Clifton House, Belfast

CLIFTON HOUSE stands at the very top of Donegall Street, at the corner of Clifton Street and North Queen Street.

This venerable Georgian edifice, like Donegall Street, did not exist in 1754; the charity, however, was established in 1752 as Belfast Charitable Society.

Its erection was intended to coincide with the rebuilding of the old Corporation Church on High Street:

The church of Belfast is old and ruinous, and not large enough to accomodate the parishioners; and to rebuild and enlarge the same would be an expense grievous and unsupportable by the ordinary method of public cesses.

Thus a poorhouse was conceived, intended "for the support of vast numbers of real objects of charity in this parish, for the employment of idle beggars who crowd to it from all parts of the north, and for the reception of infirm and diseased poor."

An adjacent infirmary or hospital was deemed essential to complete the project.

The Corporation Church in High Street was not restored; instead a new church in Donegall Street, the parish church of St Anne, on the site of the Brown Linen Hall, was erected in 1776.

The Poorhouse ca 1785 (John Nixon/NMNI)

A poorhouse and new church were to be built by means of a lottery, the target being no less than an unrealistically high £50,000 (about £8.7 million today).

In the event the poorhouse cost £7,000 to build (almost £1 million today).

This first lottery proved to be totally inadequate in raising the requisite amount, so in 1767 another lottery was attempted.

Mary Lowry recounts that the methods used for raising money were many and various, including a fee of £1 1s per annum for a shower bath.

A ball was held once a month, and concerts once a fortnight: generating £250 a year (about £80,000 today).

John Black, a Belfast merchant, suggested in 1765 that the new church and poorhouse be erected by the landlord himself.

Belfast Charitable Society established the Spring Water Commissioners, which ran Belfast's water supply from the 1790s until the 1840s. They were responsible for bringing water to Belfast and collecting water rates to pay for the water infrastructure.Very few people paid up and the Government had to intervene by 1840, as the Society was facing bankruptcy.                                                                                                  

The 1st Marquess of Donegall "was pleased to perfect a grant in perpetuity of convenient plot of ground in a healthy and beautiful situation opposite the head of Donegall Street to a number of gentlemen in trust for the purpose of building a Poor House and Infirmary."

Progress was slow, and three years elapsed before the foundation stone was laid.

On 1st August, 1771, a large body of the principal inhabitants of the town assembled at the Market House from whence they proceeded to the ground allotted for the Poor House and Infirmary; whence Stewart Banks, Sovereign of Belfast, laid the first stone of that edifice on which is the following inscription:-

This foundation stone of a

Poor House and Infirmary

for the

Town and Parish of Belfast

was laid

On the first day of August, AD MDCCLXXI,

And in the XI year of the reign of

His Majesty GEORGE III.

The Right Honourable Arthur Earl of Donegall

and the

Principal Inhabitants of Belfast

founded this charity,

and his lordship granted to it

in perpetuity

Eight acres of land

On part of which this building is erected.

Clifton House, the oldest public building in Belfast, is thought to have been designed by Robert Joy.

It remains, to this day, a charitable home for old people.

(Timothy Ferres, 2023)

The building, in red brick, comprises a main two-storey block over a basement, topped by an octagonal stone tower with a ball finial and weather-vane.

Prospect of Clifton House from North Queen Street (RJ Welch/NMNI

The central block is adjoined by single-storey wings, the gables protruding forwards.

The wings were extended in 1821 and 1825.

These side wings were further extended in 1868, paid for by John Charters; the Benn Wing in 1872; and the dining-hall in 1887.

Clifton House today (Timothy Ferres, 2023)

The poorhouse was originally intended to accommodate 36 persons, and 24 in the infirmary.

Beggars' children had to be accommodated, and they were taught the necessary skills for apprenticeship to various trades.

With this in mind, cotton looms were installed in the north wing of the poorhouse, where older children could learn the craft.

Ninety children were employed by 1780.

It is thought that the stone tower was once used to contain "lunatics" when they became unruly.

Historic map of ca 1830 (Image: OSNI)

The eight acres of land granted by Lord Donegall in 1768 increased to about nineteen acres, including the graveyards above the poorhouse.

Selective bibliography: A History of the Town of Belfast, by George Benn; Central Belfast: A Historical Gazetteer, by Marcus Patton OBE; Buildings of Belfast, by Sir Charles Brett KBE; Early Belfast, by Raymond Gillespie.