1 Bank Parade

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

A two-storey building in brick and granite fronting the west side of Bank Parade beside Newry Arts Centre. It comprises a two storey block aligned parallel with the street at front, a return to the rear, and a lower return on the rear gable of the latter.

The front building has a gabled natural slate roof with two deep bands of fish-scale slates across the front pitch. There is a red brick chimney on left gable, with chamfered corners and chamfered smoothly dressed cap. Metal rainwater goods.

The walls of the façade are of red brick with stepped yellow brick trimming to its quoins, doors, first floor window at left, and corbelled eaves course. There is a decorative band of red and yellow brick sandwiched between black bricks above ground floor window level, and a finely dressed granite platband across the facade at first floor cill level. A canted bay projects at centre, with polygonal natural slate roof over.

The ground floor door at left is deeply recessed and comprises a vertical vee t+g sheeted door in a shouldered frame similar to that around the windows (but in wood – see below). Above is a triangular transom light within which is a moulded quatrefoil roundel. The door opening has stop end chamfers to its stepped yellow brick edges and also has a granite keystone. The door opening at right appears to be a later addition as its brick trimming has a slightly different colour and the profile of the head is shallower than at left. The door itself is timber sheeted with transom above. There is a first floor window above the left door, now infilled internally. The bay incorporates a window on each of its three sides, on both floors, the openings to which are of finely dressed granite, chamfered along the edges, shouldered at the top, and with a small roundel cut into each shoulder spandrel. All the windows are vertically-divided 2/2 timber sliding sashes. A timber fascia runs around the bay above the windows, and continues above the right-hand door. It reads: “Rural Development Partnership/ Leader/ South Down, South Armagh Local Action Group Ltd”.

The right gable is abutted by the new entrance to the Arts Centre. The left gable is plain and rendered with cement, and is devoid of openings apart from a small light, now blocked, at ground floor level.

The rear wall is cement rendered, without openings. It is abutted at centre by a return which has a gabled natural slate roof and brick chimney on its north pitch. The walls of this return are cement rendered. There is a single timber 2/2 sliding sash window at first floor level on the south-facing wall. The opposite wall is abutted by the Arts Centre. The rear gable has a modern metal window at ground floor level and is also abutted by a lower return.

This return has a natural slate hip roof, brick chimney on north-facing pitch, and also has cement rendered walls. There are two windows at ground floor on the south wall, and three at first floor, all 2/2 sliding sash. On the north wall is a modern window and door at ground floor, and modern opening with fire escape door (and metal ladder) at first floor. On its rear gable is the trace of a one-storey building, now gone.

Running around the south wall of the main block and two returns is a one-storey flat-roofed building with rendered walls, metal-framed windows and one door; this probably obscures the ground floor windows of the original buildings.

Historical information

This building occupies the site of a salt works which was operational by the 1830s. A house and garden are noted in the 1860s Valuation Book as belonging to Hugh Dalzell, proprietor of the salt works. Lawrence photographs show the site prior to 1873, the year in which the Valuation Revision book notes a “new house” and an increase in value of the premises from £9 to £21. A bayed building is shown on the accompanying valuation map which suggests that it is the same one as that now standing. During the present century, Ross Thompson, coal importers, occupied the premises. In the early 1980s, the first floor was leased to the District Council for museum use. The Council subsequently acquired the entire building, and the ground floor is now leased out as offices.

Primary Sources:
1.Valuation revision books, 1866-1930, PRONI - VAL 1D/3/8E (1838 valuation map)
2. Valuation revision books, 1866-1930, PRONI VAL 12B/15/1C, p.232 (valuation revision).
3. W. Lawrence photographs, WL 1172 and 1178 (reproduced in F.H. Bell, ‘Newry, Warrenpoint & Rostrevor’, p.7 and 10).

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

Not listed

Criteria for listing: historic interest

Not listed

Evaluation

A two-storey building in brick and granite. Although the façade is of interest in terms of its proportion and detailing, the remainder of the building, both inside and out, is of no interest in terms of original features.