Clarendon Building, Clarendon Quay, Belfast, Co Antrim, BT1 3AL

Clarendon Building (Former Pumping Station), Clarendon Dock, Belfast

Overview

This is the former pumping station for the Clarendon graving docks, built around 1825–1826 on the west side of Belfast Harbour. It was designed by David Logan (died c.1839), a Scottish architect who was resident engineer at Donaghadee Harbour before his appointment by the Belfast Ballast Board in 1823. The building is one of a group — together with the furnace house and the two scheduled graving docks — that represents the earliest surviving graving dock complex at Belfast Harbour and the last physical remnants of the Georgian shipbuilding enterprise established here by William Ritchie. It has been restored and is now in office use, with much of its historic exterior fabric and detailing intact, though all original interior fabric was lost during renovation.

Historical Background

Shipbuilding had been taking place on the west side of the River Lagan for decades before William Ritchie (1756–1834), a native of Ayrshire in Scotland, established his business at this site in 1791 with his brother Hugh — the first major shipbuilding enterprise in the city. In 1796 the Belfast Ballast Board commissioned Ritchie to construct a graving dock on land granted by the Marquis of Donegall; No. 1 graving dock was completed in 1800 after four years of work. No. 2 graving dock followed in 1826, constructed to the north of the first; it was slightly longer, deeper, and had steeper sides, reflecting advances in shipbuilding technology in the intervening years.

The pumping station itself was constructed in 1825–1826 simultaneously with No. 2 graving dock. Its engine (pump) house originally accommodated machinery designed to force water in and out of both dry docks. The detached furnace house to the north-west of the range was built at the same time and contained the furnace for the dock's tar boiler.

The buildings are first shown on the first edition of the Ordnance Survey map of 1832–33, which clearly depicts the oblong workshop and the detached furnace house, and predates the Clarendon wet dock, which was completed in 1851. By the second edition Ordnance Survey map of 1858, the wet dock was in place and the building is captioned as 'Engine Ho[use]', with no alteration recorded. The contemporary Griffith's Valuation of 1860 included these buildings within a single joint valuation covering the gate lodge, offices, deputy harbour master's house, workshops, stores, graving dock and yard, totalling £800. Between 1861 and 1882 the group was divided into two separate valuation records — one for the graving docks alone, and another for the gate house, offices, deputy harbour master's house, the basalt engine (pump) house, and associated workshops, valued at £357. This figure remained unchanged until 1902, when it was raised to £437 following the addition of a workshop from a neighbouring former feltworks. Between 1906 and 1915 the deputy harbour master's house was separated from the joint record and valued individually at £10.

The 1901 Census recorded the two-storey deputy harbour master's house as a first-class dwelling and harbour office with six inhabited rooms, at that time occupied by Samuel Young (aged 35, Methodist), who was employed as a harbour policeman or caretaker rather than as harbour master.

A tall chimney originally rose from behind the pump house but had been demolished by the time of the 1959–60 Ordnance Survey map. The central workshop range originally had eight open arches, which were subsequently filled in; the building originally housed a carpenters' workshop, stores, and sheds, with rigging lofts above.

The building was listed Grade A in 1975, though by 1987 it had fallen out of use. In 1989 the Laganside Development Corporation was charged with regenerating a stretch of the River Lagan from the Albert Bridge to the Abercorn Basin. An extensive restoration was carried out and completed in 1991–1992 by Ferguson and McIlveen, who inserted a new steel structure and altered the arcaded stone workshop's original double-pile roof to include a shallow central vault. While the exterior was restored to its original Georgian character, the renovation resulted in the loss of all original interior fabric. The building subsequently served as headquarters for Laganside Corporation and was vacant at the time the listing record was compiled. A small modern pump house was constructed to the south-east side of the former basalt engine (pump) house in the late 19th century and continues to serve graving dock No. 2, which remains in use.

Architectural Description

The building has an I-shaped footprint, originally comprising an arcaded central workshop terminated by a classically proportioned single-storey pump house to the east and a one-and-a-half-storey rendered Dock Master's house to the west. Although each element is clearly defined, the whole forms a harmonious overall composition. The building demonstrates Logan's clear regard for aesthetic properties as well as functional requirements.

The central and east blocks have replacement hipped natural slate roofs with leaded ridges and hips; the roof to the east block is partially concealed behind a stucco parapet. Half-round cast-iron rainwater goods are fitted to projecting tooled stone eaves on the central and west blocks; parapet gutters serve the east block; French drains run around the perimeter. A rendered chimney stack rises from the gable of the west block, and a brick chimney on a curved base sits on the party wall between the central and west blocks. A continuous modern rooflight runs along the ridge of the central section, and there are several rooflights to each pitch.

The three blocks differ in their construction and finish. The central block is of rubble stone construction bedded in lime mortar with tooled ashlar sandstone dressings. The east block is of rock-faced dressed blackstone laid in irregular courses with fine joints over a narrow stone plinth, with stucco dressings. The west block is finished in ruled-and-lined render with a projecting plinth and corner banding rising to pedimented gables.

Openings throughout are generally round-headed except where otherwise noted. Those in the central block have tooled stone surrounds with replacement margin-paned glazing. Openings in the east and west blocks have moulded archivolts set within slightly recessed wide surrounds framed by a further stucco archivolt (generally plain, except where noted). All windows are replacement timber: multi-paned casements to the east block, and 1/1 sashes to the west block. Sills are of painted projecting stone.

The central workshop block presents eight arcaded openings to both the north and south elevations, each surmounted by a rectangular panel with a tooled ashlar surround and replacement stone cills over a concrete plinth; these arches were formerly open. The west block (the Dock Master's house) is one bay deep to both north and south, with an arched window recessed within a similarly profiled keyblocked arch to the ground floor, and a rectangular side-hung casement with plain architrave to the upper floor. The west elevation is three openings wide to each floor, centred on an entrance comprising a round-arched, half-glazed replacement timber door detailed to match the window openings.

The east block (the pump house) is classically proportioned and three openings wide. Its stucco parapet is punctuated by panelled piers over pilasters at each corner and between the openings on the east front. There is a plain frieze and a moulded cornice; the pilasters are panelled in their upper portions and reeded below. The east front has a central replacement glazed timber door flanked by a window on each side. The south elevation has three round-arched windows: the centre and left-hand openings share a reveal, with moulded rather than plain archivolts to the central window and outer archivolts on plinth blocks; the right-hand opening is taller and narrower. The north elevation has a replacement panelled timber door to the left and a window to the right.

Setting

The former pumping station is positioned between two graving docks at Clarendon Dock: the late 18th-century Graving Dock No. 1 to the west and the early 19th-century Graving Dock No. 2 to the east, both opening to Belfast Lough at their eastern end. Immediately to the west is the former furnace house, and a short distance to the south is the Harbour Office. The area has been subject to substantial late 20th-century public realm works, and the complex now sits on a paved terrace with contemporary office developments to the north, public sculpture — 'Dividers' by Vivien Burnside — to the east, and car parking to the west. Vehicular access is from Corporation Street; pedestrian access is from Donegall Quay. A late 19th-century replacement pump house stands to the west of the complex.