Ucatt House, 79-81 & 83 May Street, Belfast, County Antrim, BT1 3Jl

UCATT House, 79–81 and 83 May Street, Belfast

UCATT House is an Edwardian freestyle terraced red-brick public house, built around 1920 to designs by the Belfast-based architect William J. Gilliland (1859–1929). It occupies the south side of May Street in Belfast city centre, sited between Cromac Street and Verner Street, forming a terrace of three with a modern four-storey block abutting to the west, the High Courts opposite, and St George's Market directly to the east. The listing covers both nos. 79–81 and the adjoining no. 83 May Street, which are now under the same ownership and have been combined to form a single large bar area at ground and first floor.

The building represents a sophisticated synthesis of the Queen Anne and Arts and Crafts styles, with some fine Art Nouveau detailing. It is a relatively rare example of this style of architecture in Belfast. Much of the external architectural fabric survives intact, though the majority of the historic interior has been lost through refurbishment.

Nos. 79–81 May Street (UCATT House)

This is a two-storey, two-bay terraced building, rectangular on plan. The roof is pitched natural slate with terracotta ridge tiles and raised sandstone verges. Walling is Flemish-bonded red brick with embellished carved foliate dressings and a sandstone string course between floors. The principal elevation faces north and is symmetrically arranged.

At ground floor level, the pub-front features bowed timber-sheeted windows vertically divided by timber pilasters, with multi-paned casements above. The pub-front at first floor is set into a flat-pointed sandstone arch with a carved console keyblock and is flanked by paired chamfered pilasters with Corinthian capital heads. The recessed entrance contains modern double-leaf timber doors with a glass panel and a six-paned transom light; the floor of the recessed entrance is finished in mosaic tiles. An apex pediment bears the date of construction.

At first floor, there is a large bowed sandstone mullioned and transomed leaded window with five panes, flanked by two slender windows. The window surround has an ornately carved keyblock and is flanked by sandstone panels with carved wreaths. All windows are leaded casements with clear and coloured glass. Sandstone string courses and window surrounds are present at first floor level.

The south, or rear, elevation has a modern fire exit at ground floor, a metal casement window to landing level on the left, and three metal casement windows to first floor. The east elevation is almost entirely abutted by the adjoining no. 83 May Street, and the west elevation is abutted by the modern four-storey block.

No. 83 May Street

No. 83 is a two-storey corner building. The ground floor is finished in green faience tiles over a brown ceramic-tiled plinth, which has been recently painted gold. The first floor is red brick. The building has a double-pitched natural slate roof, largely concealed behind a parapet on the front and side elevations, and brick chimneys.

The front elevation is symmetrical, with a central door in an arched opening carried on stilts with glazed spandrels and sidelights, and corner stops carrying wreaths and fasces under a cornice. At first floor, there are three one-over-one sash windows with segmental heads and a decorative brick string course above. Projecting brick pilasters frame the bays, including projecting brick quoins.

The east elevation is divided into three bays, with faience-faced arches at ground level and two one-over-one sash windows per bay. In the left-hand bay, the sashes have been removed and replaced with a small modern casement window.

Materials: natural slate roof; Flemish-bonded red brick and faience walling (no. 83); sandstone dressings; leaded casements with clear and coloured glass. There is no recorded rainwater goods.

History

Construction of nos. 79–81 was completed in 1920, when the building was first valued in the Annual Revisions. In that year it was let by the Corporation of Belfast to Torney Bros. Ltd., fruit importers and produce merchants, who had their head office in nearby Oxford Street. The building was initially valued at £265, though this had decreased to £190 by the end of the Annual Revisions in 1930; the reason for this reduction is not known. In 1933 a Mr J. M. Adair took possession and established a seed trading business from the premises.

In 1935, nos. 79–81 were valued together with the then-unfinished Telephone Exchange at the corner of Cromac Street and May Street at £3,000. It was not until 1956 that the building was again valued separately, at £300, subsequently reduced to £240 under the 1957 Rent and Valuation Act, at which it remained to the end of the second revaluation of property in 1972.

In 1956 the building passed into the possession of the Amalgamated Society of Woodworkers, a trade union representing joiners and carpenters in the United Kingdom and a precursor to UCATT. In 1971 this society merged with the Amalgamated Union of Building Trade Workers to form the Union of Construction Allied Trades and Technicians, which continued to occupy the premises. According to Patton, the building was originally constructed between 1916 and 1920 to designs by Gilliland, who approached it in a distinctly Arts and Crafts style. Gilliland was primarily a designer of commercial and industrial premises, a founder member of the Ulster Society of Architects, and from 1912 a councillor for Victoria Ward.

UCATT vacated nos. 79–81 in the 1990s, when the site was acquired by the neighbouring Magennis Bar at no. 83 May Street, which had also originally been constructed around 1920. In 1998 the Belfast Town Planning Committee granted permission for the conversion of nos. 79–81 (together with nos. 1–3 Verner Street) into an extension of the adjoining pub. This conversion was completed around 2000, after which the combined premises became known as Ronnie Drew's bar. No. 83 itself stands on a site that was occupied by a grocer's shop in 1840 and by a public house from 1850.

The setting has been compromised by the modern four-storey building to the west, but UCATT House and no. 83 May Street together form a composition of architectural distinction and relate positively to St George's Market to the east.