Ulster Bank, 142-146 Albertbridge Road, Belfast, County Antrim, BT5 4GS

A freestanding symmetrical three-storey three-bay red-brick and sandstone former Ulster Bank, built around 1910 to designs by Blackwood & Jury, located north of Albertbridge Road east of Belfast city centre.

The building is square on plan with a central canted breakfront and bowed entrance bay to the front, a projecting porch to the east, and a two-storey extension to the rear. The pitched natural slate roof features red-brick chimneystacks with sandstone dressings. Cast-iron ogee rainwater goods sit on ovolo-moulded projecting eaves.

The walling is sandstone ashlar to the ground floor and Flemish-bonded red-brick to the upper floors. An ovolo-moulded cornice runs between ground and first floors, with continuous moulded string-courses at sill level on all floors and at lintel level on the upper floors. A sandstone cornice is surmounted by a balustraded parapet with a sandstone segmental pediment on three sides.

Windows are replacement 1/1 timber-framed sliding sash to the upper floors, set in sandstone surrounds with continuous sills, sandstone and brick voussoirs, and segmental-headed hood moulds. The breakfront at upper floors features tripartite transomed and mullioned timber casement windows with arch details. Tripartite mullioned timber casements flank the entrance to the ground floor.

The principal elevation faces south. A bowed entrance bay with portico spans almost the entire width of the ground floor, flanked by paired windows to the upper floors. The balustraded sandstone parapet above the breakfront has a segmental pediment bearing an Ulster Bank plaque mounted on corbel brackets. The Neo-Baroque portico contains an original raised-and-fielded four-panelled timber door with brass furniture, including a letterbox inscribed "Ulster Bank LTD Mountpottinger". Above is a segmental-headed transom light with vertical glazing bars. The door surround is carved sandstone with segmental-headed lugged detailing, surmounted by an ornately carved wreath and flanked by black polished granite columns with Ionic sandstone capitals. The pediment is dentilled with an egg-and-dart frieze and moulded cornice.

The west elevation is two windows wide, with two sets of paired windows to the ground floor and a projecting flue at the centre of the upper floors. The north (rear) elevation is abutted at second floor by the two-storey extension; the upper section is blank. The east elevation has three sets of paired windows to the ground floor, with paired windows to the left and right of centre on the upper floors, framed by cantons and pilasters. A single-storey projecting sandstone porch abuts the right side, with an opening to the south containing a six raised-and-fielded panelled timber door in a carved lugged surround with segmental pediment. A night-safe is positioned below the window at the far left.

The building is prominently sited at the corner of Cluan Place and Albertbridge Road. It is set back from the street with original cast-iron railings featuring trefoil detail on a sandstone plinth to the south and east. A Housing Executive development of terraced houses stands to the rear at Cluan Place.