Riddel’s Warehouse

One of the most remarkable survivals from industrial 19th century Belfast is the four-storey ironmongery warehouse built for John Riddel & Co in 1867 to the designs of Thomas Jackson.

Behind its lively, polychromatic façade is a unique atrium with five stories of galleries supported by cast iron columns and heavy timber beams arranged round three sides of a glass-roofed courtyard.

When it was in use it was regarded as a conventional working space and no photographs exist of it in operation, but it is an extraordinary survival which has changed little since the days when Riddels imported ironmongery from England and Scotland and served retail ironmongers in Belfast and much further afield. Riddels served domestic customers from other premises in Donegall Place and Fountain Street, with the Ann Street warehouse serving mainly agricultural customers.

Riddel’s operated from Ann Street till 1973 when a series of fire bomb attacks (none causing major damage to the building) and the difficulty of operating within the security barricades round the centre of the city forced them to move elsewhere. The building lay empty for several years till the Police Service acquired it as a security measure. The police used part of the ground floor as a lost property office and installed ventilation plant to serve neighbouring buildings but otherwise simply mothballed it, therefore most of the building still carries the patina of many years in daily use as an ironmongery warehouse.

Hearth was able to acquire the Riddel’s Warehouse in 2014 thanks to a loan from Ulster Garden Villages, and has been carrying out holding repairs to prevent further deterioration since. The building has been made available for meanwhile uses during this time and has hosted events by theatre companies, artists, musicians, film companies and others.

Hearth’s vision is to restore Riddel’s Warehouse, a unique grade B+ listed building at risk with an exceptional five-storey galleried atrium in the centre of Belfast, as a centre for the creative industry, providing the people of Belfast with accessible, inclusive and flexible performance and exhibition space with creative collaborative makerspaces.  It will be a living connection to the city’s industrial past and offer an environment to inspire the creative industry of the future.

Visit riddelswarehouse.org.uk for more information.