Bank of Ireland, Church Square, Rathfriland, Newry, Co Down, BT34 5PF

Bank of Ireland, Church Square, Rathfriland

A two-storey end-of-terrace building comprising a bank and manager's house, located on the west side of Church Square at its junction with John Street. Originally built as a pair of mid-19th-century houses, the left portion was converted to a banking hall in 1875. Both sections were remodelled around 1911 to their present form, creating a unified façade with decorative stucco work.

The building has a pitched natural slate roof aligned north to south, with three smooth rendered chimneys positioned at each gable and one at the party wall between the bank and manager's house. All chimneys have overhanging moulded copings and four pots each. Two wall-head dormers project from the front pitch: one above the centre of the bank, the other at the left of the manager's house. Each dormer has a pitched natural slate roof with plain bargeboards and smooth plastered walls. The bank dormer contains a pair of small 1/1 sliding sashes with horns in a single opening, with fixed lights to each cheek. The house dormer has a single 2/2 sash and fixed light on the right cheek.

The main elevation faces east onto the square. Walls are smooth rendered and painted. The ground floor features a panelled stucco dado with dado moulding that forms the ground floor cill course, and a run moulded stringcourse at three-quarter height. A moulded stringcourse runs above the windows, framing a fascia topped by a moulded cornice that forms the first floor cill course. Another moulded stringcourse runs at three-quarter height of the first floor with fascia over, topped by a deep eaves cornice, plain blocking course and scotia coping with raised panelled corners. Tapering ionic pilasters on moulded bases stand at each corner of the front and side elevations. Those to the ground floor rest on the dado moulding and extend to the fascia; those to the first floor rest on the first floor cill course and extend to the fascia. Advanced plain blocks sit over each pilaster at fascia level.

The bank section is three windows wide at first floor. The central ground floor bay contains the main entrance: a varnished timber door with six raised and fielded panels, a semi-circular fanlight inset with the bank logo, set in an opening with concave reveal and keyblock. Single pilasters frame the opening and rise through large fluted and foliated corbels, which extend as plain blocks to the first floor cill course, forming a segmental pediment over the doorcase. Below the pediment is a decorative cartouche with festoons of cloth and flowers. A modern metal plaque is mounted to the left wall. The left and right bays at ground floor are identical: each contains two semi-circular headed windows with two fixed vertical lights and a semicircular transom. Plain tapering pilasters frame each window with fluted frieze below the stringcourse. Over each is a moulded architrave with moulded keyblock. Spandrels between the window pairs have foliated relief panels with matching half-sized spandrels to either side. The three first floor windows are 1/1 sashes with horns, flanked by pilasters at the end and by the entrance pediment at the centre. The stringcourse extends over each window as a drip mould with moulded keyblock. An angled timber flagpole is attached to the wall between the left two windows.

The manager's house section is two bays wide at ground floor, detailed as the bank but without the panel detail below the dado moulding. Its left bay contains the entrance: a six-panelled door and semi-circular transom set in a similar reveal, framed by similar pilasters and corbels. The corbels support plain blocks over which the cornice continues without a pediment. The right bay has a pair of semi-circular headed 1/1 sash windows with horns, over which the stringcourse forms a hood mould. Two 1/1 sliding sash windows sit at first floor, detailed as those to the bank. That to the left (over the front door) is framed by corner pilasters. A narrow paved area lies in front of both sections, enclosed by a chamfered painted and rendered plinth supporting decorative wrought iron railings of early 20th-century date, with matching gates at each doorway.

The left gable (facing south) shows the street's steep fall, exposing the plain base course. Ground floor detailing matches that of the bank's main elevation, with dado, stringcourse, fascia and spandrels. Two windows similar to those at the bank's ground floor are separated by a similarly dressed blind window. Below the right window is a night safe reading "Hibernian Bank Ltd." Above are two first floor windows detailed as the front. Their keystones support moulded blocks in line with the first floor stringcourse. The front eaves cornice does not cross the gable but is replicated at either side over the corner pilasters. The gable has a Dutch-style profile that sweeps and scrolls, capped by a shallow segmental headed pediment under the chimney. The centre features an applied blind roundel with keystone hood mould and foliated festoons. Below and flanking the roundel are three decorative pilasters: the left and right ones are fluted and rest on the first floor window keyblocks; the central one rests on a matching corbel. This elevation continues to the left as the south face of the rear return, which has a pitched natural slate roof with chimney on its gable end.

The rear return's ground floor, affected by the street's fall, has no base course. A large rectangular opening at its left (containing a modern metal roller shutter) has its head framed by foliated corbels supporting a segmental pediment, level with the dado moulding of the main block. Immediately to the right is a narrow infilled window opening with moulded cill and segmental pediment above an eared moulded architrave. At first floor is a pair of 1/1 sliding sash windows with horns sharing a string cill course that continues from the main block. The west (rear) gable of the return is blank and undecorated. The rear elevation and right gable were not inspected.