Ulster Bank, 49 Main Street, Ballyclare, Co Antrim, BT39 9BB

Ulster Bank, 49 Main Street, Ballyclare

An attractive detached three-bay two-storey bank, built around 1900 (though Valuation Revisions records date it to around 1925), positioned on the south side of Main Street. The building is a good example of civic architecture in a small market town and remains largely unaltered, retaining its original fabric and detailing in virtually original form.

The building is rectangular on plan, aligned east-west, with its main facade facing north. It comprises two two-storey gabled returns with a flat-roof linking block to the south (rear) elevation. The pitched slated roof features limestone copings and ornate chimneystacks with modillioned corniced caps and beaded red clay tapered chimneypots; moulded cast-iron gutters, rectangular downpipes, and ornate moulded hopperheads complete the rainwater goods.

The main north elevation features limestone ashlar walling to the first floor, articulated by a modillioned cornice over a blank frieze and banded stringcourses at sill level and between ground and first floor. The ground floor walling comprises V-jointed rusticated blocks with keystone and voussoirs articulating the window openings. Windows are square-headed painted timber 1/1 sashes with horns. The central first-floor window has a bead-and-reel moulded architrave with rosettes to the corners, whilst ground-floor windows have moulded sills. The central square-headed entrance opening features a moulded architrave with garlands and a panel to the central apex, with a replacement timber door. A porch centrally abuts the main elevation, supported on two Roman Doric columns (fluted to the top two-thirds) with pilaster responds and an attic-level block course. The porch is approached by a flight of five steps and is flanked to the right by a modern polished granite-clad wheelchair ramp and to the left by a porch extension, both with cast-iron railings.

The east gable is abutted by a lower two-storey building and exposes a limestone chimneybreast with ashlar walling to the right and red brick to the left, square-headed with a stone lintel. The west gable is abutted by the lower two-storey Central Dining Rooms (HB21/05/001) and remains blank.

The south elevation is abutted by two returns and modern central projecting flat-roof extensions, with red brick walling. The east return is three-storey whilst the west return is two-storey; both are pitched slated with limestone verges and ornate chimneystacks detailed as those on the north elevation. The site includes a raised enclosed yard to the rear, bounded by random rubble with a double-height outbuilding to the east and red brick walls to the west and south sides.

The building's origins can be traced through primary source material. The Ordnance Survey map of 1857 shows a smaller building on the site, described as a "house, office and small garden" occupied by Robert Percy (leased from William Wright), with a rent of £5 and rateable value of £3 10s. Valuation Revisions dating from 1896 record a "licensed house, office, yard and small garden" valued at £9, whilst later Valuation Revisions (dated 1916–1931) identify a bank building with a "bank house, office, yard and small garden" occupied by the Ulster Banking Company and valued at £80. The site underwent redevelopment at least three times between 1857 and 1925. The building first appears on the Valuation Revisions town plan of Ballyclare dated 1916–1931, set back slightly from adjacent buildings with a rear extension, now removed.