Bank of Ireland

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

Three-storey terrace Bank of Ireland premises with Neoclassical ground level façade, which assumed its present form in 1922 when the existing dwelling of c.1840 was remodelled to a design by Tulloch & Fitzsimons. The bank is set on the southern side of Market Street within Lurgan town centre.

The building is made up of the main three-storey street-fronted building block with a relatively small single-storey hipped roof return which abuts a much longer part single part two-storey former outbuilding; it has bank premises on ground floor and a former bank managers dwelling to first and second floors.

The front elevation is symmetrical with a Neoclassical cut stone 'shopfront', Georgian reductions to first and second floors, with the whole topped by a balustraded stone parapet. The full width shopfront extends to the level of first floor window sills and has an entrance to the bank premises to the left with a further entrance leading to the manager’s former residence (on the upper floors) to the right side.

On the the ground floor level there is large central flat-headed window flanked by two smaller similar windows and entrances to far left and right. The windows have mullioned and transomed timber frames with panelled timber doors to the entrances with overlights with a dentilled timber 'keystone' over the bank doorway (with 'BANK' in raised lettering thereon). Each opening is framed with engaged Doric pilasters, each of which rest on a shallow plinth and support a full-width ‘signage’ entablature. The frieze has raised lettering spelling ‘BANK OF IRELAND’ in serif capitals, whilst baroque carved stone cartouches depict the bank's cypher and form end-stops.

The remainder of the front façade is finished in painted lined render and framed with bevelled in-out quoins. The first floor window openings are flat-headed, encased with plain pilasters supporting a simple cornice and have plain timber sash frames. Those to second floor have the same frames and shouldered surrounds with a plain keystone. The carved stone balustraded parapet is set on a projecting cornice.

The rear elevation is informally composed with the right hand (eastern) end recessed. To the left side is the single-storey hipped roof return which has an out-sized square bay window. To the middle of the second floor level is a small semi-circular-headed window opening with 3/3 top-opening timber frame. The other window openings are flat-headed and arranged regularly, but not symmetrically, and most have 6/6 timber sash frames.

The roof of the main block is pitched and slated with three chimneystacks set on the ridge (two to the ends and another to the north-west of centre- a legacy of the fact that the building originally contained two properties). There is a further stack to the rear, set within the recess. The rainwater goods are cast-iron with square-section downspouts to front and decorative hoppers showing the date of construction - 1922. A projecting street lamp has recently been attached to the front at second floor level, and there is a recent projecting bank sign and a security camera at ground floor level.

Abutting the southern face of the single-storey return is a long part two-storey gable-ended return. The window openings include segmental and flat-headed examples, some of which have been bricked-up. To the far left (south-west end) is a large garage door opening with sheeted timber and part glazed sliding doors.

Historical information

This site is shown developed on the OS map of 1835. In the valuation of July 1836 two separate properties are recorded as occupying the plot, both two or two and a half storey (20ft to the eaves), and relatively old, probably 18th century. Sometime before c.1860, both had either been replaced by, or raised in height and renovated to form the present structure. The fact that the 'new' building also contained two properties -as demarked by the chimneystacks - could suggest that the fabric of the earlier buildings was retained. Judging from the valuer's grading in the 1862 valuation, this rebuilding / renovation work may have been carried out c.1840.

In 1862 the property to the west is recorded as a 'good drapery shop' in the possession of John Gilchrist, with its larger neighbour to the east also a shop 'but closed at present'; the latter was occupied by James Taylor who held the lease of the whole building from John Douglas. The larger shop had a gateway to the eastern end (a feature also present in 1836) and outbuildings of 27ft x 19½ x 23, 42 x 19½ x 14 and 27 x 18 x 1(storey), with another 'in progress' of 120 x 18 x 1(storey)- the long range we see today; the hipped roof single-storey section between the above range and the main building was also present at this date.

James Taylor is noted as the sole occupier in 1864, followed by Mary Taylor in 1888, with both Ms Taylor and James Carson recorded as the occupants in 1915. In 1920 the lease was sold to the Bank of Ireland who the following year commissioned Nicholas Fitzsimons of the architects firm of Tullock & Fitsimons to draw up plans for the conversion of the building to bank premises. Fitzsimons had already carried out work for the bank in Newtownards (in c.1917), a task, which like this, involved working with an existing structure. Work was carried out in 1922, with a valuer recording that year that 'the house is gutted and being reconstructed for a new bank'.

The new bank opened in 1923 with the ground floor containing the new banking hall with the manager's residence over. The branch has remained in business ever since, although, in common with other local banks, the manager no-longer occupies the upper floors, which are now rented out as offices.

References- Primary sources
1 PRONI VAL1B/223a-b First valuation, Shankill parish, 1836
2 PRONI VAL1D/2/11 Valuation map of Lurgan, c.1836-38
3 PRONI VAL2B/2/20c Second valuation, Lurgan, c.1862
4 PRONI VAL2D/2/8a-d Valuation maps of Lurgan, c.1862
5 PRONI VAL12B/14/8a-l Annual valuation revisions, Lurgan ED, 1864-93
6 PRONI VAL12E/68/1-10 Valuation maps of Lurgan, 1864
7 PRONI VAL12B/14/9a-m Annual valuation revisions, Lurgan UD, 1894-1930
8 PRONI VAL12A/2/36 Valuers' note book, Lurgan UD, 1913-16
9 PRONI VAL12A/2/38 Valuers' note book, Lurgan UD, 1922
10 'Irish Builder', 9 September 1922

Secondary sources - websites
1 Irish Architectural Archive [accessed 2011.12.14]

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

A. Style
B. Proportion
C. Ornamentation
D. Plan Form
H-. Alterations detracting from building
I. Quality and survival of Interior
J. Setting

Criteria for listing: historic interest

X. Local Interest
V. Authorship

Evaluation

This building, a palimpsest of works carried out in c.1840 and 1922, when the original houses were converted to a bank, is largely original externally and internally on the upper floors. It includes a well proportioned and finely detailed stone classical bank front and balustraded parapet. Prominently sited within Lurgan town centre Conservation Area it stands out as one of the more significant buildngs in Lurgan.