161-163 Victoria Street & 2 Glouchester Street

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

Detached corner sited two-storey with attic red sandstone former bank with three-storey return, built c.1885. Square on plan facing east onto Victoria Street with a secondary elevation and three-storey return fronting onto Gloucester Street. Formerly terraced, the adjacent building has been demolished.

Hipped natural slate roofs with black clay ridge tiles and lead finials. Three profiled red sandstone chimneystacks to the principal block, profiled redbrick chimneystacks to return. Single gabled dormer to the front pitch with timber pediment on corbels, replacement timber casement window and slated cheeks. Ogee-moulded cast-iron guttering on modillioned eaves cornice and replacement steel downpipes with decorative brackets. Smooth red sandstone ashlar walling with a raised painted limestone plinth course and full-span cornice over the ground floor to principal and secondary elevations. Redbrick walling to other elevations laid in English garden wall bond. Segmental-headed window openings to the first floor, round-headed to the ground floor, all having stepped surrounds, splayed sills, keystones and continuous impost mouldings. Single-pane timber sash windows to the first floor with hood mouldings, continuous sill moulding and recessed apron panels. Replacement timber windows to the ground floor.

Front elevation is four windows wide with a decorative sandstone balcony to the central two windows supported on robust paired brackets with foliate carvings. To the left is a round-headed door opening with a decorative sandstone surround, original folding double-leaf timber panelled door and fanlight opening onto four granite steps and decorative wrought-iron gates.
South side elevation is blank, formerly abutted by adjoining building.

West rear elevation has an irregular arrangement of windows and lean-to extensions. Segmental-headed window openings with sandstone heads and sills.

Secondary north elevation comprises the side elevation to the principal block, detailed as per front elevation with a chimney rising from the centre of the elevation from a pair of corbels with a foliate panel. The elevation extends to the right as a three-storey elevation, three windows wide. Less detailed than the principal block the three-storey elevation has a deeply coved eaves cornice, segmental-headed window openings with stop-chamfered reveals, splayed sills, continuous sill courses and single-pane timber sash windows. To the right is a segmental-headed door opening with moulded surround and keystone having a replacement double-leaf hardwood door opening onto three granite steps.

Setting

Corner-sited and formerly terminating the north end of a terrace, the building is now free-standing with its principal elevation fronting onto Victoria Street and secondary elevation and return fronting onto Gloucester Street.

Roof: Natural slate
RWG: Cast-iron/steel
Walling: red sandstone ashlar
Windows : timber

Historical information

Nos 161-163 Victoria Street, a two-storey four-bay red sandstone former Bank situated at the corner of Gloucester Street, was constructed between 1884 and 1885. The Bank was first recorded in the Annual Revisions in 1884 which noted that it was still under construction and was being built by the Belfast Banking Co. Ltd. who were the immediate lessors; the bank was completed by 1885 when it was valued at £150. There was no change to the value of the Bank until the Belfast Revaluation in 1900 which increased the value of the building to £245. The valuer noted that the building consisted of the bank and also a Bank Managers House which was located in the three storey return to the rear of the building; the building consisted of 12 rooms (excluding a kitchen) and cost approximately £3,400 to construct. A ground plan included with the revaluation records that the layout of the Belfast Bank has not been discernibly altered in the past century.

The bank on Victoria Street was the Markets Branch of the Belfast Banking Co. and in 1901 the manager was a Mr. James Bennet (Belfast Street Directory). The manager of the branch changed with frequency over the following decades and in 1908 the value of the building was slightly increased to £250 (resulting from a reorganisation of the sites out offices); there was no further alteration to the value of the bank by the end of the Annual Revisions which were cancelled in 1930. The Belfast Banking Co. continued to occupy the building until the 1970s; in 1935 under the First General Revaluation of property in Northern Ireland the value of the bank was increased to £350. The bank survived the bombardment of the centre of Belfast during the Blitz in 1941 and in the aftermath of the conflict was included in the second revaluation which commenced in 1956. There had been very little change to the bank since opening in 1885, however by the 1950s the bank manager no longer resided at the site and part of the upper floors of the building was utilised as a store; by the end of the revaluation in 1972 the value of the Belfast Bank stood at £400.

