the left (south) the horizontal band extends with three further windows divided by piers, while to the north a small window is obscured by a geometric metal grille and mesh. The central entrance has grey marble extending up its sides to the underside of a flat copper-faced canopy with straight brackets and a damaged geometric motif to the soffit. A figuratively sculpted relief stone panel, taken from the Brookfield Linen Company warehouse originally on this site, sits within slate panels over the open entrance, now blocked by metal frame and blockwork. The main ground floor windows are flanked by doors, all currently boarded up, with single-pane square windows above them obscured by geometric metal grilles. Vertical plastic signs project either side of the entranceway below the canopy. The south elevation is abutted by another building (HB26/50/287), the west elevation forms the arcade, and the north elevation is adjoined by a modern structure.

The North Street building features a hipped slate roof, now derelict, with a damaged timber-framed window flanked by pedimented dormers. Chimneys sit on each gable. The walls are brick in Flemish bond with red sandstone dressings including dormer pediments, oculi, pilasters and flanking volutes. A moulded and dentilled cornice and frieze runs at eaves level with bands within the second floor brickwork. Below second floor cill level the walls have been rendered. All windows have flat lintels. The only unboarded second floor window is a two-pane 1/1 timber sash; first floor windows are badly damaged timber casements with timber coffered splayed reveals. A central two-storey entranceway has infill boarding with a fire-damaged plastic domed canopy; all ground floor windows and doors are shuttered. The south elevation is six windows wide, with the side sections of two windows under the dormers projecting slightly at second floor level. The west elevation is blank, rendered to cornice level and brick above, with evidence of a previous pitch-roofed building abutting. The north elevation forms the arcade.

The north entrance of North Street Arcade sits on the west side of Donegall Street adjacent to HB26/50/287. Across the road are numerous small passageways and lanes with listed buildings HB26/50/059 and HB26/50/220 nearby; slightly further north stands St. Ann's Cathedral (HB26/50/027).