36 The Square, Portaferry, Co Down, BT22 1LR

36 The Square, Portaferry is a well-proportioned and detailed two-storey Neo-Georgian building dating from around 1918-30, constructed in red brick with painted Portland stone dressings. Originally built by the Northern Banking Company, it served as a bank with an integral manager's house. The banking hall is no longer in use, but the building remains largely intact.

The building is L-shaped and occupies the northeast corner of the Square, where it meets High Street and Meeting House Street. Its principal west-facing elevation features a large full-height gabled bay to the right side. The ground floor of this bay contains the main house door, a six-panelled entrance with a stone surround and an Adam-style spider web leaded fanlight, topped by a stone keystone feature to the flat arch. Two windows to the right are of Georgian proportion with sash frames fitted with horns and astragals (6 over 9 panes). A cill course and string course run between the ground and first floors, with quoins alternating stone and four courses of brick.

The bank entrance is positioned in the crux of the L-shape on the north side of the bay. This porch features a stone door surround surmounted by a pediment and parapet, with a six-panelled door. A tripartite window with stone surround and piers is topped by a stone entablature, the window itself having mullioned and transomed lights with top-hung top-opening casements. Matching cill and string courses are present, and a cast iron corner protector is fitted below. An original bronze night safe remains below the window. The first floor of the bay contains three windows reduced in height compared to those below, with 6 panes in both sashes. The bay is crowned with a stone-bordered pediment containing brick to the tympanum, with a recessed cast iron downspout. To the left of the bay are three further windows. An eaves course and projecting stone cornice, now capped with lead, complete this elevation.

The north elevation is gabled and finished in similar fashion to the bay, featuring a large tripartite window to the ground floor, matching that on the west elevation. The first floor contains two windows consistent with the front elevation, with a pediment similar to the west elevation and a window above the entrance porch.

The east elevation is completely covered in Bangor blue slate cladding. A single-storey mono-pitch return adjoins to the left. To the right is a single-storey flat-roofed extension with a steel-framed window opening. A two-storey flat-roofed extension occupies the centre of the rear elevation, stepped to the right and lower than the main elevation. The main rear elevation contains two sash windows to the lower left, a narrower and taller sash window to the immediate right, and two small high-level windows above the two-storey extension with a further sash window to the right. The gabled roof is covered with Bangor blue slates and features two Velux windows on the rear (east) side. Stone parapets finish the gables, with the north parapet now topped with lead sheeting. Three red brick chimney stacks with decorative reeded bands to the caps and matching chimney pots are present.

The building functioned as a bank branch until around 1969-70, when the Northern Banking Company merged with the Belfast Bank and operations relocated to the latter's premises elsewhere on the Square. The building now serves residential purposes and remains within a conservation area.