19 Donegall Square East, Belfast, County Antrim, BT1 5HE

19 Donegall Square East (incorporating No. 2 May Street), Belfast

This is a corner-sited, terraced former townhouse of three storeys over a basement with attic, built in sandstone ashlar around 1830. It was constructed as one of a group of three such dwellings forming part of a longer terrace along the eastern side of Donegall Square, and is among the only survivors of that original residential fabric. The building is rectangular on plan, facing west onto Donegall Square, and has been amalgamated with No. 2 May Street, which faces south. A slender three-storey red brick extension with attic was added to the east around 1900. The building is listed along with its iron railings.

Exterior

The roof is a single-span mansard type, covered in natural slate to the front pitch, with four box dormer windows to each elevation. There is a profiled rendered chimneystack to the north party wall and a further profiled red brick chimneystack to the east party wall. The roof sits behind a lead-lined parapet with a sandstone drip cornice, through which square-profile cast-iron downpipes break.

The principal walling is sandstone ashlar, channel-rusticated at ground-floor level below a continuous sill course at first-floor level, with a further pair of string courses at second-floor level. The rear elevation and the eastern extension are built in red brick laid in Flemish bond.

Window openings are square-headed throughout and fitted with replacement single-pane timber sash windows. The main entrance on the west elevation has a recessed square-headed door opening with a replacement timber panelled door, flanked by simple pilasters supporting a lintel cornice with an overpanel. A painted masonry architrave surround is flanked by scrolled brackets supporting a hood cornice. The door opens onto a platform approached by four steps with replacement tiling, bridging the basement area below; the whole is enclosed by the original spear-headed iron railings, which return to enclose the basement area.

The east elevation faces May Street and is six windows wide with an off-centre doorcase. Window and door openings are detailed in the same manner as the south elevation, except that the doorcase has a rectangular overlight, replacement double-leaf timber panelled doors, and decorative cast-iron lamps to the lower step.

The north side elevation is abutted by the adjoining No. 18 Donegall Square East. The rear elevation is largely obscured by rear extensions, a fire escape, and plant machinery. The east elevation is abutted by 4–10 May Street.

Setting and Group

The building forms part of a pair at the junction of Donegall Square East and May Street, with railed basement areas to both principal elevations. Nos. 18 and 19 together are the sole surviving examples of the original residential character of Donegall Square. A historical photograph shows the two buildings as part of an uninterrupted row of similarly designed three-storey townhouses, broken only by the Donegall Square Methodist Church. The contrast between No. 18, whose façade remains relatively unaltered, and No. 19, which has been considerably changed, illustrates the detrimental effect the later alterations have had on the terrace's original character.

Historical Background

Donegall Square was laid out in the late 18th century following the erection of the White Linen Hall in 1783–85, and was renamed in honour of the Second Marquis of Donegall, who resided at Donegall House at the corner of the square and Donegall Place. The area had originally formed part of the Castle Gardens in the 17th to early 18th century and lay outside the city walls. By 1819, only the south and east sides of the square had been significantly developed, with the structures erected at that time consisting mainly of private dwellings occupied by leading citizens of the town.

No. 19 first appears on the first edition Ordnance Survey map of Belfast, surveyed in 1832–33, which depicts a terrace along the eastern side of the square. The lease was originally acquired by a Mr Samuel Rea in September 1831, and the house was erected by Rea shortly thereafter. The contemporary Townland Valuations of around 1830 record the building as occupied by a Mr John Martin, valued at £54. The building is documented in Brett's Georgian Belfast: 1750–1850 and Patton's Central Belfast: An Historical Gazetteer, the latter describing it as a "three-storey block with basement and attic, in gingery-brown ashlar which has decayed with an unusual pitted pattern. Painted stone doorcases with slender scrolled volutes supporting entablatures; channelled ground floor; roof set behind stone parapet; some six-pane sashes survive along with cast-iron railings."

John Martin had died by 1843, when the Belfast Street Directory recorded that his widow was the sole occupant. By 1852 she had vacated and a Dr William McGee, a surgeon, was in residence. Dr McGee had left by at least 1859, when another surgeon, Dr Henry Ferguson, took possession of the lease, renting from Mr Robert Lepper, a cotton mill owner of Trainfield House on the New Lodge Road. The house's rateable value had by then decreased to £47.

No. 19 was vacant in 1868, having only recently been converted into office premises. By 1877 the offices were occupied by Robert Glass & Co., local linen merchants. In 1880 the building was converted into a hotel known as the Union Hotel, with its value rising to £140; the hotel operated for approximately a decade before closing in 1892.

The Young Men's Christian Association (YMCA) acquired the building in 1892 and converted it into their main Belfast offices. By 1900, as recorded in the Belfast Revaluation, the building was jointly occupied by the YMCA and the Young Women's Christian Association (YWCA): the YMCA occupied half of the ground floor and all of the first floor, while the YWCA occupied the remaining half of the ground floor (used as a dining room) and all of the second floor (used as a boarding house). The three-storey red brick extension on May Street had been added only recently by that date. The total value was set at £105 in 1900. It is possible that the May Street entrance door, which is not original, dates from around 1900 when the building was divided between the two organisations, providing separate access for the male and female bodies. A large meeting hall on the first floor was used for religious gatherings and lectures, and a number of other Christian organisations also used the premises.

By the time the Annual Revisions were cancelled in 1930, the building was occupied by the Church Lads Brigade and by Alliance Assurance Co. Ltd, who used half of the ground floor as offices. The value had risen to £427 by that date. Under the First General Revaluation of Northern Ireland in 1935, the rateable value was adjusted to £301 10s; at that time the building also housed the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel and the Bible Churchmen's Missionary Society.

No significant further revaluation was carried out for over two decades due to the disruption of the Second World War. In 1943 the YMCA continued to occupy the building, alongside Alliance Assurance Co. Ltd and the same religious organisations. Under the second revaluation of 1956–72, the value was reduced to £248. By the end of that period the YMCA remained, while the Church of Ireland Moral Welfare Association, the Bible Churchman's Missionary Society, and the Society for Irish Church Missions occupied the upper offices.

The dormer windows and mansard roof are later alterations, most likely added when the building was converted into a hotel or when the YMCA took possession between 1880 and 1892. Originally designed as a residential dwelling, the building was gradually converted to commercial and institutional use in the mid to late 19th century, as the commercial centre of Belfast shifted southwards toward Donegall Place and the linen warehouses of the period were established in the streets south of the square.

Nos. 18 and 19 Donegall Square East were listed together in 1986. No. 19 currently lies vacant but remains an important surviving example of a once-common type of Georgian townhouse in central Belfast. Other early 19th century examples survive on the neighbouring Chichester Street, Joy Street, Hamilton Street, and May Street. The building lies within a conservation area.