Former Short Brothers HQ, Airport Road, Belfast, Co. Antrim, BT3 9DZ

Former Short Brothers Headquarters, Airport Road, Belfast

This three-storey, 19-bay, steel-framed industrial office building was constructed in 1941 as the headquarters for the Belfast branch of Short Brothers, the aircraft manufacturing business. The architects were possibly Hobart & Heron, the Belfast-based partnership responsible for designing Short Brothers' earlier factory buildings on the same site. The building was originally two storeys high; a third storey was added in 1945, at which point a further two-storey block was also erected to the north-west and connected to the main building at first-floor level.

ARCHITECTURAL CHARACTER

The building is clad in red brick with a flat concrete roof, now covered with a modern proprietary membrane, and a brick parapet with concrete coping. Metal rainwater downpipes with hoppers are positioned at lintel level of the second storey. The brick cladding is laid in stretcher bond, with projecting pilaster-style detailing to the uprights that cover the structural frame. There is a painted concrete plinth, and the windows are square-headed uPVC units set within continuous concrete cill and lintel details. The building is a good example of 20th century administration architecture, with features typical of the era: flat roof, red-brick cladding with pilaster-style framing, and windows with multiple horizontal glazing bars.

PRINCIPAL ELEVATION (SOUTH-EAST FACING)

The principal elevation is the south-east-facing frontage. The first structural bay to the south, the central five bays with the entrance screen, and the 19th bay to the west all project forward of the main building line. The projecting bays have painted concrete plinth, continuous concrete cill and lintel with a stepped and curved cornice. The corners of the projecting bays carry painted and lined concrete pilaster detail rising to second-floor level, with embossed detail at the lintel level of the first-floor windows and the pilasters stepping back in two stages to the brick wall. To the remaining bays, the pilaster detail is in brick with similar embossed detailing in painted concrete to the top. At second-floor level, projecting brick pilasters mark the bays, running between cill level and the cornice at the top of the lintel. At ground-floor level, each bay has two square-headed window openings with uPVC windows. At first- and second-floor levels, each bay has a single large square-headed window opening with a uPVC window.

ENTRANCE SCREEN

The central entrance bay is the most architecturally distinguished element of the building. It features a pedimented gable with shoulders and a two-storey limestone entrance screen in the Art Deco style. The screen is articulated with a Giant Order of plain pilasters, with chevron panels below the window openings at first-floor level and a moulded cornice with angular brackets above. The door openings are tripartite in arrangement, square-headed and shouldered, with blank panels and swept hoods over metal gates to the openings. The pilasters at either end of the screen are topped with short engaged and carved columns, with a two-stage parapet and coping. Applied lettering reading 'SHORT BROTHERS', with the company logo, appears at the centre top of the screen. Three flagpoles are mounted to the parapet behind the pediment.

SOUTH-WEST ELEVATION

The south-west elevation is three storeys with one structural bay, detailed in the same manner as the principal elevation. The ground-floor centre has paired uPVC entrance doors with a fanlight under a curved concrete canopy, with steps and a curved ramp with a modern red-brick wall and metal handrail — all modern additions. There are three square-headed window openings to each floor, fitted with uPVC windows, and a painted concrete plinth with continuous concrete cill and lintel. A steel-protected access ladder to roof level is positioned at the north end.

NORTH-WEST BLOCK AND LINK

A two-storey link at first-floor level connects the main building to the north-west block at the fourth bay of the north-west elevation. The ground floor beneath the link has red-brick walls, with a modern infill section of red-brick walls and a pitched roof to the south-east. The link itself at first-floor level has red-brick walls, a flat roof with overhanging eaves detail, a dentilled cornice, and metal rainwater goods discharging through the eaves. The two-storey north-west block is similarly detailed, with a flat roof with overhanging eaves, a dentilled cornice, and metal rainwater goods discharging through the eaves. The north-west elevation of the three-storey block is detailed in the same manner as the south-east elevation, with the first-floor link at the fourth bay to the south-west.

NORTH-EAST ELEVATION

The north-east elevation mirrors the south-west elevation in character but without the entrance canopy at ground-floor level, and includes an opening with a roller shutter at first-floor level to the north.

INTERIOR

Despite the original metal windows having been replaced and the interior having been modernised throughout, the building retains its original Art Deco staircases internally.

HISTORICAL CONTEXT

Short Brothers was founded in 1908, initially selling Wright biplanes under licence from the Wright Brothers before moving on to designing its own aircraft. The company expanded significantly during the First World War, supplying aircraft for use on the Western Front and in the Mediterranean. During the 1920s and 1930s it developed flying boat-type aircraft, and in 1933 relocated its factory from Eastchurch in Kent to Rochester Airport. In 1936, the Air Ministry identified Belfast as an ideal location for a new aircraft factory. A new airfield had already been laid out at Sydenham, adjacent to the Harland & Wolff shipyards, with access to a deep-water dock and Belfast Lough. A new jointly owned company, Short & Harland, was established to operate the Belfast factory, with its first factories constructed in 1937 to designs by Hobart & Heron. The architectural partnership of Henry Hobart and Samuel Heron had been formed in 1904, initially based at Dromore, County Down, before establishing offices in Belfast at the Scottish Provident Buildings. The firm predominantly carried out commercial and industrial work during the 1930s, of which the aircraft factories at Sydenham were their largest contract. In addition to the factories, Hobart & Heron also designed a paint store, boiler house, compressor house, and sub-station for Short & Harland.

The First General Revaluation of Property in Northern Ireland (1936–57) set the combined value of Short & Harland's Airport Road facilities at £6,830, a figure that rose significantly as wartime expansion took hold. When the Rochester factory was badly damaged in a Luftwaffe bombing raid during the early years of the Second World War, production was increased at the Belfast factory, which was considered to be beyond the range of German bombers. The relocation of work to Belfast required additional manufacturing and administration facilities along Airport Road, increasing the rateable value of the site to £14,000 by 1941. The Administration Building was constructed in that year as part of this expansion. The Belfast factory itself was damaged during the Belfast Blitz of 1941, though the damage on Airport Road resulted only in a temporary slowdown in production. The third storey of the Administration Building, together with the two-storey rear extension, was added in 1945 to increase administration space.

After the Second World War, the Short Brothers factory at Rochester was closed and the company merged with Short & Harland to form Short & Harland Ltd., registered in Belfast in 1947. With production consolidated at the Belfast factory and new facilities developed, the rateable value of the company rose to approximately £31,000 by the 1950s and to £61,600 by the end of the Second General Revaluation of Property in Northern Ireland (1956–72). In 1977 Short & Harland Ltd. reverted to the name Short Brothers, and in 1989 the company was sold to Bombardier for £30 million.

SETTING AND MATERIALS

The building is located on the north side of Airport Road in the Titanic Quarter, on a level site with the main manufacturing sheds to the north-east and a car park to the south-east. It sits on the footpath, with a steel mesh boundary fence to the north and south. Roof: flat concrete with modern membrane covering. Rainwater goods: metal. Walls: brick and concrete. Windows: uPVC or powder-coated aluminium.