Albert Hall (aka Shankill Mission Hall), 110-120 Shankill Road, Belfast, Co Antrim, BT13

Albert Hall, also known as Shankill Mission Hall, is a symmetrical five-bay, three-and-a-half-storey former Mission Hall in the Queen Anne Revival style, constructed in 1898 to designs by William J. W. Roome and extended in 1923. The building is located on the south side of Shankill Road in west Belfast and comprises a rectangular front block and a three-storey rear block with a semi-circular recess to the south wall. A large double-height gabled extension to the rear is of no architectural interest.

The building is constructed of red brick with ashlar sandstone dressings. The principal north-facing elevation is symmetrically arranged, ten windows wide at first floor level. Walling is English garden wall-bonded red brick at upper floors with sandstone dressings, whilst the ground and first floors feature ashlar sandstone with channel-rusticated detailing on a chamfered granite plinth. The east and west elevations are partially cement rendered.

The pitched natural slate roof features blue and black angled ridge tiles and raised sandstone verges to the gables, with a pyramidal roof to the central gable. Red-brick chimneystacks with moulded caps are present. Cast-iron half-round rainwater goods sit on projecting eaves or are concealed behind parapets.

Windows comprise a variety of replacement uPVC units, diminishing in size with each floor, along with two timber dormer windows to the attic level. Second floor and attic windows have plain brick reveals with sandstone plat bands at lintel level and projecting sandstone sills. First floor windows are segmental-headed in moulded sandstone reveals with flush sills; canted uPVC windows flank the central bay. A multi-paned semi-circular window with alternating red-brick and sandstone flush inset voussoirs is positioned at the second floor of the central bay.

The far left and right bays are gabled, each with two windows at each floor and flanked by brick pilasters to the upper storeys, chamfered at second floor level, rising from a sandstone corbelled plinth at first floor. The central entrance bay rises to a segmental-headed gable with three windows lighting the attic, a semi-circular arched window to the second floor, and two windows at first floor level.

Ground floor shopfronts spanning the width of the elevation are divided by channel-rusticated piers with impost mouldings and carved circle motifs to their heads. A tall round-headed central archway, flanked by pilasters with voussoirs and a decorated keyblock inscribed "1898", forms the main entrance. Above this sits a corbelled cornice and a decoratively carved stone fascia reading "Shankill Road Mission". Original decorative wrought-iron gates remain within the arch, with recessed replacement double-leaf timber-sheeted doors featuring vertically-lined side panels. Corner bays feature second floor canted oriel windows on sandstone corbels, positioned above segmental-headed entrances in chamfered reveals with modern metal shutters.

The east elevation comprises a gabled bay and a rear block elevation with segmental-headed window openings forming a continuous string-course in sandstone. The south elevation features the semi-circular recess to its centre, with five segmental-headed windows to the second floor and one tall window to the first floor right, abutted at ground level by the gabled double-height hall. The west gable has two windows to the attic and three each to the second and first floors, with the ground floor cement rendered and blank. The west elevation of the rear block has a variety of window openings, some timber boarded.

The building is street-fronted on Shankill Road, situated opposite Shankill Women's Centre and west of Shankill Road Leisure Centre. A concrete alley to the west leads to a rear parking area.