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

North Street Arcade is a shopping arcade running between Donegall Street and North Street in Belfast, built in 1936 to designs by the Belfast architectural partnership of Cowser and Smyth (Benjamin Cowser, 1897–1981, and Valentine Smyth, active 1930s–1960s), with construction carried out by F. B. McKee and Co. The arcade was one of the first major commissions for the partnership, which had been formed in 1935. It is an interesting example of a modern interpretation of Belfast's heritage of alleyways and arcades, and its Art Deco style is quite rare within the architectural context of the city. The building is recorded as derelict and lies within a conservation area.

The arcade consists of two entrance buildings — a three-storey Art Deco façade on Donegall Street (nos. 26–30) and a three-storey-with-attic Victorian building on North Street (nos. 35–37) — connected by the arcade itself, which bends at a 90-degree angle to accommodate a central dome located to the north-west of the building. The arcade was severely damaged by an arson attack in 2004.

Prior to the construction of the arcade in 1936, the site between Donegall Street and North Street was occupied by a number of small properties, the most significant of which was the warehouse of the Brookfield Linen Company. The Brookfield Linen Co. Ltd were flax spinners, powerloom linen manufacturers, and merchants who had operated from their Donegall Street premises since 1869. Their warehouse, designed in 1869 by W. H. Lynn, was described as an imposing Italianate five-storey, seven-bay building with pedimented and rusticated doorcases groined out of the heavily tooled basement plinth, swags over first-floor windows, and giant-order Corinthian pilasters supporting a heavy cornice and piers between attic windows. This warehouse was demolished in 1936 to make way for the arcade. One remnant was preserved: a relief plaque depicting eight workers spinning flax was rescued from the demolished building and installed at the Donegall Street entrance in 1938. This plaque was not damaged in the 2004 fire and continues to adorn the Donegall Street façade.

The Donegall Street façade (the northeast elevation) is in Art Deco style and is generally symmetrical around a two-storey canopied central entrance. The flat roof is hidden behind a parapet and rainwater goods are concealed. The walls are ashlar reconstructed stone with projecting string courses to parapet level and to second-floor level, beneath which are roundel motifs; the ground floor is faced with grey marble. Second-floor windows have flat lintels and fluted uprights to slightly recessed openings. Ground- and first-floor windows also have flat lintels; a small north window is framed top and bottom by a floral motif. All windows are metal-framed.

At second-floor level, five square single-paned windows sit either side of three blank windows, the central one being rectangular. At first-floor level, horizontal windows flank the central entranceway, consisting of large panes with small top-hung lights; to the south the horizontal band is extended with three further windows divided by piers; to the north is a small window obscured by a geometric metal grille and a grille mesh. The central entranceway has grey marble extending up the sides to the underside of a flat, copper-faced canopy with straight brackets and a geometric motif (now damaged) to the soffit. The figuratively sculpted relief stone panel salvaged from the Brookfield Linen Co. warehouse sits in slate panels over the open entrance, which is now blocked by a metal frame and blockwork. The main ground-floor windows are flanked by doors, all of which are boarded up; over the doors are single-pane square windows obscured by geometric metal grilles. Vertical plastic signs project either side of the entrance below the canopy. The south elevation abuts a neighbouring listed building. The north elevation is abutted by a modern building. The west elevation is the arcade itself.

Before the 2004 fire, the interior of the arcade was floored in granolithic and had unified shopfronts with bronze trims and green marble plinths and piers. The arcade incorporated a glass roof running its full length, including the central dome, both of which were destroyed in the fire.

The North Street building is Victorian in character. It had a hipped slate roof, now derelict, with a damaged timber-framed window flanked by pedimented dormers; chimneys are located on each gable. The walls are brick in Flemish bond with dressings of red sandstone: dormer pediments, oculi, pilasters and flanking volutes; a moulded and dentilled cornice and frieze at eaves level; and 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-over-1 timber sash; the first-floor windows are much-damaged timber casements with timber coffered splayed reveals. The central two-storey entranceway has infill boarding with a fire-damaged plastic domed canopy replacing a former balcony and doorcase. 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 pitched-roof building abutting. The north elevation faces the arcade. The east elevation is abutted by a three-storey building above which is brickwork.

The arcade was not included in the First General Revaluation of Northern Ireland in 1935, having been constructed just after it took place. It was first valued in 1956 under the second general revaluation, at which time the Donegall Street and North Street entrance buildings were jointly valued at £996. The arcade at that time contained at least 20 shops and one café. By the end of the revaluation project in 1972 the total value of the shops, stores, offices, and café stood at £4,325 10s., bringing the total value of the arcade and its entrances to £5,321 10s.

The arcade was listed in 1990. In 1971 it was the victim of two bomb attacks during the Northern Ireland Troubles, and it was frequently targeted by vandals and paramilitaries throughout that period. In 1976 a further bomb exploded at the arcade, causing significant damage to the interior retail units and killing a number of shoppers. In August 2004 an arson attack destroyed the building's interior by fire, damaging the premises of more than 20 businesses and arts organisations and destroying the original glass roof and dome. The arcade was included in the Ulster Architectural Heritage Society's Buildings at Risk register in 2005, which noted that before the fire the arcade had housed an eclectic mix of specialist and unusual shops, and that the future of the site remained uncertain. The building continues to lie vacant and has fallen into an advanced state of disrepair, with no holding repair work carried out in the decade following the fire.

In September 2012, plans for a £360 million redevelopment of the area between Royal Avenue and the Cathedral Quarter were approved by the Department of the Environment. The proposed scheme included the renovation of the former Assembly Buildings on Bridge Street and, according to an artist's impression, the restoration of the North Street Arcade; however, at the time of the listing record the project had not proceeded past the initial planning stage.

The north entrance of the arcade sits on the west side of Donegall Street, adjacent to a neighbouring listed building. Across the road are many small passageways and lanes, and further listed buildings; slightly further north is St. Anne's Cathedral.