The Technical Institution
William Young
1898
College Square
Belfast, Northern Ireland
Text and photograph by Philip V. Allingham 2006.
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, which William Young designed, is far less successful, despite its being based on the magnificent London War Office. 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 gradiose Technical Institution.
References
Brett, C. E. B. Buildings of Belfast, 1700-1914. London: Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 1967.
Last modified 31 August 2006