Mays Chambers, 73 May Street, Belfast, County Antrim, BT1 3JL

Mays Chambers, 73 May Street, Belfast

This is a former bank building of considerable architectural ambition, designed in the Baroque Revival style by Belfast architect James A. Hanna and constructed between 1919 and 1922. It stands at the corner of May Street and Cromac Street in the Markets area of Belfast city centre, with its principal north elevation facing May Street and its west elevation facing Cromac Street. The building is three storeys in height and combines redbrick upper floors with Portland limestone ashlar at ground-floor level.

History and Origins

The Markets branch of Ulster Bank originally opened in May 1916 in temporary offices at 1 Cromac Square, on the site now occupied by the Belfast Telephone Exchange. The current site was acquired in 1917, but wartime restrictions delayed construction until 1919. The completed building was first recorded in the Annual Revisions in 1923, valued at £500, a figure Ulster Bank successfully appealed; the value was reduced to £310 by 1924 and remained at that level through to 1930. Valuers noted that the bank occupied only the ground floor, with a caretaker's residence on the first floor, while the remaining upper floors were let as offices. By 1935 the rateable value had been recalculated at £540, with the caretaker's rooms on the first and second floors separately valued at £12. A second revaluation from 1956 raised the total to £910, later reduced to £728 under the 1957 Rent and Valuation Act following a further appeal by the owners, settling finally at £696. Because of the building's proximity to Belfast's markets, the bank's customers were historically predominantly farmers and traders. Ulster Bank continued to operate from the premises until at least 1990. The building was listed in 1994 and renovated in 2002 by Kennedy FitzGerald and Associates, who converted it to modern office use; this work resulted in the loss of much of the original interior fabric.

The architect, James A. Hanna (born 1869), practised in Belfast from 1905 and was a significant figure in the city's architectural history. His other surviving works include the warehouse at 19–21 Alfred Street, and a number of churches and schoolhouses.

Exterior — General Character

The upper floors are built in redbrick laid in Flemish bond, while the ground floor is faced in channel-rusticated Portland limestone ashlar with an embellished frieze, dentilated entablature, and a projecting stepped and moulded plinth course. Window openings throughout are square-headed and arranged in pairs, with stone architrave surrounds, shared moulded stone sills, and triglyph brackets; the glazing consists of replacement timber casement windows. A modillioned cornice extends across both principal elevations.

The building was substantially altered around 2002, when the principal elevations were retained but a modern office structure was inserted behind them. A steel-framed, flat-roofed glazed upper storey has been added, set back behind both elevations. Four profiled stone ashlar chimneystacks with replacement terracotta pots rise from a lead-lined redbrick parapet wall with moulded stone coping.

Corner Entrance Frontispiece

The corner entrance is the most elaborately composed element of the building. It is laid out on a quadrant plan, stepped back slightly from both the north and west elevations, and constructed entirely in Portland limestone ashlar. At ground level, the square-headed door opening has a lugged architrave surround and retains a pair of original raised and fielded panelled oak doors with a carved Ulster Bank crest above. The doorway is flanked by a pair of engaged Doric columns on raised plinth blocks, which support a full entablature and pediment.

Above this, the upper two floors continue in Portland limestone, with a giant order of engaged Ionic columns supporting a full entablature, and a single square-headed window opening with an extended sill resting on an acroterium. The entablature is surmounted by a modillioned cornice. Above this rises a Portland limestone ashlar parapet wall forming a full circular drum, which supports a series of inverted fluted brackets and blind panels. The whole composition is crowned by a ribbed copper dome and finial.

North Elevation (May Street)

The north elevation is four windows wide and three storeys tall. At its centre is a recessed bay containing a square-headed bipartite window opening at first-floor level with an architrave surround, a pair of scrolled console brackets supporting a pediment, and a balustraded balcony. This central bay is flanked on either side by pairs of giant order engaged Ionic columns on shared bases, supporting a full entablature and stepped modillioned cornice. The redbrick parapet wall at the roofline is framed by a pair of Portland limestone chimneystacks.

A further square-headed door opening on this elevation has an architrave surround and plain entablature, with copper letters applied to the frieze spelling out "ULSTER BANK CHAMBERS" and an overpanel featuring swag carving. The recessed door is set within a stop-chamfer surround embellished with rosettes and retains its original decorative hardwood panelled door with glazed panel and decorative ironwork. The door opens onto nosed granite steps leading to the street, with an iron concertina gate.

At the easternmost bay, the ground floor has a pair of window openings and a tall door opening with plain stone surrounds. The first floor here has a single window opening with an architrave surround, pediment, a pair of triglyph brackets to the moulded sill, and a roundel panel above carved with a hand motif.

West Elevation (Cromac Street)

The west elevation is symmetrically fenestrated, with a central recessed bay arranged in the same manner as that on the north elevation.

East and South Elevations

The east elevation is largely rebuilt in modern redbrick, though its northernmost bay continues the paired window arrangement of the principal elevations. The south rear elevation is also rebuilt in modern redbrick, rising to four storeys, and is abutted by an adjoining redbrick building.