Merchant Hotel, Waring Street, Belfast, County Antrim, BT1 2DZ

The Merchant Hotel, formerly the Ulster Bank Head Office, is a Grade A listed Italianate former bank on the south side of Waring Street, built between 1858 and 1860 to designs by the Glasgow architect James Hamilton. The building is widely regarded as one of Belfast's finest and most exuberantly decorated commercial buildings, described by architectural historians as "one of the most magnificently exuberant buildings in Belfast" and a "splendid florescence of Victorian voluptuousness." It was converted for use as a hotel by Consarc Design Group and reopened in 2006.

Origins and Construction

The Ulster Banking Company began trading in Belfast on 1 July 1836 in premises in Waring Street opposite Warehouse Lane. As the bank expanded its network of branches across the north of Ireland, pressure on its headquarters grew, and by 1850 the directors were considering new premises. It was not until 1857, however, that the plot on the corner of Waring Street and Skipper Street was purchased. Two directors travelled to Glasgow and Scotland to gather ideas, and a competition was subsequently held offering a prize of £100. Sixty-five designs were submitted; James Hamilton of Glasgow was the winner. By January 1858, log piles were being driven into the ground as foundations, and in April 1858 a contract was signed with the builders D & J Fulton. Although the stone was originally intended to be quarried in France, Hamilton judged that French stone would weather too quickly in Belfast's exposed northern climate and specified Giffnock sandstone from Scotland instead, at considerably greater cost. The building was completed at a cost of £30,000 and the bank opened for business on 22 October 1860, immediately praised by the local press as a "commercial palace." Carving was carried out by the Fitzpatrick Brothers, stucco work by the Belfast craftsman George Crowe, and the dome was decorated by Sibthorpe of Dublin. The lamp standards and railings were supplied by Messrs Laidlaw of Glasgow.

Exterior

The building is a symmetrical, multi-bay, two-storey structure over a basement, rectangular on plan and set back slightly from the street. Its external walls to the front block are of Giffnock sandstone ashlar, with rusticated vermiculated stonework to the basement. The side and rear elevations use red brick with sandstone courses. The roof, hidden behind parapets and following a U-shaped plan, is of natural slate with several profiled chimneystacks and a central glazed dome. Replacement cast-iron rainwater goods are fitted throughout. All window openings are round-headed, fitted with steel casement windows, with the exception of plain square-headed openings at basement level.

The north front elevation is five bays wide, with paired windows at each end, and is dominated by a magnificent two-stage colonnaded portico. The upper storey features paired Corinthian pilasters framing the window openings, which respond as paired Corinthian columns in the portico. The first-floor window openings are framed by Corinthian columns supporting dentilled impost mouldings, with an archivolt above incorporating an ancon and decoratively carved spandrels. The ground floor is topped by a cornice with mutules and a panelled frieze embellished with triglyphs, supported on paired Doric pilasters decorated with egg-and-dart mouldings; these respond as paired Doric columns in the portico, rising from a sandstone stylobate that is advanced at either end and frames a flight of eleven sandstone steps. The ground-floor window openings have deeply set compound moulded surrounds flanked by pilasters and panelled impost blocks with ancons and decorative spandrels on continuous moulded sills; those within the portico have foliate carved heads.

The entablature is supported by a series of foliate modillions beneath a crown cornice at the base of the parapet, over a decoratively carved Arabesque frieze embellished with seraphim. The panelled sandstone parapet is advanced over the portico and is framed by decoratively carved plinth blocks supporting elaborate paired urns. The sandstone front block returns onto both side elevations with matching parapet and urns, resulting in three urns at the corners. To the centre of the portico, a large plinth block with Arabesque carving supports a sculptural group representing Britannia, Justice and Commerce arranged around a heraldic shield, carved by Thomas Fitzpatrick.

The central entrance is a square-headed doorway with varnished double-leaf timber panelled doors, flanked by engaged Doric piers and a further pair of Doric pilasters supporting a stepped lintel cornice. Above is an elaborately carved semi-circular overpanel depicting the Ulster Bank coat of arms, framed by an archivolt and ancon. The doorway opens onto the stylobate within the portico, which is enclosed by replacement iron railings and gates.

