6 Bridge Street, Banbridge, Co Down, BT32 3JS

6 Bridge Street, Banbridge — Former Ulster Bank, built c.1830

This is a two-bay, three-storey terraced commercial premises, formerly a branch of the Ulster Bank, built around 1830 on the west side of Bridge Street in Banbridge town centre. It is one of the earlier surviving examples of Georgian building in the town. The building is square on plan and retains a good deal of historic fabric, though this has been compromised by modern alterations. Its significance lies both in its architectural character — representing late-Georgian commercial building in Banbridge — and in its long association with banking and commerce in the town.

Exterior

The pitched roof is covered in natural slate with blue-black angled ridge tiles. Rendered chimneystacks rise from both gables, though the southern stack is a replacement. Cast-iron ogee rainwater goods are carried on projecting bracketed eaves. The external walls are finished in painted smooth render, with a continuous sill course at first-floor level.

The principal elevation faces east onto Bridge Street and is three openings wide at upper-floor level. Windows throughout are 1-over-1 timber-framed sashes with projecting painted sills. At ground floor, the left-hand opening has been replaced by a modern plate-glass shop-front. To the right is an elliptical-headed entrance opening reached by three granite steps. The doorway itself is recessed and features a four-panelled timber door flanked by Ionic columns supporting a plain entablature and cornice, above which is a segmental-headed transom light.

The south elevation abuts the neighbouring building. The north elevation likewise abuts an adjoining building. The rear west elevation has irregularly arranged fenestration; a stairwell bay to the centre contains windows with glazing bars of varying sizes. A steel door sits at ground-floor level on this elevation.

Setting and Surroundings

The building sits on a gradient along Bridge Street. To the rear is a tarmac car park, accessed from the north through a carriage-arch entrance.

History

The building appears on the first edition Ordnance Survey map of 1833 as part of a terrace on the west side of Bridge Street. The contemporary valuation town plan shows a structure square on plan with a long, narrow yard to the rear, lined on two sides with outbuildings. The Townland Valuation of 1828–40 records the house as the property of Henry Weir. Its valuation of £20 placed it among the highest-value properties on Bridge Street at that time. Recorded dimensions give the house as 32 feet in height, with a long outbuilding of 14.5 feet.

The Ulster Banking Company commenced business in Belfast on 1st July 1836, and arrangements for opening several branches — including one in Banbridge — were nearly complete at that time. Banbridge was then a major centre of the linen trade and a prosperous, expanding town. The first Banbridge branch of the Ulster Bank opened on 1st January 1837, initially in Newry Street. Robert Boyd was the first manager, and John Scott was engaged as a learner on the following terms: no salary in the first year, £20 in the second, and £30 in the third. Boyd died in 1846 and was replaced by Richard P. McKee, formerly acting manager at the branch. McKee was the manager when the bank moved into the current building around 1846. When McKee died in 1879 he was recorded as the oldest officer in the bank, having entered its service in 1836 some weeks before the bank opened to the public.

By around 1846 the bank had moved from Newry Street into the present building at 6 Bridge Street, where it remained until the volume of business made new premises necessary in 1905. In Griffith's Valuation of 1856–64 the building is recorded as occupied by the Ulster Banking Company under manager Richard B. McKee; the house, offices and yard were valued at £50. Dimensions at that time were recorded for the three-storey banking house, a basement, and two outbuildings. As was customary at this period, the bank manager lived on the premises. The 1901 census records John Alexander, manager since 1898, resident in the bank with his wife, their two-year-old son, and two domestic servants — one an English-born nurse.

When the new Ulster Bank branch opened nearby in 1905, the building reverted to residential use and became the home and professional offices of Samuel Cunningham, solicitor. The 1911 census records Cunningham living there with his wife, three young children, and a domestic servant aged 21. Cunningham died on 4th October 1922 and left the house to his widow Annie, who subsequently let it to a succession of tenants: John J. H. Orr (1927), Frank J. Byrne (1929), Richard Callaghan (1937), and John Hunter Patterson (1940). The house, outbuildings and yard were revalued at £25. A separate part of the ground floor was let to R. S. Heron as solicitor's offices and valued at £16 10s. Robert Heron was a relative of John Heron, one of the founders of the Ulster Bank.

At the time of the First General Revaluation in 1933–34, the occupier was Frank J. Byrne, dentist, who leased the house from Annie Cunningham at a rent of £40 per annum. The accommodation at that time comprised three bedrooms, two reception rooms, a bathroom, a lavatory, a surgery, a kitchen and a pantry. The vestibule was shared with the ground-floor offices. The ground floor contained a square hall, a kitchen with a closed stove, and a suite with hot and cold water. The first floor had two reception rooms at the front, a surgery at the rear, and a small pantry with a sink. The second floor comprised a landing, three bedrooms, and a back room used as a bathroom containing a cased-in bath, a lavatory and a WC. The outbuildings in the yard were described as very little used and not suitable for use as a garage due to impossible access. The revaluation surveyor noted that it was "an old building in very fair condition internally but house wastefully planned and not attractive as residence." R. S. Heron occupied the ground-floor offices, also leased from Annie Cunningham, at a rent of £8 10s per quarter. Access was through a common vestibule with the upper floors, with a public office at the front and a private office at the rear.

At the time of the first heritage survey in the 1970s, the ground floor was an off-licence. The ground floor is currently occupied by a hairdresser. The upper floors remain in use as the offices of Heron & Dobson, solicitors — a firm with a connection to the founding of the Ulster Bank itself.