Ulster Bank, 30 New Street, Donaghadee, Co. Down

Ulster Bank, 30 New Street, Donaghadee

A fine example of an intact three-storey Edwardian-style bank, built around 1920 and possibly incorporating the remodelling of a nineteenth-century house. The bank opened in early 1921, replacing the Ulster Bank's previous Donaghadee premises on the opposite side of New Street.

The building is positioned in the middle of a terrace on the west side of New Street, with its principal elevation facing east. The ground floor is faced in Portland stone with a granite base. To the left stands a tall elliptical arch-headed entrance with a panelled door and fanlight, topped with a large cornice hood on curved brackets featuring a decorative keystone. To the far right is a similar arched window with mullions, transoms, and an ATM below. Two large mullioned and transomed windows occupy the centre. An internally illuminated projecting PVC bank sign is positioned to the left of the window at the far right.

The first floor contains two shallow bowed oriel windows, each set within slightly projecting outer bays with stone mullions and transoms. Between these are two mullioned and transomed windows with stone dressings and open pediments decorated with carved tympanum work. All first-floor windows sit on a cill course. A projecting bank sign appears between the windows.

The second floor is crowned with Jacobean gables to the outer bays, each containing a mullioned and transomed window with stone in-and-out dressings and decorative curled entablature. Between the outer bays is a three-light window with stone dressings and mullions. All second-floor windows are set on a cill course. The upper floors are finished primarily in pebbledash with stone quoins, a dentilled eaves course, and coping to the Jacobean gables.

The exposed section of the north gable is rendered and features a relatively small window to the left on the second floor, now fitted with a modern frame. The south gable is blank.

The rear facade is difficult to observe fully but comprises a large three-storey gabled return to the centre, with a shallower full-height stairwell projection to the right (south). The stairwell projection has a mullioned and transomed window to each upper level and a sash window to the uppermost floor of the return gable; a large modern window appears at first-floor level. A small sash window sits to the right of the uppermost floor on the south side of the return, with several small window openings visible on the upper floors of the north side and a doorway (reached via metal staircase) to the first floor.

To the left of the large return stands a full-height projection with mullioned and transomed windows to each upper floor. To the left of this projection, on the rear of the main building, are a sash window to the uppermost floor and a sash-like (possibly modern) window to the first floor. At ground level to the right of the rear, the return and projection appear to be connected by a single-storey flat-roofed section.

The rear is finished in lined cement render. The return roof features an extremely tall chimney stack. The main roof is gabled, covered in Bangor blue slates, with two gable chimney stacks with stone quoins and dentilled corbelling.

The bank manager's living quarters were contained on the upper floors, following the practice of the period. The building sits within a conservation area.