Northern Bank, 1-3 Waring Street, Belfast, County Antrim, BT1 2DX

Northern Bank

This attached symmetrical multi-bay two-storey stucco-fronted Italianate building was originally constructed as Assembly Rooms around 1776. It was remodelled by Charles Lanyon around 1845 as Belfast Bank and subsequently extended to the rear by W.H. Lynn in 1875. A further link block was added around 1919 to the designs of Tulloch and Fitzsimmons.

The principal front elevation faces Bridge Street and is five windows wide, featuring a central segmental-headed entrance with a shallow prostyle Doric portico. The entrance is a stepped surround with scrolled keystone and decorative double-leaf panelled bronze doors with raised lettering reading 'BELFAST BANKING COMPANY LTD'. The door opening is flanked by Doric columns and responding pilasters on raised plinths supporting a hood cornice and balustrade with an elaborately carved Belfast coat of arms. The portico is enclosed to the street by concertina iron gates.

The walling is painted ruled-and-lined stucco with channel-rusticated ground floor and moulded plinth course rising to moulded ground floor sill course. Vermiculated rusticated quoins flank the ground floor, with rusticated quoins to the upper floor. A guilloche-type panelled frieze and drip cornice sit over the ground floor. The first floor features a continuous moulded sill course and a floral panelled frieze surmounted by a deep crown cornice supported by scrolled console brackets with floral panels.

Window openings are square-headed with horizontally-glazed 2/2 timber sash windows. The ground floor windows feature voussoired heads with panelled aprons and cast-iron sill guards. The first floor contains Corinthian aediculated window openings with pierced stucco balconettes supported on scrolled brackets punctuating the ground floor frieze.

The symmetrical west side elevation is five windows wide, detailed as per the front elevation with a central blind opening to the ground floor. The east side elevation is similarly five windows wide.

A three-storey extended block stands to the northwest, featuring walling details matching the principal block but without the balustrade parapet and floral panelled frieze. It has a crown cornice without brackets and square-headed window openings with architrave surrounds to the first floor and horizontally-glazed 2/2 steel windows. A projecting angled side entrance porch to the re-entrant angle between the principal block and extension has a square-headed door opening with architrave surround and double-leaf hardwood doors. The side elevation of the principal block is enclosed by iron railings dating from around 1920.

The northeast rear block is two windows wide and three-storey with an attic storey. Its east side elevation features paired window openings with architrave surrounds and 6/6 timber sash windows to the attic, with single-pane windows below. Those to the first and second floors are divided by slender colonettes with Giant Ionic order pilasters framing each bay, supporting architrave and modillioned crown cornice that returns to the side elevation. The pilasters rise from apron blocks with part channel-rusticated first floor and vermiculated quoins. The plain stucco-fronted ground floor has Doric pilasters framing window openings and supporting a full-span frieze and cornice, returning to the side elevation.

The two-storey link building is three windows wide with a round-headed door opening to the right and a shallow prostyle Ionic portico. The roof is hidden behind a solid parapet wall with moulded coping and drip cornice. Walling details match the principal elevation with continuous moulded sill courses. Lugged architrave surrounds with keystones grace the first floor window openings, which are voussoir-headed to the ground floor. The door opening has oversized voussoirs with an original double-leaf hardwood panelled door and semi-circular fanlight with decorative iron grille, flanked by Ionic pilasters responding to Ionic columns with bell-flowers. They share raised plinths supporting a balustrade hood with decorative iron gates.

The principal roof is a concealed pyramidal mansard with natural slate and lead ridges, surmounted by a copper-topped louvred lantern. Flat roofs to the remaining blocks have cast-iron hoppers and downpipes breaking through below the first floor frieze. The roof is set behind a balustrade parapet wall with a single lead-lined dormer to the front pitch. Plain rendered rear elevations feature blocked-up window openings to the northwest block, with brick chimneystack to the west and a profiled rendered chimneystack to the east.

The building occupies a prominent city centre site at the junction of four streets facing Bridge Street.