95-97 North Street, Belfast, Co. Antrim, BT1 1NL

Built around 1907 as an Edwardian red brick house over commercial premises on the north side of North Street in Belfast City Centre, this building exemplifies the stylistic exuberance of Edwardian domestic and commercial architecture. Though substantially altered, it retains significant architectural interest and provides an important reminder of the Edwardian character of this section of the city.

The building is an attached symmetrical two-bay three-storey structure with a half-dormer attic. It is rectangular on plan, with the rear elevation (north) abutted by a full-height flat or mono-pitched return, which is itself abutted by a gable-fronted multi-storey red brick return. The pitched natural slate roof features a pair of red brick chimneystacks to the east and west ends, adorned with a motif of round-headed recesses and ashlar sandstone upper sections surmounted by moulded coping and replacement terracotta pots. The south pitch is largely concealed behind a red brick parapet with sandstone coping and cornice. The parapet is pierced by a square-headed dormer to each bay, flanked by diminutive keyed round-headed openings through which the roof extends; uPVC rainwater goods are mounted to these projecting hipped roof sections.

The walling is machine-made red brick laid to Flemish bond with ashlar sandstone dressings, including flush horizontal banding across the first and second floors. Window openings are largely square-headed, with frames and glass generally removed and some boarded with plywood sheets.

The principal south elevation is characterised by energetic and elaborate carved sandstone detailing. A sandstone crown cornice on modillioned brackets surmounts the second floor level, with a pair of segmental undulations corresponding to projecting keystones over the second floor windows. Each bay is set within a two-tier round-headed shallow recess, sprung from simplified T-profiled sandstone capitals over a carved and panelled sandstone pier, extending to a red brick lower proportion at first floor level. The first and second floors each have a pair of window openings. First floor windows are square-headed with splayed sills, block-and-start moulded sandstone architraves, flush pedimented heads and flush rendered labels over. Second floor openings are segmental-headed with splayed sandstone sills, brick surrounds and projecting foliated and scrolled sandstone keystones with segmental pediments over. The attic windows have projecting stone sills, brick architraves and are surmounted by segmental-headed sandstone pediments breaking through the parapet coping; these are 3/3 timber casement windows, largely without glass (a modern frame is present to the right-side at No.95). A pair of modernised square-headed shopfronts with integrated door openings to the ground floor are largely concealed behind plywood boards. Original subdividing brick piers remain over the modern fascia, with remnants of an original painted sandstone pier to the left-side featuring a profiled capital matching that to the second floor.

The west elevation is abutted by the adjoining building No.99–101, and the east elevation by another adjoining building. The north elevation and those of the rear returns appear to be blank, with limited visibility due to surrounding buildings and no access to the rear yard. Much fine carved sandstone detailing remains despite substantial loss of historic material, including vestiges of one of the original shopfronts.

Historically, the building replaced a pair of earlier townhouses. The earlier occupants (c.1882–1905) included Mary Hanna and Isabella Griffith at No.95, and Henry Hanna at No.97, with rateable valuations of £21 and £19 respectively. The significant increase in rateable value around 1907—to £110 and £66 respectively—aligns with the construction of the present building. Contemporary Street Directories show McCann's fruit shop occupied No.95, with out-offices and domestic rooms extending over the shop at No.97, which housed James Nelson & Sons. By the 1911 Census, this was one of the few buildings on North Street to function as both a commercial premises and a dwelling. In 1921, the shop at No.97 was taken over by the British and Argentine Meat Co. Ltd, with valuations increasing to £190 and £108 respectively. The fruiterers at No.95 was taken over by P. McNamee in 1927, though the McCann family remained in the house above and later operated a café there during the mid-twentieth century. By this later period, No.97 was operating as a children's outfitters and the area headquarters of the British Legion.

The building is street-fronted with its principal elevation facing south onto North Street, forming part of a wider group of similarly dated commercial buildings. The rear yard appears to be overgrown and bounded by a rendered and painted wall, with a public car park to the north. The building is currently recorded as derelict.