Factory, 3-19 Rydalmere Street, Belfast, Co Antrim, BT12 6GF

Large red brick factory complex at 3-19 Rydalmere Street, Belfast, built mainly between 1919 and 1921 by the York Street Flax Spinning Company — at the time one of the largest yarn spinning companies in Ireland — and further developed over the following 25 years. The complex originally extended further north to Lemberg Street, but the northern portion has since been demolished and is now open ground. As it stands, the site comprises four buildings: one fronting Rydalmere Street (Building 1) and three fronting Empire Street (Buildings 2, 3, and 4). The complex is of industrial archaeological interest and sits within a late Victorian residential setting of two-storey terraced housing along both Rydalmere Street and Empire Street, with a modern industrial warehouse to the west of the northern end of Building 1. At the southern end of the complex, beyond the yard wall, are several small single-storey buildings including a now-defunct shop.

Throughout the complex, recurring decorative details include dentilled courses of alternating clay and concrete bricks set end-on, moulded terracotta drip moulds over window openings, and a projecting chamfered purple brick base course beneath walls of red brick. These motifs give the complex a coherent architectural character that blends Victorian materials with a modernist approach to the solid-to-void ratio of the walling.

BUILDING 1

The largest and most imposing of the four buildings. A two-storey, 16-bay structure running north to south along the east side of Rydalmere Street, erected by the York Street Flax Spinning Company in 1919–21. According to company records it measured 204 feet by 50 feet in external plan and stood 38 feet high. It was built of brick with a bituminised reinforced concrete roof and contained two fireproof staircases. The walls were reportedly built thick enough to allow additional storeys to be added if required.

The building has a flat roof with a concrete-coped brick parapet running around the entire perimeter. Replacement plastic downpipes drain from hoppers at the base of the parapets. The parapet piers are shallow and have decorative terracotta panels to their outer faces; the walls between the piers are slightly recessed and scalloped. All external walls are of red brick over the projecting chamfered purple brick base course. A moulded concrete cornice runs around the entire building at the base of the roof parapet. All openings are square-headed with concrete heads and sills and metal window frames unless noted otherwise.

The south elevation faces into the yard. At the left is a wide roller-shuttered door, above which is a similarly shuttered loading door. To the right of these are five window openings arranged one above the other at varying heights, probably lighting an internal staircase. The bottom three are infilled with brick; the top two retain their 3x3 top-opening metal-framed windows. The uppermost window opening is in the south elevation of a single-storey roof extension with a hipped natural slate roof (with a finial at the east end), a brick chimney, plain timber eaves boards with no surviving gutters, and a window and/or door opening to its north elevation. The remainder of the south elevation is blank apart from vestiges of a modern plastic sign at top left and an "entrance" sign at bottom right.

The west elevation fronts directly onto Rydalmere Street. It is 16 bays long and symmetrical, with all bays except the two end bays slightly recessed. Modern metal security grilles have been inserted over all openings and metal sheeting has been fixed across the lower halves of the ground-floor openings. The end bays are identical to each other and contain 1x6-paned windows at ground floor and 3x6-paned windows at first floor. These windows are slightly inset from the face of the wall, and a thin horizontal terracotta drip mould sits above the ground-floor window head. The walls of these end bays are further decorated on both floors with a yellow brick sill course. The remaining 14 bays have 4x6-paned windows to both floors, with their window openings set in metal channels. Above the first-floor window heads in these bays is a dentilled course of alternating concrete bricks set end-on and moulded terracotta specials, and a terracotta drip mould over both sets of openings.

The north elevation has window openings of varying height distributed over five columns and four rows, all of which are now either infilled with concrete blockwork or covered with metal sheeting. The right-hand end of this elevation is obscured by ivy. A single-storey roof extension rises above the roof parapet and is detailed in the same manner as the extension at the south end. Its east end has been cut through by a later insertion with a flat concrete roof and dark-red brick walls, which was probably a motor room for a lift serving the adjacent stairwell. There are several small rectangular openings around the top of this later structure and a 3x3-paned window to its north side.

