Northern Bank

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

A detached corner-sited five-bay, two-storey former Market House, currently a Bank, of neo-classical style, built c.1830 by Lord Bangor and Col Ward. Square-on-plan with single-storey return and two-storey stairwell to rear.

Hipped natural slate roof with terracotta ridge tiles and simple brick chimneystack. Cast-iron ogee rainwater goods on overhanging moulded eaves. Walling is painted smooth render/stucco with quoins; string course to ground and first floor. Windows are generally multi-paned round-headed to ground floor with key-block surround to first floor; 6/6 timber sliding sash with moulded architraves broken by Gibbsian cubes with continuous sill (unless otherwise stated).

The principal elevation faces west and comprises slightly projecting three-bay central breakfront under pedimented gable with clock. Left and right bays are a single window opening wide with balustrade parapet. At first floor the windows of the central entrance bay are slightly recessed, and architraves of the windows in the outer bays are set forward. Five panelled timber folding entrance door.

The north elevation comprises two Venetian windows to first floor and five irregularly spaced openings to ground floor (one of which is a diminutive window). To left is a large folding heavy metal security gate.

The east elevation is completely enclosed (see surveyor’s comments).

The south elevation comprises two bays in main block, both with pediment and balustrade parapet. The left bay contains a single round-headed multi-paned window to ground and first floor; the right bay is slightly recessed and contains Venetian window with fanlight to first floor and two 6/6 sliding sash windows and projecting porch with four-panelled timber door to ground floor. Rear return to right contains five 6/6 timber-framed sliding sash windows.

Setting

The bank is prominently positioned at the corner of Main Street and Hamilton Road in the centre of Bangor.

Roof: Natural slate
Walling: Render
Windows: Timber
RWG: Cast-iron

Historical information

Built as a market house c.1830, the building was used as a court house, rent office and school in the second half of the nineteenth century, as the Town Hall in 1933 and in 1952 the building became the Northern Bank.

There is some dispute around the date of construction of the building. A market house is referred to in 1777 but this appears to have been a different building. The Archaeological Survey of Down gives a date of 1800-10. However, OS Memoirs and Lewis both concur in the 1830s that the market house has recently been built. An Irish Corporation Commissioners’ report appears to indicate that the building was not present in 1813 but had been ‘lately built’ in 1835. (Patton, p.122; Lewis,Vol I, p.182; OS Memoirs, p.24-5, Reports from Commissioners, p.691; Archaeological Survey of Down, p.395)

The building is shown on the first edition Ordnance Survey map of 1833 captioned ‘Market House’. It is listed in the Townland Valuation (1828-40) as the Market House, property of Lord Bangor and Mr Ward. The house measures 60x28x14 and there is a ball-room on the upper storey which measures 60x28x16. It is valued at £26.5s, although elsewhere in the book it is given a valuation of only £10. This may indicate that improvements were made to the building during the lifetime of the fieldbook or may simply be a function of different methods of calculating the valuation. However, the entry in OS Memoirs suggests that further work has been carried out to the building since it was written, “The market house, situated near the centre of the town, is a small building of recent erection and plain and unfinished appearance. It was built by Lord Bangor and Colonel Ward”. At this early stage the ground floor would have been arcaded with iron gates that were replaced with windows when the building became a school. (OS Memoirs, p.24, Patton, p.122)

The building seems to have had only a relatively short life as a market house. By c.1860 it had become a school and court house and there was to be a school in the building for the next seventy years.

On the second edition OS map of 1858 the building is captioned as a ‘market house and parochial school’. However, by the time of Griffith’s Valuation (1856-64) the building is in use as a church education society school room valued at £12, a petty sessions court house valued at £16 and the rent office of local proprietor Robert E Ward, valued at £3, its use as a market house having apparently lapsed. In 1887 the building ceased to be used as a rent office and petty sessions court house, the entire building being then taken over as a church education society school house.

In 1895 the building was extended by means of a large addition to the rear and the valuation was raised to £50. The valuer notes that the ‘cost of entire building’ was £1700. The designation of the building changed also to ‘National School and yard’ and it was exempted. From 1918 it appears to have been known as the ‘Ward Public Elementary School’.

An undated photograph, perhaps of c.1925 shows the building as a school with the legend around the frieze, “Ward Male Female and Infant National School, erected AD [1780?], enlarged AD 1895’. This photograph also shows the tower, cupola and chimneys, now gone, according to Patton removed c.1950. The arrangement of fenestration and entrances has also now been changed in order to give the building a central entrance. In 1933 it became the Town Hall and in 1952 the premises of the Belfast Banking Company, which has since become the Northern Bank. (Patton, p.124; Haines, p.55)

References:

Primary Sources

1.PRONI OS/6/3/2/1 – First Edition OS Map 1833
2.PRONI OS/6/3/2/2 – Second Edition OS map 1858
3.PRONI OS/6/3/2/3 – Third Edition OS Map 1901
4.PRONI OS/6/3/2/4 – Fourth Edition OS Map 1919-26
5.PRONI OS/6/3/2/5 – Fifth Edition OS Map 1939
6.PRONI VAL/1/B/31 – Townland Valuation (1828-40)
7.PRONI VAL/2/B/3/2 – Griffith’s Valuation Map (1856-64)
8.PRONI VAL/2/B/3/1A – Griffith’s Valuation (1856-64)
9.PRONI VAL/12/B/23/7A-K – Annual Revisions (1866-99)
10.PRONI VAL/12/B/23/9A-S – Annual Revisions (1900-1930)
11.PRONI VAL/12/E/129/1 – Annual Revisions Town Plans (c.1864-1899)
12.PRONI VAL/12/E/129/2 – Annual Revisions Town Plans (1898-c.1916)

Secondary Sources

1.Brett, C.E.B. “Court Houses and Market Houses of the Province of Ulster” Belfast: Ulster Architectural Heritage Society, 1973
2.Day, A. and P. McWilliams, eds. “OS Memoirs of Ireland, Parishes of County Down II, 1832-4, 1837, Vol. 7.” Belfast: Institute of Irish Studies, 1991.
3.Haines, K “North Down Memories, Photographs 1860s-1960s” Belfast: Blackstaff Press, 2000
4.Lewis, Samuel. “A Topographical Dictionary of Ireland, Comprising the Several Counties, Cities, Boroughs, Corporate, Market, and Post Towns, Parishes, and Villages, With Historical and Statistical Descriptions; Embellished with Engravings of the Arms of the Cities, Bishopricks, Corporate Towns, and Boroughs; Of the Seals of the Several Municipal Corporations.” London: S. Lewis & Co., 1837.
5.Ministry of Finance, Government of Northern Ireland “An Archaeological Survey of County Down” Belfast: Her Majesty’s Stationery Office, 1966
6.Patton, M, “Bangor, An Historical Gazetteer” Belfast: Ulster Architectural Heritage Society, 1999
7.Reports from Commissioners, Corporations Ireland, Vol XXVIII, 1835, p.691

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

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

Criteria for listing: historic interest

X. Local Interest
Y. Social, Cultural or Economic Importance
V. Authorship

Evaluation

A five-bay, two-storey former Market House, of neo-classical style, built c.1830 by Lord Bangor and Col Ward. The building was used as a court house, rent office and school in the second half of the nineteenth century; as the Town Hall in 1933; and in 1952 the building became a Bank. It is therefore of significant social and historic interest. Since its conversion from Town Hall into a bank the interior has been continually modernised. Although alterations and the loss of some historic fabric have compromised its character, its links to the Ward family and its historic importance are of note. As a significant civic building, its ornate façade displays good craftsmanship and a robust character and it is a good example of the type.