The Scottish Temperance Assurance Buildings was constructed as office buildings on the site of an old linen warehouse. It was designed by Henry Seaver and completed in 1904.
C.E.B Brett described it as being styled with the ‘free treatment of the Scottish Baronial Style’ which he found ‘almost unbearable’.
Fred Heatley speculates that the 1849 visit of Victoria and Albert stimulated an interest in the Scottish Baronial style, so popular in England, not merely as a reaction to severe eighteenth-century classicism but as a testament to Romantic movement in general and Sir Walter Scott’s Waverley Novels in particular. Moreover, a Scots’ and Presbyterian influence is evident throughout the city.
Do you want to learn more about the history of Belfast? We can pass this site on my Buildings & Bricks Tour!
