56-70 Castle Street Belfast BT1 1HD

A substantial three-storey corner block in red brick, built between 1927 and 1928, possibly designed by David Wright Boyd. The building stands at the corner of Castle Street and Queen Street in Belfast city centre, with its longer north elevation facing Castle Street and other buildings abutting to the south and west.

The block has a broadly rectangular plan with a slight splay to the southeast corner, topped by a flat roof concealed behind a parapet. The structure is executed in the vaguely Renaissance-inspired manner typical of early 20th-century urban commercial buildings.

The ground floor, originally divided into four retail units with separate access doors to the upper floors, now forms a single large shop. This level has been heavily modified, with modern glazing and roller shutters filling what were the original shop fronts, and timber and laminate cladding covering much of the façade and the deep signboard frieze area above.

The upper floors are rendered in brick with cement render (or stone) stringcourses. Rows of uniform, deeply-set window openings punctuate both elevations, all now fitted with replacement timber frames. The first-floor windows have segmental heads, while those above are flat-headed and separated by pilasters. Every second pilaster projects further and rises through the parapet to a pyramidal stone or cement finial topped with a ball. The parapet features a diaper pattern in blue-grey brick positioned over each window.

The building's most distinctive feature is the full-height bowed bay at the southeast corner facing Queen Street, executed in a late Art Nouveau manner and finished in cut sandstone. This bay contains a recessed central doorway at ground level with a deep segmental-arched fanlight, flanked by porthole-like windows with moulded swags. The doorway itself, which may be a replacement, has a timber panel door. The first floor of the bay contains three two-light windows with segmental heads to the upper lights, whilst the second floor has three single-light windows, also segmental-headed, with moulded colonette features to the pilasters and jambs. The bay is topped with a rusticated parapet in which the colonettes continue through a stringcourse. An iron corner guard stamped "The Millfield Foundry 1928" marks the left edge of the bay.

The south elevation is largely obscured by a lower two-storey neighbouring building (no. 3 Queen Street, constructed c.1955-60 as a store for this property), but where visible, the upper floors show rows of windows similar in character to those on the main street frontages.

The site was formerly occupied by several buildings including a public house and shops, all in the hands of Patrick McPolin until the late 1910s. These were demolished by 1922, leaving vacant ground that remained so until 1924. The present structure was likely completed by 1928 or shortly before. The identity of the architect remains uncertain, though David Wright Boyd is a possibility, as the Irish Builder reported in February 1924 that he was working on shops and stores in Mill Street. The building may have been developed by Charles McCloskey & Co., handkerchief manufacturers, who appear in the valuation records as lessee.

The ground floor originally contained four shops: two held by Michael Sharpe, one by Edward Bradley, and one by Nathan Rapaport. The first floor housed a wareroom occupied by milliners Hall, Higham & Co., accessed from Queen Street, with a similar space on the second floor eventually let around 1931 to R. Atkinson & Co., poplin manufacturers. McCloskey & Co. occupied the second floor during the late 1930s. Over subsequent decades the building housed various tenants, including architect Daniel J. MacRandal, who occupied offices on the first floor in the later 1940s and 1950s and subsequently served as President of the Royal Society of Ulster Architects. From the later 1950s, Lipton Ltd. grocers, whose shop occupied the eastern end of the ground floor, began expanding with the addition of a separate store to the south. By the mid-1960s they occupied the whole ground floor. Lipton Ltd. was acquired by J. & J. Foods (Mace) in 1975, with the current shop taking over the ground floor premises in 1997.

The building does not meet the criteria for listing. All window frames have been replaced, and much of the ground-floor façade has been obscured by modern cladding.