Former Water Office, 1 Donegall Square, Belfast, Co Antrim, BT1 5AA

Former Warehouse (later Water Commissions Headquarters), built 1867–69 to designs by W.H. Lynn of the Belfast firm Lanyon, Lynn and Lanyon, and constructed by James Henry. Now in use as a retail department store.

This is an attached, symmetrical, multi-bay, four-storey building over a raised basement, faced throughout in red sandstone and designed in an Italian Gothic palazzo style. It sits on the north side of Donegall Square, with its principal south-facing elevation onto the square and a further multi-bay elevation fronting onto Donegall Place to the east. The building is square on plan. It was originally built as a commercial linen warehouse for J. Richardson, Sons, Owden and Co., linen manufacturers and bleachers, and is one of the most celebrated Victorian commercial buildings in Belfast. During a lecture in Belfast on 1 January 1884, Oscar Wilde singled it out as the one beautiful building in the city, describing it as "...beautiful in colour, and very beautiful in design."

The design draws eclectically from French, Florentine and Venetian Gothic traditions in a loosely Ruskinian idiom. The building was originally crowned with a steep French château-style roof punctuated by tall, elaborate chimney stacks and dormers. The current replacement roof is a hipped, pie-ended natural slate roof with rolled lead ridges and iron cresting, set behind a red sandstone blocking course and a deep crown cornice. The roof was originally destroyed in the Second World War bombing raids of 1941, replaced temporarily by a flat roof in the mid-20th century, and the present hipped form was installed during a comprehensive restoration and refurbishment in the early 1980s.

The walling throughout is coursed and squared, smooth red sandstone ashlar, with continuous moulded impost and sill courses and a moulded trim to the projecting red sandstone ashlar plinth course. Window openings vary in form — pointed-headed, round-headed, and square-headed — and are formed in flush voussoired sandstone with bowtel moulded heads. All now contain replacement single-pane timber sash windows.

The principal south front elevation is symmetrical across its full multi-bay, four-storey-over-basement width, with clustered fenestration to the centre. The deep moulded crown cornice is supported on angled brackets rising from a continuous bull-nose moulding and frames quatrefoil panels. Slender colonettes are set within chamfers to the corners, with stiff-leaf capitals below the first and third floors. Carved roundels appear between the window openings at first and second floor levels.

At third floor level, the window openings are diminutive and pointed-headed, arranged in groups of three to the centre and in pairs elsewhere, each with squat columns and stiff-leaf capitals. At second floor level, the openings are square-headed with stop-chamfered reveals, set deep within round-headed outer openings that have decorative carved overpanels. The six clustered window openings at the centre of this floor are flanked by pale stone columns with stiff-leaf capitals that support the arches. At first floor level, the openings are round-headed with stop-chamfered reveals and pointed-arched hood mouldings rising from a continuous stiff-leaf impost moulding and resting on a further stiff-leaf sill course. The central two windows at first floor open onto a balcony with an arcaded balustrade and stiff-leaf cornice, supported on paired angled brackets that also form the hood to the principal front entrance below.

At ground floor level, the openings are square-headed with bowtel moulded reveals and carved overpanels, set deep within round-headed outer openings with stop-chamfered reveals and hood mouldings rising from a continuous cavetto impost course. Each ground floor window has a carved roundel below it featuring rampant lion motifs — the Richardson family trademark — together with the company initials 'J', 'R', 'S', '&', and 'O'. The raised basement windows are square-headed, set within the plinth course, and have stop-chamfered reveals, bowtel moulded heads, splayed sills and decorative wrought-iron grilles with tooled red sandstone behind, inserted around 1981.

The central doorway forms a shallow breakfront with a hood moulding and a bowtel moulded archivolt springing from impost mouldings supported on polished granite columns with sandstone banding and stiff-leaf capitals rising from projecting pedestals. Double-leaf varnished panelled doors are set deep within this doorcase and open onto replacement nosed sandstone steps, enclosed by low sandstone walls with bull-nosed coping that terminate in squat sandstone piers with weathered capstones and quatrefoil roundels.

The west side elevation is multi-bay, four storeys over raised basement, and features a central tourelle with a conical slate roof and lead finial. The tourelle has a deep moulded corbelled base and stepped, pointed-headed window openings with colonettes and curved leaded windows. An additional storey rises above the crown cornice level, with an arcade of diminutive pointed-headed windows joined by squat colonettes. Window detailing on the west elevation otherwise follows that of the south front.

The east side elevation also follows the detailing of the south front. Towards the centre, the windows are staggered to accommodate a former internal staircase. At ground floor level on this elevation there is a round-headed door opening with double-leaf panelled timber doors, a shouldered lintel, bowtel moulded reveals, a carved overpanel, and two nosed steps to the pavement. At the north end of this elevation is a larger round-headed door opening with a compound bowtel moulded surround and double-leaf varnished timber doors with stop-chamfered flat panels and overpanels, opening directly onto the pavement. The rear elevation is abutted by an adjoining mid-20th-century building.

The front elevation is enclosed to the street by a low red sandstone wall with squat piers having weathered capstones and quatrefoil panels, supporting replacement iron railings, with a replacement paved basement area.

The site prior to construction was occupied, according to Griffith's Valuation of 1859–60, by a row of residences along with the offices, stores and yards of linen merchants. The completed warehouse was first listed in the Annual Revisions of 1869 at a valuation of £1,200. By the Belfast Revaluations of 1900, it was listed as "offices and warehouse" and valued at £2,000, the valuer noting that the building was "handsomely built by the occupiers." The actual recorded construction cost was £37,500. The building was originally bounded to the west by terraced houses and gardens.

The interior was reconstructed and the building expanded in the late 1930s to serve as the headquarters of the Belfast City and District Water Commissions, as evidenced by street directories of 1938–40. The original High Victorian interior and roof were entirely destroyed by wartime bombing in 1941. The building underwent complete internal reconstruction in 1984 for use as a department store, which remains its current occupation. As a result of this history, the original interior has been entirely lost, which detracts from the building's completeness, though its original external character survives substantially intact.

The building overlooks Belfast City Hall to the south and is located within a conservation area. It is regarded as one of W.H. Lynn's most successful designs and one of the finest examples of High Victorian commercial architecture in Belfast.