Dictionary of Irish Architects 1720 - 1940

Engineer, of Belfast. James Stelfox, who was born in Salford, Lancashire on 23 June 1842, moved to Belfast as a child when his father, James Stelfox, senior, was appointed manager of the Belfast Gasworks in 1852. He received his engineering training under his father, whom he succeeded as general manager and chief engineer in 1875. He remained in this position until a few years before his death, which took place in Belfast on 11 September 1910.(1)  Described by Brett as combining 'a deep love for classical architecture with a technical talent for up-to-date methods and materials', he designed the meter house and office block on the gasworks site.  ARTHUR WILSON STELFOX  ARTHUR WILSON STELFOX was the youngest of his three surviving sons.



Inst.CE: elected member, 1 December 1896.



Address: Home: Oakleigh, Ormeau Park, Belfast, 1895;(2)
Delamere, Chlorine Gardens, Belfast, at time of death.(3)



See WORKS.



References

All information in this entry not otherwise attributed is from the brief obituary of Stelfox in Min.Proc.Inst.CE 84 (1910-11, Pt. 2), 356, and C.E.B. Brett, The Buildings of Belfast (2nd ed., 1985), 60.


(1) He left personal estate of £6.868, see Irish Times, 23 Dec 1910.
(2) Records of Campbell College, Belfast, kindly supplied by Keith Haines.
(3) See note 1, above.


3 work entries listed in chronological order for STELFOX, JAMES


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Building: CO. ANTRIM, BELFAST, ORMEAU ROAD, GAS WORKS
Date: 1869
Nature: Telescopic gasometer has been erected by Mssrs. Pigott & Sons, Birmingham, under superintendence of JS.
Refs: IB 11, 1 Jan 1869, 9

Building: CO. ANTRIM, BELFAST, ORMEAU ROAD, GAS WORKS
Date: 1880ca
Nature: Middle Section Meter House, 'an elegant pink pleasure-dome, with extensive classical panelling, a handsome plaster frieze, and a coved wooden ceiling supporting a great dome of iron and painted glass' (Brett). Damaged in blitz. Derelict in 1985.
Refs: C.E.B. Brett, The Buildings of Belfast (2nd ed., 1985), 60.

Building: CO. ANTRIM, BELFAST, ORMEAU ROAD, GAS WORKS
Date: 1887-88
Nature: Designed office block; 'entrance hall and staircase form an astonishing composition…in strict, if clumsy, classical idiom…all executed in gleaming tiles'(Brett).
Refs: IB 30, 15 Jan 1888, 16; C.E.B. Brett, The Buildings of Belfast (2nd ed., 1985), 60,Pl.60.