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28 Apr
New apartments have been approved for an Edwardian listed building in the heart of Belfast city centre.
Elected members at Belfast City Council’s Planning Committee have approved the conversion of a former retail centre on the first floor of Castle Buildings on 10 to 16 Castle Place into three one bedroom apartments. The application, by Alterity Investments of Belfast, will also involve a new shop front to the ground floor, which will be kept for retail.
Castle Buildings is seen as one of Belfast’s finest examples of art nouveau architecture, with its highly ornamented green and cream facade.
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It was built in 1905 for C. McCullagh and Co, silk mercers and milliners, on the site of the original Belfast Castle, from which the first community in the area grew in the 13th century.
The listed building, which was once a Mothercare store, is being turned into apartments by Banbridge based construction company DCM Contracts.
The application was recommended by council planning officers. The council report on the plan states: “Minimal intervention will be made to the fabric of the building. All three proposed apartments will have a living room with an outlook over Castle Place. In this regard they all have an attractive outlook.
“The windows on the front elevation area are all large and will provide adequate daylight into each apartment. The ground floor shop front is to be replaced with a new aluminium shop front with sliding doors.
“It is considered that the design respects the listed building in terms of scale, height, massing and alignment. The works proposed make use of traditional and sympathetic building materials. The nature of the use proposed respects the character of the listed building and the conservation area.
“The development involves the refurbishment of a city centre building with no external amenity space. Regard has to be given to the desirability of the renovation of the Listed Building and balanced against a shortfall in amenity space.”
Of all the statutory agencies involved, only Northern Ireland Water made objections, which the council report stated “can be resolved.” No third party objections were made to the council.
A council officer told the committee: “Whilst no external amenity space is proposed the development involves the reuse and refurbishment of a unique city centre listed building. Regard has to be made to the desirability of the renovation of the listed building, and balanced against a shortfall in the amenity space.”
The application was approved with cross party support.
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