Patton states that the Belfast Bank on Victoria Street was designed by Samuel Patrick Close (1842-1925), a Belfast-based architect who trained with Lanyon, Lynn & Lanyon before establishing an independent practice in 1872; according to the Dictionary of Irish Architects, Close designed no less than five offices for the Belfast Banking Co., the others based in Enniskillen, Coleraine, Ballymena and Warrenpoint. The Markets Branch of the Belfast Bank was opened in 1885, H & J. Martin were contracted as builders to realise Close’s design (Dictionary of Irish Architects).

The Belfast Banking Co. Was established in 1827 and operated for almost 150 years until it was merged with Northern Banking Company Ltd. The Markets Branch of the Belfast Bank was constructed between 1884 and 1885; in 1884 the company reported: ‘The Board and Directors having considered that the District of the Town of Belfast which adjoins the Markets affords a good field for Banking operations, a suitable site has been secured in Great Edward Street [former name of a stretch of Victoria Street nearest the Markets], and a Branch Bank is now in course of erection there.’ Simpson records that, from its original opening in 1885, the Markets Branch of the Belfast Bank was a success, due to the near constant presence of local traders, and remained opened until the merger with the Northern Banking Company Ltd. In 1970 (Simpson, p. 148).

The Victoria Street Bank was abandoned in c. 1970, the First Survey Image (1976) shows that the building lay vacant for some years. The former bank was listed in 1979 and in 1994 Patton described the structure in the following terms: ‘Ground floor openings roundheaded with keystones, first floor windows segmental-headed with sloping cills; central stone balcony carried on three craved paired brackets; deep modillioned eaves; one gable crowstepped, the other hipped with tall chimney stack rising from corbel with rosette panel at first floor level; central dormer with slated sides’ (Patton, p. 320). The former Belfast Bank on Victoria Street is no longer used as a bank but has been converted into office space and is currently occupied by Lough & Quay, estate and property agents, who utilise the building as their main headquarters.

References

Primary Sources

1. PRONI OS/6/1/61/2 – Second Edition Ordnance Survey Map 1858
2. PRONI OS/6/1/61/3 – Third Edition Ordnance Survey Map 1901-02
3. PRONI OS/6/1/61/4 – Fourth Edition Ordnance Survey Map 1931
4. PRONI OS/6/1/61/5 – Fifth Edition Ordnance Survey Map 1938
5. PRONI VAL/12/B/43/A/11 – Annual Revisions 1862-1897
6. PRONI VAL/12/B/43/C/34-42 - Annual Revisions 1897-1930
7. PRONI VAL/7/B/9/40 – Belfast Revaluation 1900
8. PRONI VAL/3/B/3/13 – First General Revaluation of Northern Ireland 1935
9. PRONI VAL/4/B/7/42 – Second General Revaluation of Northern Ireland 1956-1972
10. Belfast Street Directories (1843-1918)
11. First Survey Record – HB26/50/047 (No Date)
12. First Survey Image – HB26/50/047 (1976)
13. Ordnance Survey Map – 130-13SE (1959)

Secondary Sources

1. Patton, M., ‘Central Belfast: An historical gazetteer’ Belfast: Ulster Architectural Heritage Society, 1993.
2. Simpson, N., ‘The Belfast Bank: 1827-1970’ Belfast: Blackstaff Press Ltd., 1975.

Online Resources

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

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

A. Style
B. Proportion
C. Ornamentation
D. Plan Form
H-. Alterations detracting from building
I. Quality and survival of Interior

Criteria for listing: historic interest

X. Local Interest
V. Authorship

Evaluation

Detached two-storey with attic red sandstone former bank with three-storey return, built c.1885, to the designs of S.P. Close & Sons. Square on plan with a secondary elevation and three-storey return. Historic character and detailing survive including fine stone carving and it forms a good corner block. The former bank is a good example of this type of robust Victorian mercantile architecture typical of the expansion of the city by an architect of note.