Pump House, Queen's Road, Belfast, BT3 9DV

Pump House, Queen's Road, Belfast

A long rectangular single-storey pump house dating from circa 1885-89, situated on Clarence Warf within the Harland & Wolff shipyard complex on the west side of Queens Road, Queens Island. The building, which contains a deep basement level to house pumps still used to pump out the adjacent Thompson Dock, exemplifies late Victorian eclectic architecture with characteristic polychrome brickwork.

The structure comprises a series of joined gabled pavilions constructed in red brick with cream brick dressings. The facades are decorated with classical motifs including roundels, keystones and acroteria. The openings are predominantly semicircular and segmental arch-headed, executed in a mix of red and cream brick with sandstone dressings. A large number of unsympathetic modern doors and windows have been added in recent times.

The west elevation comprises three joined gabled pavilions to the right and one long section with a central projecting gabled bay to the left. The main entrance is reached by four sandstone steps and is positioned within a tall semicircular arch-headed opening at the centre of the third pavilion gable from the right. Double timber doors are flanked by single pass doors on either side, with mullioned and transomed timber-framed windows above containing small square panes. The opening features a cream-coloured brick surround and archivolt with sandstone drip moulding. The decorative keystone is formed in sandstone and inscribed with the letters BHC (Belfast Harbour Commission). Flanking the main arch are smaller matching arches, each containing large sash windows with horizontal astragals. The gable is framed with plain projecting cream-coloured brick pilasters supporting heavily moulded verge finished with moulded stone coping and acroterion to the apex. At the junction of verge and pilasters is a shouldered detail with corbelled brickwork, detailing repeated throughout the building.

To the right is a lower gable with similar verge detailing, featuring a blind roundel in cream-coloured brick within the gable and completed by a fine sandstone string course. The pediment rests on four segmental arch-headed openings, now mostly infilled though openings 1, 3 and 4 have modern utilitarian sheeted doors. To the far right is a further gable of the same height but narrower, containing a small blind roundel. Roundels appear at the eaves and pilaster junctions. A double-height semicircular-headed opening dominates the centre, filled with tall timber diagonally-sheeted gates; the right door leaf was subsequently bricked up with a modern steel window inserted.

The left section comprises the side of a long symmetrical pavilion (the pump house proper) with a central projecting gable. The gable centre features a large timber-framed, mullioned and transomed window. The gable is flanked by five arched openings on each side, the centre arch of each being elliptical and framing timber double doors with simple radial fanlight. The two flanking windows have semicircular arched openings containing sash windows. A bronze war memorial plaque is positioned to the left of the right double door.

The north elevation is a simple gable flanked by pilasters with decorative eaves, with a small pair of double doors added in recent times to the lower left. The east side of the pump house is identical to the west elevation except that the group of five openings to the north of the gable projection are all windows. To the left of the pump house is a further gable with less ornate moulded verge detailing, featuring two evenly-spaced semicircular arch-headed openings flanking a memorial plaque commemorating the building of Thompson's Engraving Dock in 1911. The left opening is blind; the right contains a sash window, both with brick dressings and sandstone drip moulding. Adjacent is a lower gable with three small modern, unevenly-spaced doors at ground floor level. The third pavilion gable to the far left, projecting forward slightly, contains two unevenly-spaced modern door openings and rests on heavy brick buttresses. Its exposed north face carries a memorial plaque dedicated to the opening of Alexandra Dock on 21 May 1889.

The south facade was originally symmetrical, featuring two warehouse-style loading bay doors stacked vertically. To either side is a blind semicircular arch-headed recess resting on a sandstone string course which merges with drip mouldings. Below the right arch is a memorial plaque honouring the designers, supervisors and builders of the dock. Below the left arch are five modern openings comprising three windows flanked by two doors.

The building rests on a low sandstone base. Roofs are covered in blue natural slate. Rainwater goods comprise a mixture of square-section downpipes with ogee gutters and round-section PVC piping. At the ridge centre of the pump house is a tall gabled plant room finished in corrugated asbestos sheeting.