93-95 Ann Street

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

A three storey, with attic, L-shaped building on the southwest corner of the junction of Oxford Street and Ann Street overlooking the river Lagan. Designed in 1899 by Millar and Symes of Dublin as the former Bank of Ireland Chambers.

Pitched roof of slate with modern flat roofed dormers and gabled full dormers. Gutters are behind a solid parapet, rainwater pipes are round metal and uPVC. Walls are red brick in English garden wall bond with giant pilasters, curvilinear frames to dormer openings; rusticated sandstone and ashlar pilasters with egg and dart capitals on a granite plinth to ground floor level, sandstone dressings: dormer copings with octagonal finials, panels with relief carvings of urns and foliate decoration over dentilled cornices; moulded, dentilled string at eaves levels; moulded strings to window heads and cills; bases and (damaged) capitals to pilasters. The windows to the first, second and attic levels are generally flat brick arches; the ground floor windows are flat lintelled or segmental arches. The windows are generally 2 pane 1/1 timber sashes; attic are 2 pane top hung; ground floor are varied timber frame. The doors are 8 panelled timber.

The east elevation is 9 windows wide (1/1/3/1/1/2) with a canted corner bay to the north framed by octagonal piers. A two windowed dormer is positioned over the two south windows, a three windowed dormer over the group of three windows, the solid parapet has been breached and replaced by a metal balustrade in front of the two box dormers, the corner dormer has a Venetian window with dentilled stone cornice and exaggerated keystone over, a balconette is formed by the bay projecting below. The ground level has a modern shop front in the southern bay; the centre section has a door with over light adjacent to two 2 paned windows; the northern bay has two 4 paned windows and one 6 paned; the main entrance is on the canted corner, framed by painted columns, topped by pyramidal caps with engaged ball finials between which the frieze is carved with a garland decoration; the moulded architrave has a semi-circular arch, exaggerated keystone, tympanum decorated with foliate carving and a roundel with initial I and B intertwined.

The south elevation is abutted by a three storey building.

The west elevation is abutted by a four storey building (HB26/50/050)

The north elevation is 6 windows wide (2/1/3) with the canted corner to the east. A two window dormer sits over the west bay, the parapet has been breached in front of a box dormer over the east bay. The ground floor has a door to the west with sandstone pediment on brackets above the moulded granite architrave, 3 light window over; the 4 and 6 pane windows match the east elevation.

Setting

93-95 Ann Street sits on a prominent corner of Ann Street and Oxford Street facing the river Lagan and Queen’s Bridge (HB26/50/078). To the west is Riddel's Building, 87-91 Ann Street (HB26/50/050).

Roof: slate
Walls: brick
Windows: timber
RWGs: metal and uPVC

Historical information

Nos 93-95 Ann Street, a three-storey redbrick building located at the corner of Ann Street and Oxford Street, was constructed in 1899 to designs by Millar & Symes. A Dublin-based architectural partnership between Richard Chaytor Millar (1844-1915) and William John Symes (1846-1892), Millar & Symes was formed in 1874; the Dictionary of Irish Architects records that Millar & Symes was closely associated with the Bank of Ireland as Richard C. Millar was the Bank’s official architect between 1879 and 1907. Construction of the Bank of Ireland located at nos 93-95 Ann Street (the Queen’s Bridge branch was known as Bank of Ireland Chambers) commenced in April 1899; the builder contracted to realise Millar & Symes’ design was a Mr. R. Corry (Irish Builder, p. 140; Dictionary of Irish Architects).

Bank of Ireland Chambers was first included in the Annual Revisions in 1901; the valuer set the total rateable value of the building to £607 10s. Aside from operating as a Bank branch, the upper floors of Bank of Ireland Chambers was utilised as office space for a variety of local firms and organisations; the Belfast Street Directories note that in 1907 the offices were occupied by insurance firms, grain merchants, and the headquarters of the Belfast Boy’s Brigade (a scouting organisation) to name a few (Belfast Street Directory – 1907).

Over the following three decades there was little change to the value of Bank of Ireland Chambers; however the occupants of the upper offices changed with some frequency. By 1918 the upper offices were occupied by the same Insurance agencies and merchants; however the Boy’s Brigade had vacated the site whilst new occupants included an engineering firm and a boiler-making company (Belfast Street Directory – 1918). Under the First General Revaluation of Property in Northern Ireland (1935) the value of Bank of Ireland Chambers was increased to £911 15s.

No further valuation survey of the building was undertaken for over two decades due to the disruption caused by the outbreak of the Second World War; during the war the upper floors of the Bank of Ireland Chambers were occupied by the Northern Ireland Port Area Grain and Flour Committee, the Royal Liver Friendly Society and offices for H. M. Government (Belfast Street Directory – 1943). By the 1950s many of the upper offices were occupied by the Belfast Mersey & Manchester Steamship Co., a shipping and ferry firm that navigated the route between the two cities. By the end of the second revaluation in 1972 the total rateable value of Bank of Ireland Chambers had been increased to £1,158 5s.

Nos 93-95 Ann Street is no longer occupied by the Bank of Ireland; in 1993 the bank was described by Patton as a ‘three-storey building in red brick on red sandstone ground floor and grey granite plinth, with attic gable and full height canted bay at chamfered corner entrance; ground floor pilasters with small rosettes at capitals’ (Patton p. 11). In recent years an attempt to demolish the former bank with the sole retention of the listed façade was rejected by the Planning Appeals Commission. The former Bank of Ireland Chambers is currently occupied by the Northern Ireland Housing Executive.

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/17-44 - Annual Revisions 1897-1930
5. PRONI VAL/3/B/3/13 – First General Revaluation of Northern Ireland 1935
6. PRONI VAL/4/B/7/39 – Second General Revaluation of Northern Ireland 1956-1972
7. Irish Builder, Vol. 41 (1 Oct 1899)
8. Belfast Street Directories (1901-1943)
9. Ordnance Survey Map – 130-13SE (1959); 130-13NE (1959-60)

Secondary Sources

1. Larmour, P., ‘Belfast: An illustrated architectural guide’ Belfast: Ulster Architectural Heritage Society, 1987.
2. Patton, M., ‘Central Belfast: An historical gazetteer’ Belfast: Ulster Architectural Heritage Society, 1993.

Online Resources

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

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

Not listed

Criteria for listing: historic interest

Not listed

Evaluation

A three storey, brick building with attic built 1899 to designs by Millar and Symes of Dublin in a Classical style as the former Bank of Ireland Chambers. Although the elevational treatment is somewhat pedestrian, the corner entrance feature is well-considered. Detailing is typical of the type and it is of interest as the work of noteworthy architects. However, the plan has been compromised by alterations, which have also resulted in the loss of historic fabric and it is not among the best examples of the type, especially in the context of Belfast city centre.