93-95 Ann Street, Belfast, Co Antrim, BT1 3HH

Former Bank of Ireland Chambers, 93–95 Ann Street, Belfast

This former bank building was constructed in 1899 to designs by the Dublin architectural partnership of Millar and Symes, comprising Richard Chaytor Millar (1844–1915) and William John Symes (1846–1892). The firm was founded in 1874 and was closely associated with the Bank of Ireland: Richard Millar served as the Bank's official architect between 1879 and 1907. The building, known as Bank of Ireland Chambers and serving as the Queen's Bridge branch, was built by contractor R. Corry, with construction commencing in April 1899. It sits on a prominent corner plot at the junction of Ann Street and Oxford Street, facing the River Lagan and Queen's Bridge, and takes an L-shaped plan on the southwest corner of that junction.

The building is three storeys tall with an attic, constructed in red brick laid in English garden wall bond. Its overall character is Classical, though the elevational treatment is considered somewhat pedestrian; the corner entrance feature is the most successfully resolved element of the design. The pitched slate roof incorporates modern flat-roofed dormers and gabled full dormers. Gutters sit behind a solid parapet, with round metal and uPVC rainwater pipes. The ground floor is faced in rusticated sandstone and ashlar pilasters with egg and dart capitals, set on a granite plinth. Sandstone dressings appear throughout: dormer copings with octagonal finials, relief-carved panels depicting urns and foliate decoration over dentilled cornices, moulded dentilled string courses at eaves level, moulded strings to window heads and sills, and bases and damaged capitals to the pilasters. Giant pilasters with curvilinear frames to dormer openings rise above ground floor level.

Windows to the first, second and attic storeys are generally set under flat brick arches; ground floor windows have flat lintels or segmental arches. Most windows are two-pane 1-over-1 timber sashes; attic windows are two-pane top-hung; ground floor windows are varied timber-framed. The doors are eight-panelled timber.

The east elevation facing Ann Street is nine windows wide, arranged in a rhythm of 1/1/3/1/1/2, with a canted corner bay to the north framed by octagonal piers. A two-window dormer sits over the two southernmost windows, and a three-window dormer over the central group of three windows. The solid parapet has been breached and replaced by a metal balustrade in front of two box dormers. The corner dormer features a Venetian window with a dentilled stone cornice and an exaggerated keystone above, with a balconette formed by the projecting bay below. At ground level, the southern bay has a modern shop front; the central section has a door with overlight adjacent to two two-pane windows; the northern bay has two four-pane windows and one six-pane window.

The main entrance is positioned on the canted corner. It is framed by painted columns topped by pyramidal caps with engaged ball finials, between which the frieze is carved with garland decoration. The moulded architrave carries a semi-circular arch with an exaggerated keystone; the tympanum is decorated with foliate carving and a roundel bearing the intertwined initials I and B.

The north elevation facing Oxford Street is six windows wide, arranged 2/1/3, with the canted corner to the east. A two-window dormer sits over the western bay, and the parapet has been breached in front of a box dormer over the eastern bay. At ground floor level there is a door to the west with a sandstone pediment on brackets above a moulded granite architrave and a three-light window over; the four-pane and six-pane windows match those on the east elevation. The south elevation is abutted by a three-storey building, and the west elevation by a four-storey building, Riddel's Building at 87–91 Ann Street.

The interior plan has been compromised by alterations, which have also resulted in the loss of historic fabric. The building is not considered among the best examples of its type, particularly in the context of Belfast city centre, though it is of interest as the work of notable architects.

The building was first included in the Annual Revisions in 1901, when its total rateable value was set at £607 10s. In addition to the banking hall, the upper floors were let as office space. In 1907 these were occupied by insurance firms, grain merchants and the headquarters of the Belfast Boys' Brigade. By 1918 the insurance agencies and merchants remained, with new occupants including an engineering firm and a boiler-making company. Under the First General Revaluation of Property in Northern Ireland in 1935, the rateable value was increased to £911 15s. During the Second World War the upper floors were occupied by the Northern Ireland Port Area Grain and Flour Committee, the Royal Liver Friendly Society and offices for HM Government. By the 1950s, many of the upper offices were occupied by the Belfast Mersey and Manchester Steamship Co. By the end of the second revaluation in 1972, the total rateable value had risen to £1,158 5s.

The Bank of Ireland eventually vacated the building. In 1993 the building was described by Patton as a three-storey building in red brick on a red sandstone ground floor and grey granite plinth, with an attic gable and full-height canted bay at a chamfered corner entrance, and ground floor pilasters with small rosettes at the capitals. A subsequent proposal to demolish the building with retention of the listed façade only was rejected by the Planning Appeals Commission. The building is currently occupied by the Northern Ireland Housing Executive.