St George's Market, 12-20 East Bridge Street, Belfast, BT1 3NQ

St George's Market is a freestanding, double-height, single-storey covered market building in a Romanesque classical style, built between 1890 and 1896 to designs by Josiah Corbett Bretland (1846–1921), who served as Borough Surveyor to Belfast Corporation from 1884 to 1903. It is the last surviving covered Victorian market in Belfast, still serving its original purpose, and forms the architectural, historical and social focus of the area of Belfast known as 'The Markets'.

SITUATION AND PLAN

The market occupies a square plan on a prominent freestanding site to the east of Belfast city centre, bounded on all four sides by public streets: Oxford Street to the east, May Street to the north, East Bridge Street to the south, and Verner Street to the west. To the north stand the Law Courts; to the east is a busy road junction with modern mixed-use development including the Waterfront Hall and the Hilton Hotel; to the west are a number of late 19th- and early 20th-century buildings of quality alongside modern infill; and to the south is modern social housing that forms the heart of the Markets area.

EXTERIOR

The external walls are of red brick laid in English garden wall bond over a two-stage brick plinth, with dressings throughout in Giffnock sandstone. The building is conceived as a series of well-proportioned Roman triumphal arches, and its four elevations are each treated distinctly.

The principal entrance elevation faces Oxford Street to the east. At its centre is a triumphal arch entrance bay three openings wide, with a frieze carved with the words 'St George's Market', a pediment bearing the Belfast coat of arms in deep relief, and ball finials terminating the arch. Seven flanking bays to each side contain modern shop units with replica traditionally-styled timber shopfronts and a variety of modern signage; each bay is articulated by full-height brick lesenes and crowned by a brick panel.

The north elevation to May Street and the south elevation to East Bridge Street are identical to one another. Each consists of three triumphal arches alternating with window bays of similar detailing. Each arch is three entrance openings wide, with a double-width central opening. The window bays each have a central window flanked by blind round-headed arches detailed as door openings. The pediments to these elevations are each carved with Irish and Latin mottos.

The west elevation to Verner Street is comparatively plain and symmetrically arranged about a central round-headed double-height service entrance crowned with a raised parapet. Seven bays extend to either side of this entrance; the central bay on each side has been modified with a modern vehicular opening built into a replacement brick arched recess. The remaining original bays are divided by lesene strips, each having a blind round-headed arch over a plinth, a moulded brick head, a sandstone keyblock, and an impost moulding.

Throughout the building, round-headed door openings are fitted generally with modern glazed or panelled timber doors screened by decorative cast-iron gates and fixed matching tympanums. Camber-headed window openings to the north and south elevations contain 6/6 timber sash windows with slender glazing bars and wider central panes. All openings have moulded sandstone dressings with a keyblock and lugged feet to window openings set over a continuous sill course. Rainwater goods are cast iron.

ROOF

The roofline presents a gabled profile comprising a series of parallel pitched roofs, each with a full-width glazed lantern to the ridge — with the exception of the easternmost roof, which is glazed to the central section only.

INTERIOR

The internal layout is largely unchanged from its original arrangement. The glazed roof is carried on cast-iron columns erected by Ritchie, Hart and Co. of Belfast. Some elements of a typical late Victorian interior survive. When the market first opened, it accommodated dozens of traders' stalls including butter and egg stalls, fleshers' stalls, flower stalls, and a number of shops.

HISTORY

Markets in Belfast have a long history, with James I having granted markets and fairs to the town in 1605, 1608, 1611, and again in 1621 when a Friday market was established. For two centuries, almost daily markets were held, with Smithfield Market operating as the principal marketplace. By around 1830, the reclamation of land and the development of Belfast's port had encouraged the growth of a new market district to the south-east of the town centre, at the point where the River Lagan, roads from south Belfast, and bridges from Ballymacarrett all converged. The first edition Ordnance Survey map of 1832–33 records a square market area named 'St George's Market' operating close to May's Dock, to the north of the current site. A further market, 'May's Market', stood on the north side of May Street. By the time of the second edition Ordnance Survey map of 1858, a Flax and Fruit Market and a Cattle Market had been added to the south side of May Street, while a Horse Market and a Potato and Vegetable Market had appeared to the north. The original St George's Market building was by then recorded as the Pork Market.

Following Belfast's elevation to city status in 1888, the Corporation resolved to construct a new covered market on the site of the former Flax and Fruit Market. In 1889 a contract was signed with Fitzpatrick Bros. of Great Victoria Street to build to Bretland's designs. Construction took place in three phases: two sections were built by Fitzpatrick Bros. between 1890 and 1894, and the final section by H. and J. Martin between 1894 and 1896. The total cost was £12,500. Bretland was also responsible for the Albert Bridge, completed in 1889, and for the nearby Fish Market on Oxford Street, built after St George's Market.

When first assessed for valuation purposes, St George's Market was valued at £156. Traders' stalls at that time included butter and egg stalls (each valued at £1), fleshers' stalls (£7), flower stalls (£1), and shops valued at £6 each. By 1910 the market's valuation had risen to £440 and the trading stalls were collectively valued at £350. The first general revaluation of property in Northern Ireland in 1935 valued the market at £1,020, with individual stalls and shops ranging from £7 to £244. By the time of the second revaluation, carried out between 1956 and 1972, the combined value of the market, shops, and stalls had risen to approximately £2,760.

In its later history, the building was used as a venue for entertainment and sporting events including boxing championships. During the Belfast Blitz of 15 April 1941, St George's Market emerged structurally undamaged from the attack that devastated much of the surrounding area, but hundreds of victims of the bombing were brought to the building and laid out within the market space for identification by their families.

The nearby Fish Market continued to operate alongside St George's until around 1990, when it was closed and later demolished to make way for Waterfront area development. St George's Market continued to hold a weekly market through the subsequent decline of the surrounding neighbourhood. The building was listed in 1989, and in 1993 market traders were still described as holding vigorous and cheerful markets every Tuesday and Friday, despite being under threat of eviction. A £4.5 million refurbishment was carried out in 1997, and the market reopened in 1999. It has since continued as a weekly market and has also become a popular tourist attraction and a venue for concerts and entertainment events.

A hand-wound clock originally housed in the market was believed to have been made in 1821, predating the current building by more than 70 years. It had been stored in the basement of Belfast City Hall for a number of years before being restored and returned to the market during the 1997 refurbishment.