25 Donegall Street, Belfast

25 Donegall Street (Timothy Ferres, 2025)

25, DONEGALL STREET, Belfast, is located at Exchange Place, a narrow entry which runs from Donegall Street to Hill Street.

Marcus Patton, OBE, in his excellent Central Belfast: A Historical Gazetteer, remarks that number 25 was built about 1790.

This makes it most likely the oldest extant building in Donegall Street.

It remains as a plain, three-storey, rendered building; a round-headed archway entry leads into Exchange Place.

Archway at Exchange Place (Timothy Ferres, 2025)

The Lying-in Hospital operated here from 1794 until 1830:-

"Lying-in Hospital was born on 4th January 1794. It was a house—No. 25 Donegall Street—rented for 12 guineas per annum and contained six beds. After 35 years, due to deplorable conditions, the hospital moved in August 1830 to Clifton Street opposite the Charitable Institution."

In 1877 James Logan and Company, wire workers and ironmongers, operated from this address.

Rear elevation from Exchange Place (Timothy Ferres, 2025)

In 1974 the Bellow Machine Company; Belfast Uniform Clothing Company; Kelly Lockard Ltd; James Sloan, watchmaker; S Sherski, draper; and C Burns, jeweller, all operated from 25 Donegall Street.

Today the ground floor of Number 25 is a Scandinavian bakery called Bakarí.