The Technical Institution, College Square, Belfast

The Technical Institution

Samuel Stevenson

1898

College Square

Belfast, Northern Ireland

Photograph by Philip V. Allingham 2006; text by Allingham and Erl Johnston. Many thanks to Kenneth Lynn for correcting a mistake here.

This image may be used without prior permission for any scholarly or educational purpose as long as you (1) credit the source and (2) link your document to this URL in a web document or cite the Victorian Web in a print one.

Although the new Belfast City Hall (1906) is somewhat overly elaborate, its siting is perfect, making it a true centrepiece for Donegall Square and a worthy successor to the modest Town Hall, completed in 1871. Belfast's Technical Institution in College Square is far less successful, despite its being based on the magnificent London War Office, which William Young designed. Poor siting greatly mars its effect, making it seem, as C. E. B. Brett remarks "the largest and most ornate cuckoo's egg ever laid in songbird's nest" (p. 60). The small parcel of land upon which the enormous institution was built was leased by the Governors of the Royal Belfast Academical Instution in 1900 to the City Corporation for a rent of £1,350 in order to eradicate the older educational building's debt. "The resulting building masks Soane's facade of the [early 19th c.] school, overshadows it, and generally presents an outstanding example of egregious town planning" (p. 60). In fact, everything to the north of the Academical Institution's entrance is utterly obscured by the newer, more grandiose Technical Institution.

Link to Related Material

"Confident and Forceful in Its Own Right: Belfast Technical College in relation to the War Office, Whitehall" (includes a rebuttal of Brett's criticism)

Bibliography

Brett, C. E. B. Buildings of Belfast, 1700-1914. London: Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 1967.

Created 21 January 2008

Last modified 29 September 2023