Petty Sessions Court, Quay Street, Bangor, Co Down, BT20 5ED

Petty Sessions Court, Quay Street, Bangor

A two-storey five-bay Italianate former bank, now courthouse, built around 1866 and located on the east side of Quay Street in Bangor town centre. The building overlooks Bangor harbour near the McKee clock and is situated in a prominent position reflecting its importance as a civic structure.

The building is rectangular on plan with a two-storey return extension to the rear. The roof is hipped with natural slate covering, and painted render chimneystacks rise from corbelled eaves that carry cast-iron ogee rainwater goods with hoppers. The walling is painted render and stucco with channelled quoins to the ground floor.

The principal elevation faces west and comprises five bays. The ground floor has round-headed 1/1 timber sliding sash windows with projecting masonry sills set on console brackets, with panelled aprons in recesses. The first floor windows are square-headed 1/1 timber sliding sash with balustrade aprons and bracketed pedimented tops. At the centre of the ground floor is a Tuscan door-case with paired pilasters and plain entablature. Above the door is a three-panelled double-leaf timber door with a plain transom light. A cornice extends between the floors to form a string course. The first floor features a flag-pole to the centre and disabled access has been provided to the front.

The north elevation is blank. The east elevation contains a 6/6 timber sliding sash window at first floor to the right and a modern timber door at ground floor. A square two-storey return with hipped roof is abutted to the centre of the building, with a modern timber window at first floor right and a door to the left with an attached fire-escape; a fire-door is positioned at ground floor right. A single-storey flat-roof extension abuts the right side of this return, and a single-storey extension with an uPVC cupola abuts the left side. The south elevation is concealed by a neighbouring building.

The building is bounded on all sides by a high painted masonry wall topped with chain-link wire fencing. A tarmacadam car-park is located to the rear and is accessed through a corrugated metal gate.

Although modernisation has taken place with the loss of some original fabric, the architectural detailing is largely intact and the building has retained its original character. It remains an important remnant of the early commercial development of Bangor.

The building was originally a branch of the Belfast Bank, established in 1866 to serve Bangor's expanding population and growing prosperity following the arrival of the railway in 1865. The bank building replaced premises belonging to the Newtownards Mining Company which had been used as stores for lead ore mined locally in Conlig and Whitespots and shipped to Flint in Wales for smelting. The mines closed in 1865.

The building first appears in Annual Revisions records dating from 1866 to 1871, initially valued at £40 and raised to £45 in 1870. It was leased from Robert E. Ward and managed by Albert G. Cuthbert. Photographs from the late 1890s show "Belfast Banking Co" carved over the entrance. The building's valuation rose progressively through the early twentieth century, reaching £100 by 1915. A valuation town plan dating from 1898 to around 1916 indicates that the bank underwent considerable extension to the rear during this period.

In 1952, following the Northern Bank's relocation to the former Market House, the Petty Sessions Court moved to this building from its previous location in the Dufferin Hall on Hamilton Road. The building is also of interest due to this history of changing use, serving first as a bank and subsequently as a courthouse.