Ulster Bank, 11 Church Street, Dromore, Banbridge, Co Down, BT25 1AA

Ulster Bank, Church Street, Dromore

A neo-Baroque style three-storey terraced red-brick bank designed by the local architect Henry William Edward Hobart and dated 1920. The building is located on the south side of Church Street in Dromore town centre, forming part of a largely nineteenth-century terrace leading west from Market Square. It was built by the Collen Brothers of Portadown and opened in March 1922, replacing several former shops and a public house that had previously occupied the site.

The building is of rectangular plan with a two-storey return and a two-storey extension (of no architectural interest) to the rear. The pitched roof is covered in natural slate with blue and black angled ridge tiles and raised stone verges. Red-brick chimneystacks rise to the gables, each capped with moulded sandstone and featuring a decorative arcaded parapet punctuated by panelled piers on the northeast elevation. Cast-iron ogee rainwater goods sit on ovolo-moulded and dentilled eases.

The principal northeast elevation is symmetrically arranged and faces five windows wide. The walling is Flemish-bonded red brick with sandstone dressings to the first floor and channelled ashlar sandstone to the ground floor. A central break-front bay is distinguished by a segmental-headed broken pediment rising from decorative sandstone pilasters with scrolled detail to the base, and contains a datestone. The windows are divided metal casements opening on hinges, set in moulded sandstone surrounds with three-stage keyblocks and sandstone sills. Timber-framed sashes are employed to the rear.

The ground floor displays slightly projecting tall round-headed openings flanking both ends, with alcoved reveals surmounted by hood moulds and keyblocks. The opening to the right contains a window and is partially infilled with an ATM. That to the left contains a wide raised-and-fielded six-panel timber door with brass door furniture, surmounted by a round-headed transom light with dentilled timber frieze, decorated pedimented keyblock and carved head stops. The door is accessed via a single bull-nosed stone step. The central ground floor has five windows with a "Ulster Bank" sign to the fascia above.

The southeast elevation is abutted by an adjoining building. The southwest (rear) elevation is abutted to the right by the two-storey return with hipped roof, which is further abutted by the lower two-storey extension. The exposed left bay has windows to both first and ground floors. The return incorporates a variety of windows, including a large steel opening to the ground floor. The northwest elevation is abutted by an adjoining building.

Detailing and fabric are largely intact, and much of the building's original character survives. Although the building has been refurbished over the years, it retains significant original fabric and remains a notable example of the work of Henry Hobart, a prominent local architect who also assisted in the construction of the Cowan Heron Hospital and designed its gate lodge, and who formed the architectural partnership of Hobart & Heron in 1904.

The Ulster Banking Company Limited first established a branch in Dromore in 1917 in temporary premises on Bridge Street. Planning for the permanent structure began in May 1918. When first erected, the new bank was valued at £240, although this high rating was reduced to £95 between 1922 and 1925 as a result of a number of appeals by the owners, with no further alteration to the valuation by the end of the annual revisions in 1930.

The setting is street-fronted, with a sandstone plinth wall to the front, open to centre. An enclosed yard to the rear is bounded to the south by the river, mature trees and hedgerow. The building was listed in 1994 and remains the local branch of Ulster Bank in Dromore.