1959 – Nos.1-21 Bridge Street, Belfast

Designed in a style familiar to many UK cities after the Second World War, this was constructed as a multi-occupancy building for Arnott’s whose department store was opposite. Both sides of the street were destroyed in the Belfast Blitz. During the rebuilding of Bridge Street, the opportunity was taken to widen it to today’s width. Very much in the Festival of Britain style of modernism, the long low profile with an array of materials and glazing patterns is now a riot of businesses signage competing for attention. The building has two chamfered corners clad in brick as focal points for the building, rising through the horizontal layers of materials and surface treatments. Arnott’s main store opposite was also rebuilt by the firm of Young & Mackenzie but in a more sedate Neo-Georgian style. Arnott’s went out of business in 1974 after 137 years.

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