Bank of Ireland

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

Terraced symmetrical three-bay four-storey with attic redbrick and painted terracotta High Victorian former bank, built c.1895, to the designs of William Batt with replacement ground floor cladding, c.2000. Rectangular on plan with an L-plan three-storey return.

Natural slate mansard roof with steep front pitch clad in fish-scale copper and copper antefixae trim. Tall profiled and dentilled redbrick and rendered chimneystacks rise from both gable ends with terracotta pots, moulded coping to the gables and a scrolled pediment to the base of the west stack. Roof set behind decorative pierced parapet wall forming an elaborate dormer to the centre with ball finials, a round-headed window opening and surmounted by a diminutive pedimented block. Flanking the central dormer is a pair of copper-clad dormers with antefixae and square-headed window openings with replacement timber windows. The oriels to either end rise above the crown cornice to form octagonal plan turrets with three round-headed window openings, dentilled string courses and topped by elaborate pinnacled fish-scale copper roofs. Square-profile steel downpipes to either end. Machine-made redbrick walls laid in Flemish bond with painted terracotta window surrounds, sill courses and bracketed crown cornice. Square-headed window openings to the second and third floors, round-headed to the first floor, all having replacement timber casement windows, except to second floor having single-pane timber sash windows with shaped horns.

Front elevation is five windows wide with three-sided canted oriels rising from the second floor with decoratively corbelled bases. Full-span frieze to the second floor below dentilled cornice with raised lettering; ‘THE NATIONAL BANK LIMITED’. Second and third floor windows are framed by pilasters with stiff-leaf capitals, banded and fluted to the second floor, all having foliate panels over. The round-headed window openings to the first floor are framed by panelled pilasters with archivolt mouldings having foliate keystones and an elaborate spandrel panel over the central window. The end bays also have elaborate spandrel panels enriched with centaurs while an ancon forms the springing point of the deep corbelled base of the oriel above. The ground floor has replacement reconstituted stone cladding with a central display window and a square-headed door opening to either end with double-leaf glazed hardwood doors and steel roller shutters, all surmounted by a stone fascia with lead lining to the first floor sill course.

Rendered west gable partially exposed and partially abutted by adjoining office building.

Rear elevation is three windows wide, abutted by a single-storey accretion and a full-height return, connected to a three-storey flat-roofed block. Ceramic tiled elevations (cement rendered to the third floor) with segmental-headed window openings having concrete sills and single-pane timber sash windows, those to the rear of the three-storey block having iron bars.

East elevation abutted by adjoining building.

Setting:
Street-fronted and facing south onto High Street. Small enclosed rear yard accessed via Skipper Street with a further two-storey rendered wing (not accessed).

Roof: Natural slate / copper
RWG : Steel
Walling: brick / terracotta
Windows: timber

Historical information

The former National Bank, designed by William Batt has been called the ‘highest peak’ of his career, indeed ‘the highest peak of High Victorianism in Belfast’ (Brett) The bank was completed in 1897 and is first shown on the large-scale town plan of Belfast dating from 1901-3, entering valuation records c1897 at £850.

William Batt was the winner of a competition held in 1893 to find a designer for the new bank and manager’s residence, necessitated by the National Bank’s expansion and business success. The National Bank of Ireland, later (from 1856) the National Bank Ltd was established in 1835 and had its head office in London with branches in Ireland set up on the basis of having one half of the capital of each branch subscribed by local residents and the other half by Head Office, the profits to be divided along similar lines. The bank became a limited company in 1882 and by this time had established significant branch business in London as well as Ireland, becoming the eighth largest British bank by 1888 and opening sixty further branches over the next thirty-five years, many in England and Wales. In 1966 the Irish part of the business was sold to Bank of Ireland, while the Welsh and English branches ultimately became part of the Royal Bank of Scotland. (http://heritagearchives.rbs.com)

