117 Shankill Road

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

A two-bay three-storey brick building with sandstone dressings built c.1900 to designs by Herbert Sykes and remodelled as a bank building in 1937 to designs by Samuel Stevenson & Sons. Corner-sited with turret at the junction of Shankill Road and Craven Street. Rectangular on plan with modern two-storey red-brick extension to rear (of no interest).

Pitched natural slate roof with blue/black angled ridge tiles and red-brick chimneystack having moulded cap; copper clad roof with pointed finial to turret; terracotta crestings and finial to wall head dormer window at east. Plastic rainwater goods on decorated red-brick Lombardic frieze. Walling is stretcher-bonded red-brick with yellow-brick and sandstone dressings; grey granite cladding on a black granite plinth to ground floor. Moulded yellow-brick string-course between upper floors and eaves band to turret; sandstone dressings including dentilled cornice to south gable; floriated string-course above Lombardic frieze to south; terracotta detailing to south gable and turret. Windows are replacement uPVC throughout in plain brick reveals with flush concrete sills to first floor and yellow-brick continuous sill course to second floor (south). Venetian-style window has moulded sandstone archivolt over central opening with exaggerated keyblocks; opening framed by red-brick pilasters with carved console brackets; sandstone scrolled apron panel under.

South-facing gabled front is framed at upper floors by brick pilasters with moulded, dentilled or carved heads; turret to right on corbelled base over entrance at southeast corner. Turret has three second floor windows and two narrow window openings to first floor. Original double-leaf five-panelled timber doors to ground floor in a polished granite reveal.

The west elevation is abutted by adjoining building.

The north elevation is abutted by the two-storey modern red-brick extension; two windows and a uPVC door at second floor.

The east elevation has wall-head dormer with brick corbelled base at left; window to second floor centre and four irregularly arranged at first floor. Ground floor has five replacement windows fronted by modern metal railings.

Setting

Street-fronted on a corner site to the north side the Shankill Road, opposite the Albert Hall (HB26/35/004) and with adjoining refurbished three-storey commercial block to west. To east, on the opposite side of Craven Street, is a large four-storey modern apartment block. The building has been fully refurbished to rear, with two-storey red-brick extension topped by roof terrace enclosed by modern metal railings.

Roof: Natural slate
Walling: brick/stone dressings
Windows: uPVC
RWG: uPVC

Historical information

Number 117 Shankill Road was originally constructed as a pawn shop c1900 to designs by Herbert Thompson Sykes and was associated with the financial fortunes of the Shankill Road community for more than a century. The premises was taken over by Belfast Savings Bank in 1937 and remodelled at ground floor level to designs by Samuel Stevenson & Sons (www.dia.ie). The building is first shown on the third edition OS map of 1901.

The site on the corner of the Shankill Road and Craven Street was the premises of Hugh Scott, pawnbroker from at least 1878 (Street Directories). After Hugh Scott’s retirement (Will of Hugh Scott) the building was taken over and demolished by Joseph Davison, also a pawnbroker, and the present building constructed as a pawn shop and residence for himself and his family, before he left the Shankill Road in the 1920s to pursue a political career.

The Belfast Revaluation of 1900 states that the new building cost £700 including shop fitting and shelving for the pawn office with a valuation set at £83. The only other major known work of the architect, H T Sykes, a former partner of W J W Roome, is the Methodist church in Whitehead (www.dia.ie). The contractor was James Kidd of Leadbetter Street. Joseph Davison is recorded in the 1901 census, as resident in the building with his wife and two-year-old son. The seven-room house was designated first class.

Joseph Davison was of Scottish descent, his ancestors having settled in Glenavy in the early eighteenth century where they were farmers for generations. As a young man, Joseph was apprenticed to a pawnbroker in Belfast, William McClure, later going on to set up his own pawnbroking business. In addition to the current premises in the Shankill Road, which he named the ‘Tower Loan Office’, Davison ran another pawn shop in the Crumlin Road. He initially lived above the shop in the Shankill but by 1908 had moved to a house in Glandore Avenue (1908 Street Directory). Attracted by politics and anxious to combat what he saw as socialist tendencies within Belfast Borough Council, Davison became a councillor for the Court Ward in 1911. By 1921 he was High Sheriff of Belfast and was knighted by King George V during a visit to Belfast to open the Northern Ireland parliament. In 1935 Sir Joseph was elected to the Senate and served as Deputy Speaker from 1936-7. Appointed to the Privy Council in 1940, he became the Deputy Leader of the Senate in 1941 (Davidson).

