Mays Chambers

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

Corner sited three-storey stone and brick Baroque Revival former bank, built c.1920 to the designs of James A. Hanna. North elevation facing onto May Street, west elevation facing onto Cromac Street with a domed corner entrance frontispiece. Substantially altered c.2002 with the principal elevations retained and modern office structure inserted.

Steel-framed flat-roofed glazed upper-storey set back behind both elevations with four profiled stone ashlar chimneystacks with replacement terracotta pots rising from lead-lined redbrick parapet wall having moulded stone coping. Redbrick walling laid in Flemish bond to the upper floors with channel-rusticated Portland limestone ashlar walling to the ground floor with embellished frieze, dentilated entablature and projecting stepped and moulded plinth course. Square-headed window openings, arranged in pairs with stone architrave surrounds, shared moulded stone sills, triglyph brackets and replacement timber casement windows (unless otherwise stated).

Corner entrance frontispiece laid on a quadrant plan stepped back slightly from north and west elevations and constructed in Portland limestone ashlar. Square-headed door opening with lugged architrave surround with pair of original raised and fielded panelled oak doors having carved Ulster Bank Crest above. Door flanked by pair of engaged Doric columns on raised plinth blocks supporting full entablature and pediment. To the upper two floors is a quadrant section of Porland limestone walling and giant order of engaged Ionic columns supporting full entablature and having a single square-headed window opening with an extended sill resting on acroterium. The entablature is surmounted by a modillioned cornice which extends across both elevations. Portland limestone ashlar parapet wall rises to form a full circular drum supporting series of inverted fluted brackets and blind panels surmounted by a ribbed copper dome and finial.

Three-storey north elevation fronting onto May Street is four windows wide with a central recessed bay having a square-headed bipartite window opening to the first floor with architrave surround, pair of scrolled console brackets to a pediment and opening onto a balustraded balcony. This bay is flanked by two pairs of giant order engaged Ionic columns on shared bases supporting full entablature and stepped modillioned cornice. The redbrick parapet wall is framed by the pair of Portland limestone chimneystacks. A further square-headed door opening has an architrave surround and plain entablature with copper letters applied to the frieze stating; 'ULSTER BANK CHAMBERS' and an overpanel with swag carving. The recessed door is framed by a stop-chamfer surround embellished with rosettes with its original decorative hardwood panelled door with glazed panel and decorative ironwork. The door opens onto nosed granite steps to the street with an iron concertina gate. To the easternmost bay is a pair of window openings to the ground floor and a tall door opening with plain stone surrounds, while the first floor has a single window opening with architrave surround, pediment, pair of triglyph brackets to the moulded sill and a roundel panel above with carved hand motif.

East elevation is largely rebuilt in modern redbrick with the northernmost bay continuing the paired window openings of the principal elevations.

The south rear elevation is rebuilt in modern redbrick rising to four stories and abutted by an adjoining redbrick building.

Three-storey west elevation fronting onto Cromac Street is symmetrically fenestrated with a central recessed bay as per north elevation.

Setting:
Corner sited at the junction of May Street and Cromac Street in the Markets area of Belfast City centre.

Roof Flat
RWG Not visible
Walling Redbrick/Portland limestone ashlar
Windows Replacement timber casement

Historical information

The Baroque Revival Ulster Bank on the corner of Cromac and May Street was constructed 1919-22 and was first recorded in the Annual Revisions in 1923 where it was valued at £500; this initial valuation was appealed by Ulster Bank as too high and by 1924 its value was reduced to £310 at which it remained by the end of the Annual Revisions in 1930. The valuer noted that the bank possessed a room on the first floor which was used as a caretaker’s residence.

In 1935 the value of the Ulster Bank was recalculated at £540 whilst the caretaker’s rooms on the first (and now also the second) floors were valued at £12. A second revaluation of the property was undertaken from 1956 at which time the total value had risen through inflation to £910. This was reduced to £728 under the 1957 Rent and Valuation Act; however the owners still considered this too high and appealed resulting in a further reduction in the value of the bank to £696 at which it remained by the end of the revaluation in 1972.

The Markets branch of the Ulster Bank was originally opened in May 1916 and was based in temporary offices at 1 Cromac Square, the current site of the Belfast Telephone Exchange. The site of the current building was acquired in 1917 but due to the ongoing difficulties of the First World War and wartime restrictions, construction of the building did not get underway until 1919. The bank was built to designs by James A. Hanna (b. 1869) who practised in Belfast from 1905 and also designed many Edwardian warehouses in Belfast including the surviving No. 19-21 Alfred Street (HB26/30/025) and a number of churches and schoolhouses (Knox, p. 166; Dictionary of Irish Architects). The upper floors of the building were not occupied by the bank but were in fact let out as offices, apart from the caretaker’s room. Knox states that due to its proximity to the Belfast Market’s the majority of the bank’s customers during its history were farmers and other traders (Knox, p. 166).

The Ulster Bank continued to operate from the premises until at least 1990 when it was recorded in that year’s Belfast Street Directory. The building was listed in 1994 and was renovated in 2002 by Kennedy FitzGerald & Associates who converted the building into a modern office block; however, this regeneration resulted in the loss of much original fabric in the interior (Directory of Traditional Building Skills, p. 21).

References

Primary Sources

1. PRONI OS/6/1/61/1 – First Edition Ordnance Survey Map 1832-33
2. PRONI OS/6/1/61/2 – Second Edition Ordnance Survey Map 1858
3. PRONI OS/6/1/61/3 – Third Edition Ordnance Survey Map 1901-02
4. PRONI OS/6/1/61/4 – Fourth Edition Ordnance Survey Map 1931
5. PRONI OS/6/1/61/5 – Fifth Edition Ordnance Survey Map 1938
6. PRONI VAL/12/B/43/A/43 – Annual Revisions 1915-1930
7. PRONI VAL/3/B/3/1 – First General Revaluation of Northern Ireland 1935
8. PRONI VAL/4/B/7/10 – Second General Revaluation of Northern Ireland 1956-72

Secondary Sources

1. ‘Directory of traditional building skills’ Belfast: Ulster Architectural Heritage Society, 2004.
2. Knox, W. J., ‘Decades of the Ulster Bank, 1836-1964’ Belfast: Ulster Bank Ltd., 1965.
3. Larmour, P., ‘Belfast: An illustrated architectural guide’ Belfast: Ulster Architectural Heritage Society, 1987.
4. Patton, M., ‘Central Belfast: An historical gazetteer’ Belfast: Ulster Architectural Heritage Society, 1993
5. First Survey Record – HB26/30/033 (1993)

Online Resources

1. Dictionary of Irish Architects - http://www.dia.ie

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

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

Criteria for listing: historic interest

V. Authorship
X. Local Interest

Evaluation

Corner sited three-storey stone and brick Baroque Revival former bank, built c.1920 to the designs of important local architect James A. Hanna. North elevation facing onto May Street, west elevation facing onto Cromac Street with a domed corner entrance frontispiece. Despite the internal alterations and the roof top extension this important and well proportioned and detailed corner building with two highly decorative elevations remains an important building in this part of Belfast.

General comments

Listing Criterion R - Age also applies to this building.