File:Bryson Charitable Group - Bryson House, 28 Bedford Street -Belfast- (5702668674).jpg

"The building at 28 Bedford Street in Belfast known today as Bryson House was constructed as a linen warehouse in the 1860s. The Bedford Street warehouse came up for auction in 1944, and Edwin Bryson realised that the building was an ideal location for the Belfast Council of Social Welfare's purposes, being near the centre of the City and sufficiently large to accommodate not only the Council's own expanding services but several other organisations as well. Once purchased plans were made for its conversion with the architect Messrs. S. Stevenson & Sons. The building was officially opened as Bryson House by Earl Granville, Governor of Northern Ireland at 3 pm Friday 12th March 1948 "in the presence of a large and distinguished gathering of subscribers, social workers and representative of other aspects of the public life of the Province, including Sir Basil Brooke, Prime Minister of Northern Ireland and Lord Norman, Chairman of the Carnegie United Kingdom Trust. A representative of the Roman Catholic Church was also present at a time when contacts between the two communities were very limited. This presence highlighted the non-sectarian ethos of the Belfast Council of Social Welfare.

"Bryson House was designed as a linen warehouse by W.J. Barre from Newry in an era dominated by the Gothic Revivalist architects. Barre was one of the most prominent of these architects. He moved to Belfast in 1860 to supervise the building of the Ulster Hall, which began his rise to fame. From this point onwards Barre, described by C.E.B. Brett as "an evangelist of ornament and the decorated Gothic style", designed a number of interesting buildings, three of which, the Provincial Band of Ireland in Belfast, Roxborough Castle in Co. Tyrone and Clanwilliam House in Co. Down, were generally considered to be his finest achievements.

"He was the rising young star in the architectural firmament and was seriously challenging his arch rival, Charles Lanyon, Belfast's greatest architect, when he contracted tuberculosis and died in the autumn of 1867 at the age of 37."