Castle Buildings, 1 Castle Street, Lisburn, County Antrim, BT27 4SP

Castle Buildings is an early 20th-century multi-bay, three-storey commercial building, built around 1890 on a prominent corner site overlooking Market Square in Lisburn, designed by local architect George Sands. It was constructed for Alexander Boyd and Company by contractors Messrs D and P McHenry and was formerly known as Boyd's of Castle Buildings, once the pre-eminent store in Lisburn. The building makes an important contribution to the architectural heritage of the town and sits within a conservation area.

The main structure is a corner-sited, three-storey building in redbrick and stucco. The south elevation onto Castle Street has three bays, the corner elevation faces Market Square with a single chamfered bay, and the west elevation onto Railway Street has seven bays. A separate two-storey, three-bay redbrick wing to the east is accessed from Castle Buildings and is attributed to Roy Ervine. The hipped natural slate roof is hidden behind a balustraded parapet wall, interrupted by squat chimney piers with cornices and chimney pots, which rise from a continuous cornice below. Rainwater goods are cast iron.

The redbrick walling is laid in Flemish bond and is articulated by a series of full-height rendered pilasters, channel-rusticated to the first floor. A continuous sill course marks the transition to the second floor, above which sits a deep moulded continuous cornice. The pilasters continue above the cornice as profiled squat piers forming the chimney features to the parapet. First-floor window openings are square-headed with architrave surrounds, painted masonry sills, and original two-over-two timber sash windows with horizontal glazing bars. Second-floor window openings are segmental-headed and fitted with single-pane timber sash windows, some of which also retain horizontal glazing bars.

An original stucco-fronted shopfront spans the entire ground floor across both the Castle Street and Railway Street elevations. It comprises a series of full-height display windows — some with timber transoms and mullions — set on a moulded plinth course, flanked by large full-height piers that support a continuous fascia and cornice above. The principal entrance is provided by the single-bay chamfered corner, which has an architrave surround, double-leaf glazed doors, and an iron gate to the street. First- and second-floor office accommodation is accessed via a separate entrance on Castle Street, which has a three-centred arched door opening with a timber doorcase comprising a four-flat-panelled timber door flanked by a pair of Ionic fluted columns on replacement bases, supporting a lintel cornice with a Greek key pattern, with a glazed fanlight above. Raised lettering above the doorcase reads "CASTLE CHAMBERS". A separate shop unit on Railway Street is accessed via a recess in the shopfront with a tiled floor and a pair of angled door openings fitted with glazed timber doors and overlights, enclosed by a pair of steel gates to the street.

Castle Buildings was built in 1890 for Alexander Boyd and Company to designs by George Sands, a local architect responsible for several schools and shops in the area. Annual Revisions records dating from 1890 to 1901 list Castle Buildings as occupied by Alexander Boyd and Co Ltd and leased from Samuel Musgrave MD. It was used as a shop, offices, stores, and yard and was initially valued at £95. By 1901 a deduction was made because the third floor had been let to a masonic body. Previously on the site stood a house and dispensary owned by Samuel Musgrave, a well-known figure in the town, whose father had also been a doctor and was tried as a supporter of the United Irishmen.

Alexander Boyd started his business around 1860 and, in the years before opening Castle Buildings, occupied several premises in Lisburn. His business interests ranged widely, covering the roles of druggist, grocer, wine merchant, spirit dealer, and insurance agent. He was also an active freemason. In 1872 he took on James A. Hanna as an assistant, and by 1878 had virtually handed the business over to him. On Boyd's death in 1879, the business was taken over by his brother-in-law, James Alister, and continued to be run by Hanna. The business prospered and in 1890 George Sands was commissioned to design the new premises.

A contemporary reporter described the completed building as "one of the most complete, extensive and ornate establishments to be found in any provincial town in Ireland." The shops were finished in pitch pine, with elaborate fittings of oak, walnut, mahogany, and ebony, with mirror panels. Electric lighting was used — quite an innovation at the time — with eight arc lamps of 1,000 candlepower, six of them outside the building, supplied with current from a generator driven by a Crossley gas engine. Interior lighting was provided by wrought iron gas brackets. Speaking tubes connected the shops to the stores upstairs, and a hand-operated hoist was used for moving goods to and from the two large stores on the first and second floors. The goods entrance was from Railway Street, using part of what is now the pharmacy, and there was a stable on the first floor in a store in the yard, accessed by a wooden ramp. The gas engine had a heavy stone wheel started by hand. Hector Hanna, elder son of James A. Hanna, recalled that his father used to start the wheel himself and came home with his veins swollen by the strain; the old wheel remained visible in the Castle Buildings yard. The entire building was reportedly constructed in twelve months, considered an astonishingly short period given the level of craftsmanship involved.

The shop operated as a grocer's and pharmacy, with a tonic wine business that continued until changes in the licensing laws in 1924, and a coal business opened in 1921. At its height, Boyd's was the pre-eminent store in Lisburn and beyond. In 1941, the Duke of Abercorn, then Governor of Northern Ireland, transferred his patronage to Boyd's from the Bank Buildings Grocery department in Belfast. Boyd's were officially appointed suppliers to the Duke, beginning an association with Government House that remained unbroken until 1973, when the office of Governor was abolished and Lord Grey left the province. On two occasions, presentation boxes of chocolates were specially manufactured for Boyd's by Rowntree's and presented to Government House for use during royal visits.

James Alister and James Hanna were not on good terms, and eventually Alister sold his shareholding to Hanna, who became in effect the owner of the company. Hanna became prominent in the Lisburn community, serving as a member of Lisburn Urban District Council from 1900 to 1920, as a prime mover in the establishment of Lisburn Technical School, and as a Governor of the County Antrim Infirmary. His son, James Gorman Hanna, became a Director of the company in 1913 and increasingly took over the day-to-day running of the business until his father died in 1920, when he inherited it. J. G. Hanna was similarly prominent in public life, serving on the committee of the County Antrim Infirmary, as chairman of the Lisburn and Belfast Regional Education Committee, as a Governor of Wallace High School, and as a Trustee of the Thompson Memorial Home. On J. G. Hanna's death in 1973, the grocery business was disposed of and transferred to J. T. Green and Sons of Bow Street.

The shop portion of Castle Buildings was subsequently let to Frederick Thomas Ltd as a toy and pram shop, at which point all the original interior fittings were replaced. The first- and second-floor stores were converted into suites of offices, with the old staircase becoming an internal fire escape. At the time of listing, Frederick Thomas Ltd continued to occupy the shop, while the offices, by then known as Castle Chambers, housed a variety of businesses. The pharmacy continued to operate within Castle Buildings until 1988 and was subsequently occupied by a men's clothier.