2-4 Belmont Road, Belfast, Co.Antrim, BT4 2AN

A former corner shop and office building, dating from around 1902, situated at the prominent junction of Belmont Road and Holywood Road in the Strandtown area of east Belfast — a location known locally as Gelston's Corner. The building is also known as Strandtown Hall.

HISTORICAL BACKGROUND

The site was previously occupied by a local post office before the current building was erected. Its construction followed the extension of Belfast's municipal boundary under the Belfast Corporation Bill of 1896, which brought in a number of east Belfast townlands including Ballyhackamore, Ballycloghan and Strandtown. The building was commissioned by Braithwaite & McCann, spirit dealers who owned one of the largest chains of public houses in the city, on land they leased at Gelston's Corner. It cost £1,500 to build and was initially valued at £75. Although Braithwaite & McCann originally intended to use the building as a hotel, it was never occupied for that purpose and stood vacant from around 1902 until the First World War, being described in Ulster Town Directories during this period simply as "new shop — vacant."

Ownership passed during the First World War to Greenhill & Craig, electrical engineers, who leased the building to its first occupants. By 1915 it was divided between W. J. Balmer, a pharmaceutical chemist, who took the ground-floor corner shop at the junction of Holywood Road and Belmont Road (No. 2), and the Strandtown and District Unionist Club, whose clubrooms occupied the floor above Balmer's shop (No. 4), accessed from a separate ground-floor entrance on the Belmont Road, located next to the war memorial. A contemporary photograph dated around 1918 shows the building largely as it appears today, with few major structural changes having occurred since that time.

The rateable value was amended to £71 10s in 1921 under the Annual Revisions. Under the First General Revaluation of Property in Northern Ireland (1936–57) the total rateable value was raised to £110, and further increased to £204 by the end of the Second Revaluation (1956–72). Throughout both periods the building continued to be occupied by Balmer's chemists at ground floor and by the Strandtown and District Unionist Club above. Balmer vacated the ground floor in the late 20th century, after which the retail unit became a bicycle shop and subsequently a café. The upper-floor offices continued to be used by unionist organisations. In around 2008 the Ulster Unionist Party established their headquarters in the former clubrooms, which are also occupied by the Victoria Ulster Unionist Association.

A Portland stone war memorial, 10 feet 6 inches in height and 4 feet 6 inches in width, was installed adjacent to the building after the First World War as a memorial to Strandtown residents who gave their lives in the conflict. It was commissioned by the Strandtown and District Unionist Club, whose name was carved in a ribbon at the top of the memorial.

EXTERIOR

The building is a well-proportioned four-bay, two-storey red-brick structure with a curved entrance facade facing west, built in Flemish bond. The hipped roof is covered in natural slate with terracotta ridge, hips, and finials at each end. Cast-iron ogee gutters are present, along with uPVC downpipes.

The main entrance is the defining feature of the building. It curves to face west and is framed by pairs of Corinthian-style marble pilasters. To the north and south of the entrance doors are curved bay plate-glass windows with timber frames, supported on splayed marble stall-risers. The door opening has a modern timber glazed door with overlight, framed with a matching pair of pilasters. Above, an ornate sculpted sandstone pediment crowns the portico, supported by a pair of marble Corinthian-style columns forming an entablature, which is now covered with signage. The rendered and painted fascia runs across the shopfront.

At first-floor level, the curved wall above the entrance projects forward. A central square-headed window opening is divided by a central sandstone Corinthian column supporting a brick soldier lintel. A projecting sandstone string course, supported on moulded terracotta brackets, runs above the window heads on both the west and south elevations. A stone string course with dentil detail runs the full length of the west and south elevations at cornice level. Red-brick pilasters at first-floor level echo those at ground floor. Carved sandstone cills to the windows are linked by a brick special of similar profile, forming a continuous string course.

The parapet above the north and south windows features openwork balustrades with projecting piers, terracotta panels inset into the brickwork, and sandstone coping topped with plinths and terracotta ball finials at each end of the wall sections. The central section of the parapet above the portico also projects forward with piers, plinths, and terracotta ball finials, and contains a clock face set into a decorated terracotta panel with a carved pediment above.

The north elevation is red brick in Flemish bond with red-brick arches, brick pilasters, and recessed blank panels along its length, with no window openings. At the east end of this elevation is a door opening to a single-storey, single-bay adjunct, fitted with a modern door and concrete surround.

The east elevation is only visible above the single-storey adjunct and the neighbouring building. It is red brick in Flemish bond with a single square-headed first-floor window opening fitted with a uPVC frame.

The south elevation contains the restaurant in three bays at ground floor. The west and east bays have modern broad timber shopfront frames over a marble stall-riser, while the central bay has a modern timber glazed door. The walls, including the fascia, are rendered and painted. A shop awning in three sections runs the full length of all three bays. Above ground floor, the brickwork detailing — including pilasters, string course, and cill course — mirrors that of the west elevation. Three square-headed windows with uPVC frames sit in brickwork panels formed by the pilasters. Terracotta brackets support an ogee-shaped gutter.

A single-storey, single-bay entrance structure adjoins the building at the east end of the ground floor on the south elevation. It has a rendered wall and pitched roof, and contains a four-centred arched door opening with concentric moulding and a hood moulding above, featuring a decorated keystone detail over the opening. The door itself is a modern timber glazed door with fanlight.

INTERIOR AND CONDITION

Internally, the building has been altered and modernised. The first-floor windows are not original. Despite these changes, the building remains a focal point at the junction and a notable piece of local architecture.