The decorative sandstone detailing of the front elevation returns onto the east side elevation for a further two bays, detailed as per the front. The remaining four bays of the east side elevation have flush block-and-start sandstone surrounds on continuous moulded sandstone sills. The red brick rear elevation is three bays wide with thermal windows at upper level and round-headed door openings detailed as per the side elevations. The west side elevation mirrors the east and is abutted by a flat-roofed two-storey single-bay wing, detailed as per the front elevation but built in a lighter sandstone, with a square-headed glazed door opening at basement level fronted by a decorative cast-iron gated screen. This wing connects the main building to the former bank extension to the west. A further modern extension to the rear was completed in 2010 at a cost of £16.5 million.

Interior

The interior is as ornate as the exterior. The stucco ornamentation throughout was executed by George Crowe and represents some of the finest decorative plasterwork in the city. The central domed former banking hall is one of the best examples of its type in Belfast and now serves as the hotel's dining room. The dome's frieze carries representations of Science, Poetry, Sculpture and Music; above the frieze are allegorical figures of engineering, commerce, poetry, architecture, navigation, astronomy, plenty, peace, agriculture and banking, surmounted by portraits of eminent persons associated with each — respectively Stevenson, Brown of Liverpool, Shakespeare, Wren, Cook, Newton, Peel, the Queen, the Prince Consort and Grote, though these portraits are now gone. The original desks and counters were of mahogany with metal screens carrying a Red Hand of Ulster in a shield surrounded by a laurel wreath.

The upper floor originally provided living quarters for the chief cashier, James Wallace, incorporating a remarkable security device: by turning a lever in his bedroom he could drop a heavy iron bolt into each of the five safes in the basement and simultaneously lower a steel plate across each keyhole. A platform raised and lowered by handles moved bullion between the safes and the banking hall.

In the basement, the curved brickwork of the bank vaults is now exposed within the hotel nightclub, and one of the former vaults houses the billiard room. The residents' lounge and members' bar retains the original timber cladding from the bank manager's office.

Setting

The building is set back slightly from the south side of Waring Street behind a broad flight of sandstone steps with spliced granite sections to the centre and decorative cast-iron posts with bronze tubular handrails. A cobblelock forecourt is enclosed to the street by highly decorative cast-iron panelled railings on sandstone plinth walls, with cast-iron piers supporting decorative cast-iron lamps. The building is located within a conservation area and, together with the adjoining former bank extension to the west, forms a notable group representing the confident mercantile ambitions of Victorian Belfast.

Significant Alterations

In 1867, it is recorded that Robert Grimshaw, an 80-year-old director of the bank, fell to his death on the steps. In 1886 the dome was reconstructed to improve lighting and ventilation in the banking hall. Between 1919 and 1921 the area between the main bank and the Ulster Buildings was covered over to provide additional accommodation. A Foreign Department was established in 1926, and the main counter was extended in 1931. Major modernisation works took place in the 1950s: the high mahogany partitions at the counter were cut down in 1956; the upper floor, formerly the chief cashier's accommodation, was remodelled as offices for directors and executive staff by architects Messrs Houston and Beaumont; the original mahogany counter, fittings and public office floor were removed and replaced with modern fittings; strong rooms were renovated; a large chandelier was installed; the dome was repainted; telephone equipment with 100 internal extensions was fitted; the original iron entrance gates were removed and the plinths either side of the front steps were resurfaced with granite slabs; and new lamps bearing the bank's name and crest were erected on the existing standards. The bank formally reopened on 26 October 1960. By 1991 Ulster Bank had moved its headquarters to Donegall Square but retained the Waring Street building as a branch. Between 1991 and 1994 the roof, gutters and dome were renovated, windows were replaced, stonework was cleaned and repaired, the cast-iron balustrades and lamp standards were cleaned and repainted, and the interior of the banking hall was repainted and restored. Ulster Bank vacated the building around 2003. Consarc Design Group subsequently cleaned the exterior and remodelled the interior, reopening the building as the Merchant Hotel in 2006.