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

Attached symmetrical two-bay three-storey with half-dormer attic red brick former house and shop, built around 1907, located on the northern side of North Street in Belfast. The building is rectangular on plan. The rear elevation to the north is abutted by a full-height flat mono-pitched return, which is further abutted by a gable-fronted multi-storey red brick return.

The pitched natural slate roof has a pair of red brick chimneystacks to the east and west ends, adorned with 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 sections of roof.

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; frames and glass have been largely removed, with some openings boarded with plywood sheets. A pair of largely modern shopfronts occupies the ground floor.

The principal south elevation comprises a sandstone crown cornice on modillioned brackets over the second floor level, with a pair of segmental undulations corresponding to the 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 openings 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 a projecting foliated and scrolled sandstone keystone with segmental pediment over. Attic windows have projecting stone sills, brick architraves and are surmounted by a segmental-headed sandstone pediment breaking through the parapet coping. The attic windows are 3/3 timber casements, largely without glass, though the right-side window at No. 95 has a modern frame.

The pair of modernised square-headed shopfronts with integrated door openings to the ground floor is largely concealed behind plywood boards. Original subdividing brick piers remain over the modern fascia, with remnants of original painted sandstone pier to the left side, having a profiled capital matching that to the second floor.

The west elevation is abutted by the adjoining building No. 99-101. 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. The east elevation is abutted by the adjoining building.

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.