The Grade B1 listed Georgian 1830 private residences at 18-20 Donegall Square East have recently been restored. Our researcher, Richard Graham writes:
I was also fortunate to visit the interior of these listed buildings just a few days after they opened. I too was very impressed with what the new owners have created. They already had Margot as a basement bar in the adjoining ‘house’ but the new ground floor relocation will give them much more presence on the Square, and much better entrance facilities for the ‘NEW’ Margot – they intend to refurbish the original as a nightclub facility.
The same basement was the venue for The Clarence Restaurant owned by the Higgins family (who also owned The Four WInds at Newtownbreda) in the 1980s! The owners then looked after that part of the building well, but I cant really say the same for the upper floors when they were used as a canteen by Belfast Corporation Transport Dept (now CItybus / Translink) for the bus drivers coming and going out of Donegall Square! They certainly had no appreciation of the historic nature and value of the property (why would they!) as they supped their tea in between journeys.
As a result, its remarkable that these two former residences survived at all. One of them operated as The Union Hotel in the 1880s when they were no longer required as private residences, so the original interior fittings also survived that occupation! This style of house extended around most of the Square when it was almost exclusively residential in the early 1800s.
These two were built in 1830, for John Workman, a ship owner operating out of the port of Belfast, who lived here from 1830 to 1859. When the Victorian’s decided that this style of Georgian architecture was getting In their way of their grandiose plans to develop the town centre, they mercilessly demolished most of them, but of course gave us amazingly impressive linen warehouses (Richardson, Sons & Owden & Robinson & Cleaver being only two) to gaze up at instead! The original 6 pane window sashes of the Georgian houses were once again removed by the Victorians who favoured single Pane glass windows, although a couple have survived on the May Street frontage, as have the original cast iron railings on that façade – unlike the Lanyon Building at Queen’s!! Jaffe Brothers, the owners of what is now 10 Square Hotel also had offices here as linen merchants.
All in all an amazing transformation and rebirth of our original street scenes and the owners should be congratulated for putting up such an enormous investment to save these beautiful remnants of Georgian Belfast.
History Hub Ulster Researcher, Richard Graham
Photo courtesy of Judith Skelton, Friar’s Bush Graveyard Belfast