The east elevation could not be fully viewed from the street. The visible north bay suggests it is similar to the west elevation, including the terracotta detailing on the roof parapet piers. In this bay the ground-floor door is covered with metal sheeting, has a 3x3-paned overlight and a terracotta drip mould above; the first-floor window has been infilled with brick and replaced with a small 2x4-paned window. There is also a yellow brick sill course at each floor level. The roof is of natural slate, gutters are concealed, and downpipes are plastic.

A passageway from Empire Street gives access to a back entrance at the north end of the east elevation. At the street end of this passage is a pair of replacement metal gates set in a three-centred brick archway with a concrete keystone, chamfered string courses at arch spring level, and a concrete-coped gable above the arch. A plastic sign reading "Drift 'n' Wood Clothing Ltd" is fixed above the arch. At the base of each archway jamb is a cast-iron wheel guard embossed "Victor C. Taylor / Maker / Belfast" — Taylor operated the Atlas Foundry on Townsend Street, Belfast.

BUILDING 2

A two-storey, five-bay building with returns at both ends, running north to south along Empire Street towards the northern end of the premises. It was erected as offices and stores in 1919–21. Company records give its dimensions as 65 feet by 27 feet by 42 feet high, with a 12 feet by 27 feet by 29 feet annex at the north. The ground floor contained a packing and dispatch room and the first floor contained offices; the building was connected at first-floor level to Building 1. An annex was added to the south end during the Second World War, bringing the overall dimensions to 86 feet by 27 feet by 37 feet.

The building has a hipped natural slate roof. Walls are of red brick over the projecting chamfered purple brick base course. An advanced concrete eaves detail is present below a dentilled course of alternating concrete and red brick. Rainwater goods are a mix of metal and plastic. All openings are square-headed with concrete heads and sills and timber window frames unless noted otherwise. Metal security grilles have been fitted to all street-facing openings, with metal sheeting additionally covering the lower halves of the ground-floor openings.

The east elevation fronts directly onto Empire Street and has five bays of windows to each floor: 4x6-paned at ground floor and 4x5-paned at first floor. There is also a brick-infilled doorway at the left (south) end of the ground floor. The wall is embellished with yellow brick platbands running across the ground floor just above sill level and at sill level on the first floor.

The north gable is abutted by a slightly lower and narrower single-bay return with a hipped natural slate roof, walling detailed as the main building including the platbands, a doorway to its north elevation, and a 4x4-paned window to its east elevation. Above the east window are four decorative terracotta panels set into the wall. A further single-storey building was subsequently added to the west side of this return, and then another between that addition and Building 1, though neither could be accessed.

The south gable is abutted by a slightly lower and narrower return. To its left is a first-floor window. This return is detailed as the main section except for its flat concrete roof with a dentilled course beneath. It has a 4x6-paned window at ground floor and a narrow 2x5-paned window at first floor. The return's south elevation is abutted by Building 3, and there is a 1x4-paned window at first-floor level. The west elevation of Building 2 could not be accessed. The roof is natural slate and windows are multi-paned timber.

BUILDING 3

A one-storey, eight-bay infill building running north to south along Empire Street between Buildings 2 and 4. It was erected sometime between 1946 and 1958 by the Ulidia Clothing Company. It has a pitched corrugated asbestos cement fibre roof with three circular metal ridge ventilators. Rainwater goods comprise a steel box gutter along the wall head and a circular cast-metal downpipe.

The east elevation wall may well be part of the original 1912 boundary wall around the premises. It is of red brick over the projecting chamfered purple brick base course and features eight recessed panels, all with dentilated heads detailed in the same manner as the eaves of Building 2. Both end panels are blank; four have rectangular window openings with concrete sills, now sheeted over; and two have square openings without sills, also sheeted over. The windows in these panels may be later insertions. The west elevation could not be accessed.

