10 Ann Street, Belfast, County Antrim, BT1 4EF

A three storey commercial building of red brick, built in 1907–8 to designs by John Joseph McDonnell on the north side of Ann Street. It was constructed as licensed premises for Owen McMahon, a publican, with a cost of £1,400 including shop fittings. The building shows Arts and Crafts movement influence.

Architectural description

The roof is natural slate behind a stone coped solid parapet with concealed rainwater goods. The walls are primarily red brick laid in English garden wall bond, with brick pilasters defining arched bays and painted rendered decoration and panels. A projecting moulded cornice with large dentils and coffers to the soffit runs across the front.

The second floor windows are round-arched, springing from a painted moulded cornice, with painted rendered keystones and transitional voussoirs connecting to the adjacent arch, concrete and terracotta cill. These windows are 22-paned timber casements. The first floor has square-headed windows with rendered panels to lintels and concrete cills, fitted with 6-paned timber casements. The ground floor has a modern shop front.

The front south elevation is three windows wide with access to Crown Entry to the west. Above Crown Entry, a flat-arched 2-pane 1/1 timber sash window serves the second floor, one window wide. The elevation to Crown Entry is rendered to the ground floor with brick above; the flat arched window openings are mostly blocked with concrete blocks, except for a first floor opening containing a replacement 2-paned window. The side west and east elevations are abutted by modern buildings, as is the rear north elevation.

Historical context

The building was constructed on the site of a previous public house. Valuation records from 1907 document the construction of second floor joists for Owen McMahon, and the building entered the valuation lists in 1908 as a licensed shop, store and small yard valued at £85. A plan from 1908 shows the public bar with a store to the rear and WCs in a small yard at the rear.

Part of the building was initially divided to form a second shop (10a Ann Street), which was sub-let to James Nelson & Son, butchers. The first and second floors were let as billiard rooms to Andrew Moore. In 1910, McMahon complained that his receipts had fallen by £3 weekly due to early closing, and that the new electrified tram network to Queen's Island (introduced in 1905) had reduced his trade by a further £4 weekly.

In 1922, the bar was enlarged by removing the wall between numbers 10 and 10a, creating a single premises. At the same time, a new door was inserted in the centre of the Ann Street front; this work was estimated at £775 and resulted in the building's valuation more than doubling. Owen McMahon remained proprietor until approximately 1930, when ownership passed to his wife.

The building was taken over by Mary Taylor and became the Capstan Bar from approximately 1950 to the 1990s. It is currently in use as a restaurant with a bar on the upper floors.

Earlier history of the site

Historical sources note that a building on this site was the office of the Vindicator newspaper in 1840, whose editor Gavan Duffy later emigrated to Australia and became Premier of Victoria. The site has been occupied by spirit dealers since the 1850s and was Mrs Young's Circus hotel in 1860. The building sits hard on the narrow pedestrianised Ann Street, with Crown Entry running along its west side. Opposite stands the Masonic Hall.

The alterations to the ground floor and the loss of historic interiors compromise the building's architectural and historic interest. The building is located within a conservation area.