Provincial House

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

An attached three-storey-over-basement sandstone Italian Gothic former bank with attic, dated 1864, built by Mr. McGaughey to designs probably by W. G. Murray, located at south of High Street. L-shaped on plan, four-opening-wide, facing north; two-storey return attached to rear by three-storey linking catslide block.

Hipped natural slate roof, lead ridge and hip caps, ashlar sandstone chimneystacks with moulded caps and replacement terracotta chimneypots, parapet gutters with rectangular cast-iron downpipes and hopper-heads. Walling is ashlar sandstone over splayed plinth with moulded stringcourses between floors; parapet with splayed coping over entablature with fascia has simple starburst roundels and deeply projecting moulded cornice. Windows are round-headed painted timber 1/1 sashes, splayed sandstone sills, stop-end-chamfered reveals with hoodmoulds.

Principal (north) elevation upper floor has roundels to centre; that to second floor has embossed date “1864,” that to first floor has embossed “P I B;” first and second floors have four windows, first floor windows have engaged colonette jambs with cusped capitals, foliated archivolts, foliated label-ended hoodmoulds; ground floor centre has two windows flanked to either side by an entrance, detailed as first floor (but without sculpted archivolts); full cusped colonette between windows (replacement plate glass casements); entrances are round-headed replacement timber and glazed double door with glazed tympanum, engaged cusped colonette jambs, moulded archivolts and hoodmould; left entrance is detailed as right but is diminished and slightly projecting, stained and varnished timber raised-and-fielded four-panelled double-leaf doors, doorcase spandrels flanked by granite colonettes at corners.

East elevation is abutted by adjoining building. Exposed section second floor to right is blank, detailed as principal elevation; that to right is blank and cement rendered.

Rear (south) elevation is abutted by linking block to right; exposed section walling is square and tooled basalt rubble with cut quoins, single square-headed casement window at third floor, abutted by modern external metal stairs at first floor. Linking block is abutted by return; exposed section is partially cement rendered and elsewhere detailed as rear elevation; all elevations are blank. Return is cement rendered and has two square-headed painted timber 2/2 sashes to each floor, right cheek is blank, left cheek has variety of modern casement windows.

Setting:-
The former bank is situated on an elevated site sloping down from west to east on High Street; it is opposite the Ulster Bank (HB11/13/015) adjacent to several other High Street banks and the Court House (HB11/13/001).

Roof: Natural slate
Walling Sandstone
Window: Timber
RWG: Cast-iron

Historical information

The building is first shown on the third edition OS map of 1905-6. The property is added to the Griffith's Town Plan of Omagh, and is captioned ‘Provincial Bank’ on a later edition.

In 1865 a note is added to the Valuation Revisions which reads ‘a new bank building and the houses are down’. The occupier is revised to the Provincial Banking Company in 1866, with the manager named as Francis Alexander. The property is described as a ‘house, offices in progress and small walled garden’. In 1867 the building is valued at £80, and is described as having ‘cost about £3,199…[and is] ‘...substantially built...’. The bank manger is revised to William McCullough in 1867/8.

There is some debate as to the architect of this bank in publications on Irish architecture. Sean Rothery in ‘A Field Guide to the Buildings of Ireland’ (1997) describes the style being a full-blooded Venetian Gothic and the architect unequivocally as W. G. Murray. In contrast, Jeremy Williams in ‘Architecture in Ireland, 1837-1921’ (1994) describes unequivocally that the style is Lombardic and architect none other than J. E. Rodgers of Dublin, the same architect as the nearby St. Columba’s Church of Ireland Church (HB11/13/002), who would within the decade give up architecture to pursue a career in watercolours. But writing two decades earlier, Alistair Rowan in ‘North West Ulster’ states the style as Italian Gothic and the architect 'almost certainly W. G. Murray' and the builder is Mr. McGaughey (Rowan, p. 447). None of these authors attribute their selection of the particular architect to any sources.

Rothery in ‘A Field Guide to the Buildings of Ireland’ writes that ‘the Provincial Bank was set up in the early decades of the nineteenth century and while its finances were British, most of the staff of the Irish branches were Scottish. Scotland pioneered branch banking and the Provincial’s vigorous intention to promote this system throughout Ireland was largely responsible for the proliferation of branch banks throughout the land. By 1846 the Provincial had established the huge number of forty-two branches. This number was cut, however, to thirty-eight in 1850 due to a slump in agricultural prices.... The Provincial was the second bank to become part of Allied Irish’ (Rothery, p.133) The present bank became redundant when Allied Irish took over the Munster and Leinster Bank (HB11/13/014) and was later re-branded First Trust in Northern Ireland.

References:

Primary Sources

1. PRONI OS/6/6/35/1-First Edition OS Map (1833)
2. PRONI OS/6/6/35/2-Second Edition OS Map (1854)
3. PRONI OS/6/6/35/3-Third Edition OS Map (1905-6)
4. PRONI VAL/1/D/6/6 -Town Plan of Omagh (1824-1844)
5. PRONI VAL/2/D/6/17 -Town Plan of Omagh (1849-1869)
6. PRONI VAL/12/B/6/36 -Valuation Revisions (1860-1929)
7. PRONI VAL/12/B/41/37-Valuation Revisions (1903-1929)
8. PRONI VAL/12/E/186/1/5 -Town Plan of Omagh (1882-1909)
9. PRONI VAL/12/F/7/7/1- Valuation Revisions (1930-35)

Secondary Sources

1. Rowan, Alistair. Buildings of Ireland-North West Ulster. Penguin: Dublin, 1979.
2. Rothery, Sean. “A Field Guide to the Buildings of Ireland: Illustrating the Smaller Buildings of Town and Countryside. "Dublin: Lilliput, 1997.
3. Williams, Jeremy. “Architecture in Ireland, 1837-1921: A Companion Guide.” Dublin: Irish Academic Press Ltd, 1994.

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

A. Style
B. Proportion
C. Ornamentation
D. Plan Form
I. Quality and survival of Interior
J. Setting

Criteria for listing: historic interest

X. Local Interest

Evaluation

An attached three-storey-over-basement sandstone Italian Gothic former bank with attic, dated 1864, possibly built to designs by W. G. Murray. This is the earliest surviving purpose-built bank on Omagh High Street, the only one from the nineteenth century and one of the most substantial. Although its use has changed, it has maintained a defining presence in the town. The former bank is in close proximity to a number of other banks on High Street, including the First Trust and the Ulster Bank (HB11/13/015), as well as being near the Court House (HB11/13/001). The ornate mid-nineteenth-century detailed stonework on the façade displays fine craftsmanship reflecting its robust character as a significant civic building.