16 Antrim Road

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

A two-bay, two-storey red-brick former bank, now offices, built 1953 and located to the west side of Antrim Road in North Belfast. Rectangular front block with corner bay to southeast, connected to square rear block by an interlinking bay.

Flat roof concealed by brick parapet and tall red-brick chimneystacks with concrete caps. Concealed rainwater goods. Walling is stretcher-bonded red-brick with cement pointing on a grey granite plinth. Windows are timber casements in slightly recessed concrete surrounds; square at first floor with projecting concrete sills; scalloped concrete lintels to ground floor openings and projecting granite sills; all windows to front block fronted by decorative iron railings; windows to rear block in plain brick reveals with brick voussoirs.

The principal elevation faces south and is three openings wide at each floor with applied painted lettering between floors reading “The Old Bank”; concrete infill and ATM machine to ground floor left window opening; replacement leaded-and-stained glass oculus in a panelled timber inset to central first floor opening. Entrance to ground floor right comprises original double-leaf raised-and-fielded three panel timber door with bronze door furniture surmounted by opaque glazed transom light and accessed by a concrete step. Southeast chamfered corner bay breaks roof line and has moulded concrete roundel with castle and wreath motif over modern metal entrance door in a concrete reveal.

The south elevation has four windows at first floor and three at ground floor (incorporating interlinking bay at left); rear block at far left has two windows at first floor, rectangular window opening to ground floor left, with original four rectangular panelled timber door surmounted by three-paned transom light in a brick reveal accessed by a concrete step; timber casement window with projecting concrete sill to right of door.

The west elevation has been refaced (red-brick) and is blank.

The north elevation is blank.

Setting

Situated on a corner site at the junction of Antrim Road and Annesley Street in an area largely characterized by commercial buildings. Gap site to north enclosed by high timber fencing. Small enclosed yard to north.

Roof: Flat (covering not visible)
Walling: brick with concrete and grey granite dressings
Windows: Timber
RWG: Not visible

Historical information

The present building was constructed as a branch of the Belfast Savings Bank in 1953 replacing an earlier bank on the site that was destroyed in the Belfast Blitz. The building is first shown on the OS map edition dating from the 1960s/70s.

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, followed by Shankill Road (1924) and the present building in 1929, which opened on 1st May (McCreary).

The branch made an impressive start attracting 1,000 depositors in the first six months with funds in excess of £82,000. Within 18 months deposits had reached a total of over £200,000. A photograph of the original building, which was adapted to designs by Alfred W Brown from former commercial premises on the site, is carried in McCreary’s history of the Belfast Savings Bank (McCreary; www.dia.ie).

The Carlisle Circus branch was, however, destroyed in the air raids of May 1941 and opened in a new building on the site in 1953. Some defalcations were experienced by the bank in the 1960s and the manager of Carlisle Circus Branch, Hans Whiteside, was sentenced to three years in 1964 on charges of fraudulent conversion and forgery (Irish Times 16th December 1964). Neither did the branch escape unscathed during the Troubles and a serious raid took place on the bank in 1972 when staff were physically attacked (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 present building remained a bank until at least the 1990s but is now the headquarters of Wilson Residential Group Ltd which runs a number of nursing homes in Belfast.

References:

Primary Sources

1. PRONI OS/6/1/61/6- Fourth Edition OS Map (1931)
2. PRONI OS/6/1/61/7 – Seventh Edition OS map of 1938
3. Street Directories 1929-95
4. Irish Times 16th December 1964

Secondary Sources

1. McCreary, A “By All Accounts, A history of Trustee Savings Banks in Northern Ireland” Antrim: Greystone Books, 1991
2. www.dia.ie

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

Not listed

Criteria for listing: historic interest

Not listed

Evaluation

A two-bay, two-storey red-brick former bank, now offices, built 1953. Simply detailed in the typical mid-twentieth century style, the building is well-proportioned and much of its original character survives. However, modern alterations have affected its appearance and interior and its setting has been compromised. It is not among the best examples of the type.