Former Northern Bank

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

Three storey former bank building with mansard roof attic on corner of May St and Victoria St. Designed by Godfrey Ferguson in 1919-1921 in Classical style. In early 21st century a fifth floor was added.

The fifth floor has a flat roof and is set far back from the original elevation. The main mansard roof has slate topped by a copper flashing. Rainwater pipes are uPVC. The walls are ashlar Portland stone, rusticated to the ground floor and the giant pilasters; moulded, dentilled cornice above which rises a parapet of alternate panels of solid stone and balusters, and pedimented dormers flanked by volutes; strings run at second floor lintel level and first floor above the cornice of the ground floor entablature which is inscribed with NORTHERN BANKING COMPANY LIMITED to the main elevations and ESTABLISHED 1824 to the canted corner. The windows are square headed; the mansard windows have moulded lugged architraves and cornices of black painted timber; the second floor have moulded architraves; those to the first floor have triangular or segmental pediments over moulded architraves; the ground floor windows have rusticated flat arches with volute keystones. The corner entrance door has a flat moulded architrave with egg and dart cornice, a guilloche wreath surrounds a panel to the flat lintel inscribed with BANK, an over light sits above the entablature, the stone step is curved. The windows are 2 pane replacement timber throughout. The double doors are 3 panelled.

The west elevation is 6 windows wide with the canted corner to the south. The dormers to the north and the canted corner define bays which are flanked by pilasters and have segmental pediments over the first floor windows. The third window from the north on the ground floor has a higher cill level.

The south elevation is 6 windows wide, the fourth from the west is tri-partite on each level. The dormer bay matches that of the west elevation with the exception of the ground floor opening which is a large modern entrance screen.

The east elevation is a solid red brick wall in English garden wall bond with the later extension to the north in render.

The north elevation is abutted by a modern building.

Setting

78-80 May Street, 108-110 Victoria St. sits on a busy junction in the city. Further east on May St. lies the Royal Courts of Justice (HB26/50/180), St. George's Market buildings (HB26/30/028), HB26/50/029, on the opposite corner of May St and Cromac St is May's Chambers HB26/50/033.

Roof: natural slate
Walls: Portland stone
Windows: timber
RWGs: uPVC

Historical information

The Northern Bank on the corner of May Street and Victoria Street, a three-store Portland Stone building in Classical style, was constructed in 1919-21. The Irish Builder records that the bank was designed by Godfrey William Ferguson (c. 1855-1939), a Belfast-based architect who was employed as the official planner for the Northern Banking Co. and was responsible for designing many of its branches throughout Northern Ireland (the Dictionary of Irish Architects records details of at least 21 contracts Ferguson undertook for the bank). The Northern Bank on the corner of May Street and Victoria Street was established as a branch for the Markets area; a number of competing banks were established in this area to take advantage of the influx of merchants and traders that frequented the many neighbouring markets (Mays Chambers (see HB26/30/033), opposite the Northern Bank, was originally built in 1919-22 as an Ulster Bank Branch). The builder contracted to carry out Fergusons Free Classical Style design was Henry Laverty & Sons, a local firm (Irish Builder, p. 298; Dictionary of Irish Architects).

When first completed the Northern Bank was valued at £600 but the upper floors lay vacant for a number of years before being leased by the Northern Banking Co. to the Ministry of Finance in 1925 who utilised the site as the registrar’s office for the Court of the Land Purchase Commission. The value of the building was subsequently decreased in value to £334 although the commission was exempt from taxation. The Land Purchase Commission continued to occupy the building until 1929 when the offices on the first and second floors were taken over by the Board of Inland Revenue; in that year the Northern Bank vacated the site when the ground floor was converted into a shop for Alexander Curry (a shoemaker who had previously held premises on High Street (Belfast Street Directory – 1901)), whilst the remaining offices on the 2nd-3rd floors were occupied by a number of other companies. The value of the building stood at £376 5s. by the end of the Annual Revisions, which were cancelled in 1930; the Northern Bank, although having vacated the building by 1929, continued to be recorded as the owners.

In 1935 the vast majority of the upper floor offices were lying vacant (only four of 17 were occupied); the value of the building had been increased to £469 in that year under the First General Revaluation of property in Northern Ireland which also noted that the ground floor continued to be utilised by Alexander Curry & Co. The Northern Bank building survived the heavy bombardment of the Markets area during the 1941 Belfast Blitz, and in the aftermath of the Second World War the property was reassessed under the second general revaluation which commenced in 1956. During the war period the upper offices of the building were occupied by a butter importer, a meal merchant, the Co. Down Committee of Agriculture, the North of Ireland Cattle Traders’ Association and a variety of accountants firms; the ground floor of the building lay vacant at that time (Belfast Street Directory – 1943). By the 1950s the upper offices of the Northern Bank building had also been occupied by the Registry of Deeds for Northern Ireland (at that time the ground floor was no longer utilised as a shop but as storage space); the value of the building stood at £809 by the end of the second revaluation in 1972.

Patton states that the Northern Bank on May Street was constructed in Free Classical Style incorporating Portland Stone and possessing a mansard attic; he described the building in the following terms: ‘Channelled ground floor with shallow doorcase on chamfered corner, incorporating guilloche wreath draped over the legend ‘Bank’ and fanlight above entablature; pediments over first floor windows; pedimented dormers set between volutes frame the corners of the attic level’ (Patton, p. 235).

The Northern Bank building was listed in 1994 and underwent an extensive renovation in c. 2008 when HPA Architects redeveloped the building, removing the individual offices to provide open plan offices on all floors and installing a new glazed meeting room to the roof level; the project was undertaken with the aid of the Environment & Heritage Service Historic Buildings Branch who ensured ‘that the essential characteristics of the building were either maintained, restored or enhanced’ (HPA Architects website).

References

Primary Sources

1. PRONI OS/6/1/61/3 – Third Edition Ordnance Survey Map 1901-02
2. PRONI OS/6/1/61/4 – Fourth Edition Ordnance Survey Map 1931
3. PRONI OS/6/1/61/5 – Fifth Edition Ordnance Survey Map 1938
4. PRONI VAL/12/B/43/C/36-45 – Annual Revisions 1913-1930
5. PRONI VAL/3/B/3/13 – First General Revaluation of Northern Ireland 1935
6. PRONI VAL/4/B/7/42 – Second General Revaluation of Northern Ireland 1956-72
7. Irish Builder, Vol. 65 (21 Apr 1923)
8. First Survey Record – HB26/50/230 (1981)
9. First Survey Image – HB26/50/230 (1976)

Secondary Sources

1. Patton, M., ‘Central Belfast: An historical gazetteer’ Belfast: Ulster Architectural Heritage Society, 1993.

Online Resources

1. Dictionary of Irish Architects - http://www.dia.ie
2. HPA Architect’s website - http://www.hpa-architecture.com/project-gallery/112

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

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

Criteria for listing: historic interest

X. Local Interest
V. Authorship

Evaluation

A three storey former bank building, with mansard roof attic built 1919-1921 to designs by Godfrey Ferguson. A free Classical style in Portland stone with robust proportions and detailing including original inscribed details showing evidence of its bank heritage. Although compromised by modern alterations, much historic fabric and detailing survive. The building represents the ongoing development of commerce in the city centre and more recent changes in use reflecting the movement of activity around the city.. This is a good example of the work of an architect of note.