Walkers, Bank Buildings, 54 Bridge Street, Banbridge, Co Down, BT32 3JU

Walkers Soft Furnishings, 54 Bridge Street, Banbridge, is a former bank building of Italianate stucco design, built around 1865 and converted into a shop in 1907. It stands on the west side of Bridge Street in Banbridge town centre, prominently positioned at the northern end of the main thoroughfare, with a car park to the rear and an adjoining listed building to the north.

The building is three-and-a-half storeys over a basement, two bays wide, and forms part of a terrace. It is square on plan with a double-height gabled return and a single-storey lean-to porch to the rear. The roof is pitched natural slate with raised stone verges and rendered chimneystacks. Cast-iron ogee rainwater goods hang from projecting dentilled eaves. The external walling is painted smooth render, with string courses between floors and at impost level to the upper floors.

The windows to the upper floors are round-arched (segmental-arched at second-floor level), timber sliding sash with moulded archivolts rising to impost level, keyblocks, and continuous sills. The first floor has 1-over-1 glazing; the second floor has 2-over-2 sashes with horizontal glazing bars. A modern shop-front with plate-glass windows occupies the ground floor.

The principal elevation faces east and presents two sets of paired windows to the upper floors. At ground floor level, to the left, a bolection-moulded raised-and-fielded six-panel timber door sits in a shouldered opening with brass door furniture in a moulded reveal, accessed by a single bull-nosed stone step and surmounted by a round-arched blind overlight with corbels and a keyblock. To the centre is a modern shop-front comprising two plate-glass windows flanking a central recessed doorway with a glazed metal-framed door. Applied lettering above the doorway reads "WALKERS SOFT FURNISHINGS". The porch floor is finished with modern square tiles.

The south elevation is almost entirely abutted by the adjoining building. The west, or rear, elevation is abutted by the double-height gabled return and has a modern timber door to the left of centre. The fenestration to the upper floors of this elevation is asymmetrical, with two windows to the left at first- and second-floor level and a stairwell window to the right between them. The north elevation is almost entirely abutted by the adjoining listed building.

The interior has been almost fully refurbished and retains no remaining traces of its former use as a bank. The original shop-front was inserted around 1910 and has since been replaced in more recent years.

Despite these alterations, the building retains its architectural integrity. Its Italianate style alludes to its former civic and commercial purpose, and it has some local interest in relation to the commercial development of Banbridge during the middle part of the 19th century. However, it is of a relatively common type and is not among the finest examples of the style.

The building's history is closely connected to the growth of Banbridge as a linen market town. It was constructed as a branch of the Northern Bank in 1865 and 1866, at the height of the prosperity brought to the town by the linen industry. The Northern Bank announced the opening of its Banbridge branch at the company's Annual General Meeting in September 1866, as reported in The Economist of 20th October 1866. The bank first appears on the third edition Ordnance Survey map of around 1900 and was added to the valuation town plan of Banbridge after that plan was drawn up around 1864, replacing outbuildings beside a mill race that has since been removed.

The building is first listed in the Annual Revisions fieldbook commencing in 1864 and was valued at £75 for the bank and £1 for the garden to the rear. The occupier at that time was the Northern Banking Company, managed by a John Butt, and the premises were leased from the Marquis of Downshire. In 1870 the valuation was increased to £75 following the addition of outbuildings to the plot, but was reduced to £74 in 1880 following an appeal.

In 1907 the Northern Bank built new premises adjoining the current building, designed by William Godfrey Ferguson, and the former bank was subsequently let to tenants. The first tenant, from 1909, was draper Alexander Rowney, who inserted a shop-front into the building for his drapery business and added a return in the same year at a cost of £130. Photographs in Young and Quail's collection of Old Banbridge show the building around 1910 as a draper's shop with the words "A Rowney & Co" painted above the awning. Those photographs also show that the building formerly had two ornate dormer windows and spectacularly tall chimneys to each gable, both of which have since been removed.

At that time the accommodation above the shop comprised, on the first floor, a kitchen, pantry, drawing room and dining room; on the second floor, three bedrooms and a bathroom; and in the attic, three further bedrooms. The 1911 census records that Alexander Rowney was head of a substantial household, including his wife, seven children, and four employees in their twenties. The three female employees worked as a dressmaker, a milliner, and a shop assistant, with a further male shop assistant also resident. Rowney's eldest daughter was working in the shop and his oldest son was employed as a cycle mechanic.

Subsequent tenants of the shop and living accommodation were Marcus W. McLean in 1917 and Samuel Hemphill in 1925. In 1933 the shop was taken over by Walker and Co, who remain the occupiers to the present day. A power loom factory had been built by William Walker outside Banbridge in 1865, and William Walker and Co Ltd was still producing linen in Banbridge in 1939.

The First General Revaluation of the early 1930s records William Johnston Walker, trading as Walker and Co, as the occupiers, leasing the building from a Robert Rowney who by then was living in New York. The house, shop and yard were revalued at £73, later reduced to £68, and described as a "large double fronted shop with show room at back". There was a separate entrance to the house, which was noted as having "excessive accommodation". The first-floor accommodation at that time comprised a landing, two large reception rooms to the front, a kitchen and scullery with cold water only. The second floor had two large front bedrooms, one back bedroom, and a bathroom with bath, lavatory and WC, the fittings of which the valuer described as "old fashioned". The top floor contained unused attic bedrooms with dormer windows. The basement beneath the shop was prone to flooding after heavy rain. Plans and dimensions from the revaluation show that the door to the front facade led to the living accommodation and that there was a fitting room in the rear return.