Riverside Inn, 21 Church Square, Banbridge, Co Down, BT32 4AP

The Riverside Inn is a three-storey, four-bay former end-of-terrace Victorian commercial premises built around 1880, located on Church Square to the north of Banbridge town centre in County Down. It began life as a domestic dwelling before conversion to a public house, and represents the development of the town during the Victorian period. The building has a rectangular plan with rear abutments.

The roof is pitched natural slate with clay ridge tiles. The chimneystacks are smooth rendered with moulded cornicing. There is a projected eaves course and ogee-moulded cast-iron rainwater goods. The external walls are stucco rendered with long-and-short raised quoins and a projected plinth. Windows are 1-over-1 timber sliding sashes with segmental arches and horns, set within moulded surrounds with raised key blocks and painted masonry cills.

The principal elevation faces northwest and is asymmetrically arranged. To the right of the ground floor is a modern pub front consisting of a four-bay segmental-arched arcade with polished stone pilasters and signage above. To the left of the ground floor are segmental-arched timber-sheeted double-leaf doors forming a coach entrance, with a moulded archivolt and surrounds with chamfer stops. Above the coach entrance is an oriel with a hipped roof and leaded hips; the front face has a window, with slightly narrower windows to the left and right cheeks, and a continuous plain cill course runs beneath. Three windows are uniformly arranged across the first and second floors to the left. The left gable is blank.

The rear elevation is asymmetrically arranged, with a single first-floor window to the right. The left portion is abutted by a linear two-storey pitched-roof return that forms part of the adjoining nightclub. To the right, a large hipped-roof block abuts the building, with a secondary entrance door on the northeast elevation; the southeast elevation faces into the yard of the adjoining building.

Externally, simple Victorian ornamentation has survived, though the styling of the modern pub frontage detracts from the building's historic character. The interior has been largely modified and retains only a few elements of historic fabric.

The building's setting forms part of a terrace on the north side of the town, looking onto Church Square. To the rear is a linear range of outbuildings terminating in a two-storey hipped-roof block; these have pitched roofs and painted smooth render and brick walls, and are largely altered with replacement fabric. Some of this range has been incorporated and modernised into the adjacent nightclub. A large public car park lies to the north.

The site has a well-documented history. The Townland Valuation town plan of around 1830 records two private dwellings previously standing on the site, valued at £7 4s and £3 8s respectively. By 1869, the larger of the two was occupied by a John Flanigan, who also took over the adjoining building around 1880. By 1880 Flanigan appears to have demolished the earlier buildings and erected the present late Victorian structure in their place. The Annual Revisions described the new property as a house, store, office, and small garden, with the site's rateable value rising sharply to £42 by 1882. In the 1880s the building was converted to a public house with a number of stores constructed to the rear, pushing the value to £48. An Annual Revisions town plan dated between 1902 and around 1908 records a long range of outbuildings at the rear, used as stores, the majority of which still survive.

The 1901 Census records John Flanigan, aged 53 and described as a licensed grocer, living at the address with his wife Catherine, aged 51, their large family, and a number of assistants who boarded there. The census building return classified the premises as a first-class public house and dwelling of eight rooms, with outbuildings to the rear including a stable, two cow houses, a piggery, a fowl house, a turf house, and a potato house. By 1911 the outbuilding range had grown to include 14 stables as well as a cow house, piggery, and boiling house, suggesting Flanigan may have operated a public stable for travellers or a horse-trading business alongside the public house. Both the 1910 Ulster Town Directory and the 1911 Census describe him as a merchant and spirit dealer. John Flanigan continued to occupy the property until 1919, when he and his family moved to Ballyvally House; he died in 1920. After the Flanigans vacated, the site was occupied by a James McGrady, who remained there until at least 1930. By 1935 the public house had passed to the Keenan family, who lived there and operated it under the name the Riverside Inn until at least the time of the First Survey in 1969. Writing in 1969, C. E. B. Brett described the building as a "dignified three-storey Victorian stucco house of c. 1870 with a fine two-storeyed oriel bay and excellent floral keystones, recently debased by a garish and totally unsuitable ground floor refronting of the pub." The ground floor continues in use as a public house, while the upper floors are currently used as office space. The coach arch that originally provided access to the rear stables has been boarded up. Field inspection has also found that the building was formerly used as a funeral parlour, though no supporting evidence for this was found in the primary sources. The long range of stores and stables to the rear still survives, though a number of the original buildings along this length have either been replaced by modern stores or have fallen into disrepair.