Shannon's Jewellers

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

Corner-sited, terraced two-storey redbrick and limestone Neo-classical former bank building, built c.1924. Square-on-plan with five-bay elevation facing south onto Market Square and six-bay elevation facing east onto Railway Street. Converted to retail use c.2000 with the interior layout substantially changed.

Hipped slate roof hidden behind redbrick parapet wall with moulded stone coping and resting on moulded cornice. Paired octagonal Portland limestone chimneystacks with terracotta pots and rectangular bases rising from the parapet wall to the south elevation, further redbrick chimneystack to west party wall. Machine-made redbrick walling laid in Flemish bond with giant pilasters, frieze, pediments and ground floor in Portland limestone ashlar and a raised granite ashlar plinth course up to sill level. Segmental-headed window openings with moulded limestone sills and single-pane timber sash windows with ogee horns. Square-headed window openings to ground floor with replacement large fixed-pane timber-frame display windows. Square-headed door openings with large segmental pediments supported on large scrolled console brackets having replacement glazed doors.

Five-bay south elevation with central oversized pediment forming a shallow breakfront to the central three bays, rising above the parapet wall with raking cornice and central carved cartouche to the tympanum framing the anagram “CBN” stating “ESTABLISHED 1824”. Continuous plain frieze composed of two courses of Portland limestone ashlar supported on six giant Doric pilasters with simple moulded capitals and three recessed discs to each framing each bay. Each pilaster rises from a raised granite ashlar plinth course with simple moulding broken by the ground floor window openings (dropped c.2000 with Portland sills re-used). The timber framed display windows are set in Portland limestone surrounds with simple fluted course above and simple moulded sills. A similar display window occupies former canopied door opening to the left bay with segmental pediment supported on oversized scrolled console brackets executed in Portland limestone.

West elevation abutted by adjoining building, number 6 Market Square.

Six-bay east elevation detailed as per south elevation with two windows to the central bay and pedimented entrance to the left bay having replacement glazed doors, granite fascia panel and rectangular overlight.

Roof Natural slate
Walling Redbrick / Portland limestone ashlar
Windows Timber sash / replacement fixed-pane display
RWG Cast-iron square-profile

Historical information

The building, now in use as a jeweller’s shop, was built as a branch of the Northern Bank in 1924 and is the second of two bank buildings on the site. The site was formerly occupied by a hotel.

There had been a branch of the Northern Bank in Lisburn since 1835 but the bank did not occupy its present site until 1872. In Annual Revisions the premises is occupied by the Northern Banking Company and the Manager is Henry J Manly, later changed to R.H. Bland (n.d.). The property is leased from the Marquis of Hertford and is valued at £60. The bank was a rebuild or remodel of the “Hertford Arms Hotel” which was valued at £33 and run by Catherine Lennon, “Lisburn, the town and its people” carries a photograph of this bank building and comments that it was outside this building on 22 August 1920 that District Inspector Oswald Ross Swanzy of the RIC was shot and killed, sparking the most serious sectarian riots in Lisburn’s history. (Hill, p.124, Mackey, p.88)

On 25th June 1924, the Irish Builder reported, “The Lisburn branch of the Northern Banking Company, which occupied a site at the junction of Railway Street and Market Street, has been rebuilt and was opened for business recently. The new building was designed in the classic style of architecture and has been carried out in Portland stone with a base of wrought County Down granite. The banking hall occupies the greater portion of the ground floor which is 60 feet long by 40 feet wide, with a strong room at the rear 20 feet by 8 feet, fitted with massive steel doors and grille. The bank fittings have been carried out in Spanish mahogany. The general contractors for the work were Messrs Dowling Ltd, Cromwell Road, Belfast. The work was carried out from the designs and under the personal superintendence of Mr Henry Seaver F.R.I.A. Belfast.”

The building was completed in the centenary year of the bank’s foundation and the Chairman’s speech at the one hundredth AGM of the Northern Bank on 30th October 1924 made specific reference to the new building in Lisburn, “…during the past year, we have built new premises in Lisburn, one of our oldest branches. For long the accommodation for the increasing business there has been inadequate, and we waited patiently for an opportunity of acquiring premises next door, which has at last come about, and we now have a very fine and commodious office, which, I hope, any of you who are in Lisburn will call and inspect.” (quoted in Hill, p.237)

References:

Primary Sources

1. PRONI OS/6/1/68/3 – Third Edition OS Map c1900
2. PRONI OS/6/1/68/4 – Fourth Edition OS Map 1921
3. PRONI OS/6/1/68/5 – Fifth Edition OS Map 1939
4. PRONI VAL/12/B/8/9A-T – Annual Revisions (1863-1924)
5. PRONI VAL/12/E/40/1 – Annual Revisions Town Plan (1877-c1898)
6. PRONI VAL/12/E/40/2 – Annual Revisions Town Plan (1898-c1907)
7. PRONI VAL/12/E/40/4 – Annual Revisions Town Plan (1907-c1927)
8. Irish Builder Vol 66, 25th June 1924, p.578

Secondary Sources

1. Hill, E.D. “The Northern Banking Company Ltd, An Historical Sketch commemorating a century of banking in Ireland by the first joint-stock bank established in that country, 1824-1924” Belfast: M’Caw, Stevenson & Orr Ltd, 1925
2. Mackey, Brian “Lisburn, the Town and its People, 1873-1973” Belfast: Blackstaff Press, 2000

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

A. Style
B. Proportion
C. Ornamentation
H-. Alterations detracting from building
J. Setting

Criteria for listing: historic interest

R. Age
S. Authenticity
Y. Social, Cultural or Economic Importance
X. Local Interest
V. Authorship

Evaluation

This corner-site former bank commands a dominant position in Lisburn on the corner of Market Square and Railway Street. Displaying large pediments and giant order pilasters, it provides a strong focal point at the end of the terrace on both streets. While the interior layout and detailing has been largely lost in recent renovations, the fine exterior detailing remains relatively intact. Erected under the supervision and to the designs of Belfast based Architect Henry Seaver, it constitutes a good example of early twentieth-century neo-classicism in the Lisburn area.