The bank’s formal opening was on 19th March 1897 and it was reported to be ‘one of the finest buildings in our city, which is so rich in architectural beauties’. (Belfast Newsletter) Due to the nature of the sub-soil in Belfast the building’s foundations had to be dug to nearly six feet and 200 wooden piles, 40 feet long were sunk with cross-timbers and concrete filling the spaces between. The front wall, floors, and chimneys are of re-inforced concrete as was the strong-room, where concrete filled the spaces between steel plates and rails. The strong room, by Chatwood & Co of Manchester, had an ‘undrillable and unbreakable compound steel burglar-proof door fitted with a pair of self-locking steel ventilating gates on the inside’. The beams, joists and lintels are all of rolled steel and much of the steel and concrete work was by Messrs Homan & Rodgers of Manchester. A large number of firms and craftsmen from all over the country contributed to the construction. The terracotta decorations on the façade were made by the company of J C Edwards of Ruabon in Wales, who also supplied dark red facing and white enamelled bricks. The copper work on turrets, roofs and finials was by the patentees Messrs Ewert & Son of London while patent hand lifts, one to raise ledgers to storerooms and another in the bank manager’s residence to raise coal and wood to the kitchen were installed by Messrs Clark, Bunnett & Co of London. Ceiling mouldings were supplied by Messrs Goodall of Liverpool while canvas wall coverings and oak fittings were erected by Messrs Gillow & Co of Lancaster and London. The building was lit by electricity and gas and the fittings were adapted to operate on either supply. Ornamental wrought metal work was by Messrs Singer & Sons of Frome, Somerset and Messrs Winfield of Birmingham. The entrance porch and public banking hall were laid with white marble mosaic by J F Ebner of London. Stained glass for the dome over the banking hall was by Messrs Carlisle & Wilson of Belfast. The contractors for the building work were H & J Martin of Belfast who had to use ‘every necessary precaution so as to prevent any damage being done to the adjacent old buildings’. (Belfast Newsletter) Massive doors of Riga oak (now gone) were also made by H & J Martin and carved by James Edgar Winter. Charles Geoghegan of Dublin supplied designs for a lantern over the rear of the cash office (www.dia.ie)

The manager’s apartments were on the first floor overlooking the street, with kitchen, pantries and a large yard to the rear. As in the former Ulster Bank premises in Waring Street the night-bolt on the strong-room could be operated from the manager’s bedroom. (Belfast Newsletter) The 1901 census lists the bank manager resident in that year, Robert J Kennedy, a Catholic from County Waterford who lived at the premises with his wife and five adult children, his sons occupied as solicitors, a bank clerk and a medical student. The family employed an Irish-speaking cook from County Louth and a general domestic from County Tyrone. (1901 census)

The building was altered and extended in 1922 and again in 1939 to designs by John Valentine Brennan and Fuller & Jermyn, respectively. (www.dia.ie) The bank was the only building in this part of High Street to survive the 1941 blitz of Belfast, its toughened concrete structure having proved its saving grace. (Brett) The National Bank was taken over by the Bank of Ireland in 1966 and around this time the ground floor was refaced with the consequent loss of much original detailing including the three central windows with balcony over and broken pediments over grand side entrances. (Brett; Patton)

In late 2007/2008 the building was purchased by Beannchor the developers of the former Ulster Bank in Waring Street, now the Merchant Hotel and permission was sought to convert the building into a boutique hotel to plans by Consarc Design, with the intention that the ground floor façade would be restored to its original design. However, the plans are currently on hold. (www.futurebelfast.com)

References:

Primary Sources

1. PRONI OS/8/30/5/57– Belfast Town Plan 1901-3
2. PRONI OS/6/1/61/4 – Fourth Edition OS Map 1901-2
3. PRONI OS/6/1/61/6 – Sixth Edition OS Map 1931
4. PRONI VAL/12/B/43/B/1-21 Annual Revisions (1862-1930)
5. PRONI VAL/12/B/43/C/1-45 Annual Revisions (1863-1930)
6. Belfast Newsletter 20th March 1897
7. 1901 census

Secondary Sources

1. Brett, C.E.B. “Buildings of Belfast 1700-1914” Belfast: Friar’s Bush Press, revised edition 1985
2. Larmour, P “Belfast, An Illustrated Architectural Guide” Belfast: Friar’s Bush Press, 1987
3. Patton, M “Central Belfast: An Historical Gazetteer” Belfast: Ulster Architectural Heritage Society, 1993
4. www.dia.ie – Dictionary of Irish Architects online
5. www.futurebelfast.com
6. http://heritagearchives.rbs.com

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

A. Style
B. Proportion
C. Ornamentation
D. Plan Form
F. Structural System
H-. Alterations detracting from building

Criteria for listing: historic interest

X. Local Interest
Y. Social, Cultural or Economic Importance
V. Authorship
W. Northern Ireland/International Interest

Evaluation

Terraced symmetrical three-bay four-storey with attic redbrick and painted terracotta High Victorian former bank, built c.1895, to the designs of William Batt with replacement ground floor cladding, c.2000. Built in a Franco-Flemish Renaissance style, this former bank exhibits one of the most elaborate facades in the city and there is much historic fabric surviving, including high quality detailing. Due to the innovative concrete construction, this was one of the only buildings on High Street to survive the Blitz in 1941. This showy building is an unusual example of the mercantile type and represents the ongoing redevelopment of the earlier city. It is also a good example of the work of a notable architect.