Category:Arnott's Building, Belfast

English: Arnott & Co. was a department store, founded in 1837 which resided in Bridge Street and expanded its stores to fronts at Bridge and High Street. The building constructed in 1897–1900 was destroyed by the blitz in 1941. After the war, the department store was rebuilt in in a Neo-Georgian style after the designs of the Belfast architects Young & Mackenzie, and reopened in November 1958. C.E.B. Brett sees the building as “careful designed to harmonise with the Commercial Buildings” in Waring Street. James Stevens considers the design, however, as “uninspired”. Archiseek similarly considers the building to be “pleasantly proportioned but unexciting”. The original department store Arnott & Co. was closed in August 1974 after 137 years in business. (See DIA record; Paul Carson, Arnott's shuts shop: One of Ulster's most iconic department stores closed its doors after 137 years of trading, Belfast Telegraph; C.E.B. Brett, Buildings of Belfast, p. 17; 1900 – Arnott & Col., Bridge St., Belfast, archiseek.com; James Stevens Curl, Making Dystopia: The Strange Rise and Survival of Architectural Barbarism, plates 1.2a+1.2b, Google Books ).