BUILDING 4

A two-storey, seven-bay building running north to south along Empire Street towards the southern end of the premises, erected sometime between 1920 and 1925. The four southern bays are wider than the three northern bays: the southern section was the boiler room and the northern section the engine room. Company records describe the boiler room as measuring 59 feet by 38 feet by 41 feet high and the engine room as 40 feet by 25 feet by 35 feet high; both were single undivided spaces internally. The engine room contained a steam turbine and several electricity dynamos. The boiler was automatically stoked and also generated steam for the factory's central heating system. A chimney at the southern end of the boiler room is shown on Ordnance Survey maps, now gone. The generating plant was kept on standby during the Second World War to supply the wider area should the municipal electricity supply have been seriously disrupted.

The building has pitched natural slate roofs with skylights to the west slope of bays 1 to 4 (numbered from the south end), raised and concrete-coped verges with corbelled concrete shoulders, a raised firewall between the two sections, and slatted timber ridge ventilators to both sections. Rainwater goods are a mix of metal and plastic. Walls are of red brick over the projecting chamfered purple brick base course with the advanced concrete eaves and dentilled course of alternating concrete and red brick as seen elsewhere on the complex.

The ground floor of the north gable is abutted by Building 3. The exposed section has two segmental-headed recessed panels with concrete keystones. The east elevation fronts directly onto Empire Street. All ground-floor openings are completely covered with metal sheeting and first-floor openings are filled with metal security grilles. All openings on this elevation are windows. Those in bays 1 to 4 have projecting concrete sills and flat concrete heads; those in bays 5 to 7 have flush concrete sills and segmental brick heads. With the exception of bay 1 (which has a 2x3-paned replacement window), all first-floor windows are 4x5-paned timber frames with segmental brick heads and flush concrete sills. The ground- and first-floor windows in each bay are set in recessed panels detailed as the north gable. The south gable, being wider, has three recessed panels detailed in the same way and a circular window opening in the gable apex.

The west elevation faces into the yard. Bays 1 to 4 have no ground-floor openings except for one roller-shuttered door. Originally there were four first-floor windows — one to each bay — each 4x6-paned timber frames, but one has been enlarged to accommodate a roller-shuttered loading door. As on the east elevation, the openings are set in segmental-headed recessed panels. The west elevation of bays 5 to 7 was not accessible. A walkway clad in corrugated asbestos sheeting connects this building with Building 1 at first-floor level.

YARD WALL

A wall wraps around an open yard at the southern end of the premises. The west wall along Rydalmere Street has been rebuilt in modern brickwork and contains a set of folding steel gates forming the main site entrance. The western half of the south wall has been rebuilt in shuttered concrete, but the eastern half is original brickwork with shallow brick pilasters to its inside face. Between these two sections is an opening for a previous gateway, long since infilled with concrete blockwork. The east wall along Empire Street is also an original wall and has three recessed panels with dentilated heads identical to those on the east wall of Building 3.

HISTORY

This plot was first developed in 1919 by the York Street Flax Spinning Company. The Valuation revision books note a "factory in progress" during 1919 and 1920. The 1920 Ordnance Survey map shows a building along the east side of Rydalmere Street captioned as a "flax spinning mill" (Building 1) and a second building towards the north end of the Empire Street side (Building 2). The 1921–22 Belfast and Province of Ulster Street Directory records the York Street Flax Spinning Company as present on Rydalmere Street, though the 1922 Valuation notes the factory was "not fully utilised" — possibly because Building 4 (the engine house and boiler house) had not yet been completed. The 1924–30 Valuation revision book suggests Building 4 had been completed by 1925, describing the premises simply as "factory". All four buildings appear on the 1931 Ordnance Survey map. There were no further significant developments in the 1930s, as the 1937 Ordnance Survey map is identical to the 1931 edition.

Sometime in the late 1930s the York Street Spinning Company vacated the premises. The buildings were then requisitioned by the Admiralty as stores, while the generating plant was kept on standby against potential serious disruption to the municipal electricity supply. The factory remained under Admiralty control at the end of the Second World War. In June 1946 the premises were purchased by the Ulidia Clothing Company Ltd for £22,500. It was probably this company that built the infill building (Building 3) between Buildings 2 and 4 along Empire Street, which appears on the 1958–59 Ordnance Survey map. The Ulidia Clothing Company was still in operation in 1965. The most recent occupant was the Drift 'n' Wood Clothing Company. The buildings now lie empty.