Davison had a strong, life-long association with the Orange Order, becoming County Grand Master of Belfast in 1920 and Imperial Grand Master of the Orange Institution in the late 1930s. He held both positions until his death in 1948. His wife, Minnie Corken, had run a millinery business on the Shankill Road and is also said to have had a shrewd business head. The couple’s two sons sadly died as young men and Sir Joseph is said to have placed orange lilies on their graves every 12th July (Davidson).

By 1929 Sir Joseph had vacated the Shankill premises and for some years attempts were made to let the building with little success. Temporary use was made of the premises as a drapers, as a furniture store and as a fish and chip shop but none of these businesses succeeded. However, in 1936 the building was purchased for £1500 by the Belfast Savings Bank which modified the building to their specifications, spending £3034 on alterations, and opening the bank again in June 1937. The ground floor was clad in marble; hardwood and terrazzo flooring was laid, central heating fitted and a strong room installed to the rear. As was usual at this period, the manager lived on the premises in the accommodation over the bank which was entered separately by a side door in Craven Street. The accommodation comprised on the first floor two sitting rooms, a kitchen, scullery, coal shed, stores and a flat roof used as a yard; on the second floor, three bedrooms, a bathroom and WC. The building was revalued at £160 after the changes were made.

McCreary’s history of Belfast Savings Bank carries a picture of the newly-opened bank which shows that more recent changes have included the removal and replacement of the extravagant ogee dome atop the tower and the enlargement of the window that faces onto the Shankill Road at ground level. Some chimneys have been removed, windows replaced and decorative grilles added, but in form and detailing the building is otherwise as remodelled by the Savings Bank (McCreary).

The first Savings Bank in the north of Ireland opened at Smithfield in Belfast in 1816 as part of an early nineteenth-century movement across the British Isles. Savings banks aimed to persuade the labouring classes to deposit savings as ‘an encouragement to sobriety, industry and economy’ (McCreary). A further office opened in King Street in 1829 but it was not until the following century that branches began to be opened in earnest. Mountpottinger was the first in 1900 and Shankill Road followed in 1924, initially opening at number 120 opposite the present site.

The Shankill Road branch was not left unscathed during the Troubles and there was a serious assault and robbery in 1971 and an attempted hold-up in 1975 (McCreary). On 21st November 1974 Savings Banks across the province merged to form the Trustee Savings Bank of Northern Ireland. TSB Northern Ireland underwent a further merger with Allied Irish Bank in 1991 to form First Trust and continues to provide banking services from several branches in Belfast (McCreary). The Shankill Road branch has closed within the last few years and has recently been taken over as Shankill Women’s Centre.

References

Primary Sources

1. PRONI OS/6/1/60/3 Third Edition OS Map (1901)
2. PRONI OS/6/1/60/4 Fourth Edition OS Map (1920-31)
3. PRONI OS/6/1/60/5 Fifth Edition OS Map (1920-38)
4. PRONI Will of Hugh Scott, died 22nd March 1917
5. Street Directories 1878-1995

Secondary Sources

1. Davidson, R “A Tale of Two Orangemen” The Pheon (Clan Davidson Association Journal) 2009
2. McCreary, A “By All Accounts, A history of Trustee Savings Banks in Northern Ireland” Antrim: Greystone Books, 1991
3. www.dia.ie

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

Not listed

Criteria for listing: historic interest

Not listed

Evaluation

A two-bay three-storey polychrome brick building with moulded detailing; built c.1900 to designs by Herbert Sykes and remodelled as a bank building in 1937 to designs by Samuel Stevenson & Sons; now in use as a community centre. Although much of its original character survives externally in good decorative brick and stone-work, the interior has been completely renewed with accompanying loss of fabric and detail. It has some presence in the locale but is not among the best examples of the type and its interest has been compromised by recent renovation.