Ulster Bank, 22 Frances Street, Newtownards, Co Down, BT23 3DN is a listed building in the Ards and North Down local planning authority area, Northern Ireland. First listed on 29 November 1993.

Ulster Bank, 22 Frances Street, Newtownards, Co Down, BT23 3DN

WRENN ID
winding-frieze-crow
Grade
Local Planning Authority
Ards and North Down
Constituency
Strangford MP: Jim Shannon (DUP)
Country
Northern Ireland
Date first listed
29 November 1993
Irish grid reference
J 490 741
Coordinates
54.59391, -5.69528
Source
NI Environment Agency listing

Also on this page: radon risk · weather exposure · detailed attributes ↓

Description

The Ulster Bank, located at 22 Frances Street, Newtownards, is a three-storey bank constructed around 1925. It occupies a position within a terrace along the north side of Frances Street, near Newtownards’ market house. The building was established in January 1926, replacing an earlier bank founded in 1865, which was demolished in 1923. A temporary branch operated on High Street during the interim.

The bank's front facade is built with rusticated Portland stone, demonstrating a free classical style frequently adopted for banks of this era. The southern facade features an entrance on the far right, with a sturdy, timber-panelled door displaying decorative carvings, including the bank’s coat of arms. To the left of the entrance are three mullioned and transomed windows, the leftmost being narrower than the others. Pilaster-like piers, topped with decorative garlands and ribbons, flank the door and windows, supporting a dentilled entablature with a cornice and decorative end brackets. The entablature displays the bank’s name in bronze sans serif lettering. The outer pilasters extend upwards to the full height of the facade. The first floor presents two broad tripartite windows with thick, pier-like mullions, while the second floor has similar, slightly shorter windows, also supported by decorative brackets. The Ulster Bank crest, carved in Portland stone, is positioned between these windows. A dentilled cornice, also supported on end brackets, tops the facade, followed by a parapet with two dentilled pediments. The exposed gables are of plain Portland stone. The rear is difficult to view due to surrounding buildings, and the rear facade has been altered several times, resulting in a modern, functional, and architecturally untidy appearance. A gabled roof, obscured by the parapet, covers the building, with the roof covering not visible. Two gable chimney stacks, also in Portland stone and featuring corbelling, are present. The window frames are now PVC. The bank’s original branch was established in December 1865.

Local climate

Ulster Bank, 22 Frances Street, Newtownards, Co Down, BT23 3DN sits in a wetter-than-average part of the UK, with an average of 1,130 mm of rain a year. This makes it wetter than 88% of listed buildings in the UK. Its exposure to wind-driven rain is greater than that of 93% of listed buildings.

It experiences an average of 1 freeze-thaw cycle a year, fewer than 99% of listed buildings. Of these, 1 follows at least 1 mm of rain in the preceding 48 hours. Average temperatures at this location have risen by 0.2°C per decade since 1991.

Averages for 1991–2020; temperature trend 1991–2025. Figures describe the wider area (a grid cell of roughly 10 km), not the individual site. Contains modified Copernicus Climate Change Service information 2026.

More on this building

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  • Detailed attributes — period, style, materials, features
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  • Weather exposure and heating demand — rain and frost month by month and year by year, wind direction, solar and humidity
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