Phoenix Bar, 179-181 Antrim Road, Belfast, Co Antrim, BT15 2BE

Phoenix Bar

A gabled three-bay two-and-a-half-storey red-brick public house built in 1894–5, forming an end terrace on the eastern side of Antrim Road. The building is rectangular in plan with moulded detailing, a gabled central bay, and symmetrical upper floors above a modern ground floor shop front.

The steeply pitched slate roof has terracotta ridge-tiles and brick chimneys at each gable end. A brick parapet runs along the west elevation over heavily corbelled eaves. Corner pilasters rise from above the ground floor shop through to the parapets and are topped by spherical finials. The gabled central attic bay has a pitched roof with a single cusped-headed window to the centre, framed by similar pilasters and a finial at the apex of the gable. Rainwater goods are concealed, with uPVC downpipes. The walling is largely red brick laid to Flemish bond, embellished with mouldings, string courses, and foliated terracotta insets. All windows are timber or metal replacements. Openings are generally pairs of segmental-headed openings separated by painted foliated columns, with projecting keystones and labels over and moulded panels inset below a continuous cill course.

The principal elevation faces west and is three bays wide. The first floor has a pair of windows on either side of a canted bay window to the centre with a lead-capped roof. The entire ground floor has been built out in front of the main elevation with a modern rendered and painted shop front, a heavy projecting fascia carried on masonry columns, and modern entrance doors.

The north elevation is gabled and blank, rendered and painted at ground floor with vestiges of traditional painted signage remaining across the upper level. The eastern elevation is abutted by a two-storey slated and gabled return angled toward the south-east, which obstructs the view of the remaining east elevation. The rear extension is two-storey, gabled, and slated, with a small mono-pitched extension to the east. The right cheek of the rear return is plainly detailed with modern openings; the ground floor is rendered, but the upper floor is red brick laid to English garden wall bond. Windows are a mix of timber sash, metal frame, and modern timber casement. The south elevation is abutted by adjoining terrace.

The building was constructed in 1894–5 as a licensed premises for Patrick Leonard, wine merchant. It is first shown on the fourth edition Ordnance Survey map of 1901–2. Prior to construction, premises on the site had been occupied from at least the 1870s by Edward Hughes, spirit merchant, followed by his wife Elizabeth. In 1894 the site was cleared, and in 1895 the new licensed house and yard, valued at £70, was recorded at a construction cost of £2,500. Shortly after completion, the building was purchased for £4,180 by James Fleming, tea, wine and spirit merchant, who ran a public house on the premises until the 1940s. By 1960 the pub had been taken over by Phoenix Wine and Spirit Stores Limited, which continues to operate it to the present day. It is possible that architect Edward J Byrne, who had designed a shop and billiard room for Leonard elsewhere on Antrim Road ten years earlier, also provided designs for this building, though this remains speculative.

The building is located on the eastern side of Antrim Road opposite the junction with Cliftonville Road, at the southern end of a terrace. A passageway to the north leads to a small rear yard bounded by a modern brick wall to the east and the gable of a neighbouring structure to the north. A metal gate is attached to the north gable. Terraced houses are located to the east, and St James' Church of Ireland is situated a short distance to the north-west.

Although of local interest, the building has been compromised by alterations and loss of historic fabric and detailing. It is of relatively late date and a common type and not of special architectural or historic interest.