7. John Bell House

John Bell House

John Bell House, originally the Municipal College of Technology, was built in the baroque revival style by Sir Alfred Brumwell Thomas in 1906 and is named after the renowned Northern Irish physicist who studied there. More than a century later, this Grade B+, five-storey building was refurbished and extended in a £16m project to provide modern student accommodation comprising 313 bed spaces. The Grand Central Hall, with its stained-glass windows representative of the industry, science and arts of the industrial Belfast era, was lightly conserved to accommodate the student common room. The existing College committee room was retained as a student study room and eight study pods were inserted into the original library, which retains the exposed hammer beam roof trusses. The foyer, with its classical columns and niches with decorative plasterwork, were all retained and redecorated in period colours, as was the barrel vaulted ceiling with decorative coffers. The grand staircase, with its wrought iron balustrading and lantern rooflight with stained glass depicting signs of the zodiac, was lightly rehabilitated. Similarly, the Edwardian steam engine and Musgrave engineering centrifugal fans that heated the building for more than 100 years were left on view in their original location.

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