Tesco, 2 Royal Avenue, Belfast, Co Antrim, BT1 1DA

Former Provincial Bank of Ireland, now Tesco supermarket, Royal Avenue, Belfast

This is an attached, symmetrical, multi-bay two-storey former bank built in Cookstown sandstone ashlar, constructed between 1864 and 1869 to the designs of William Joseph Barre (c.1826–1867). It stands on a highly prominent city centre site at the junction of Royal Avenue, Castle Place and Donegall Place, and is the only building on Royal Avenue to predate the major street redevelopment of the 1880s. The building was extensively renovated and extended to the rear for use as a supermarket by Chapman Taylor Architects around 2005.

Architectural Character and Style

The design combines Romanesque detailing with Neo-Palladian symmetry in a thoroughly High Victorian manner. Barre's approach reflects the influence of the architectural critic John Ruskin, whose commentary on northern Italian architecture — its mixing of materials, polychromatic effects, and blending of Gothic tradition with Roman classicism — had a profound effect on Belfast architects of the period. As architectural historian Hugh Dixon observed, Barre was principal among those who put Ruskin's theory into practice, and this building is an outstanding illustration of what could be achieved: its basic classicism is readily identified through its symmetry and central triangular pediment, yet its decoration is medieval — Romanesque arches, colonettes flanking openings, carved Lombard warrior faces looking out from foliage, and a roofline balustrade adapted from an interlacing Saxon arcade. Paul Larmour notes that the completed exterior is considerably less ornate than Barre's original design, which made greater use of sculpted figures; rising costs led Barre to amend his intentions before his death, and so the pediment has remained bare of statues. The exterior facade is also more polychromatic than originally envisaged, as the decay of the white Cookstown sandstone has required the facade to be painted repeatedly since the 1880s.

Barre died of illness in 1867 before the building was complete. According to the Irish Builder, it was finished under the supervision of Turner and Williamson, an architectural partnership formed between Thomas Turner and Richard Williamson around 1860, and was completed in 1869. The building was constructed by local builder Henry Fulton, while the interior and exterior stonecarving was carried out by a Mr Barnes. When completed, Barre's characteristic eclectic design attracted particular praise for what the Irish Builder described as "that peculiar adaptation of Venetian Gothic that he made his own."

Exterior Description

The building is rectangular on plan, fronting onto Royal Avenue. The roof over the principal front block is pitched in natural slate with roll-moulded black clay ridge tiles laid out on a quadrangular plan, set behind a parapet formed by an interlacing stone balustrade punctuated by squat piers with gableted capstones, all resting on a lead-lined crown cornice. Replacement steel rainwater goods serve the roof, while the side elevations retain moulded cast-iron guttering with decorative hoppers and square-profile downpipes carried on trefoil brackets. Profiled sandstone ashlar chimneystacks remain in place. The central section of the roof is covered in bitumen with replacement Perspex domed lanterns to the west, and a central red brick drum with a shallow lead-lined conical roof surmounted by a Perspex dome. The drum has gauged brick round-headed window openings with replacement fixed-pane timber windows and a continuous concrete sill. The lower south range has three lead-lined wall-head dormers with replacement uPVC windows.

The walling throughout is Cookstown sandstone ashlar with a roll-moulded plinth course, continuous sill courses to both floors, and a continuous string course below the crown cornice. Ground-floor window openings are round-headed; first-floor openings are square-headed (unless otherwise noted). Windows throughout are single-pane timber sash with ogee horns.

Principal East Elevation (Royal Avenue frontage)

The symmetrical east front is seven windows wide with a central pedimented breakfront. The lead-lined pediment has a plain tympanum with dentilled stiff-leaf trim and a raking cornice with modillions. A continuous cable moulding and double convex string course form a plain frieze over the first-floor windows, with a series of concave brackets with nail-head embellishments framing a dentilled course that in turn supports the modillioned crown cornice.

At first-floor level, arcaded openings have compound arches springing from columns with stiff-leaf capitals — paired at either end — resting on a continuous lead-lined sill course. These house deeply set square-headed window openings framed by clustered colonettes and surmounted by decoratively carved overpanels adorned with carved heads depicting seven Irish kings. Decorative carvings embellish the spandrels, with apron panels below the recessed sills.

At ground-floor level, deeply set stepped round-headed window openings have roll-moulded arches rising from a continuous stiff-leaf impost course, framed by clasping colonettes. Decorative roundels to the spandrels are filled with blind cartouches with hood mouldings.

The central breakfront has three deeply set round-headed door openings with double-leaf timber doors with raised-and-fielded panels, plain overlights, and decoratively carved overpanels with carved heads. Compound moulded arches rise from clustered colonettes with a continuous stiff-leaf impost course and roundels as described above; the central opening is flanked by a pair of columns. The doors open onto a raised platform with replacement stone paving to the front forecourt.

Side Elevations

The principal front block returns to both side elevations, detailed as per the front elevation. The south side elevation of the principal block is three windows wide, with a blind window at the centre of the first floor. The ground-floor windows are also blind, with a door opening to the left having an original timber door with six raised-and-fielded panels, framed by colonettes and opening onto three nosed steps to a railed area. Replacement steel railing spans the entire south side elevation. The south side elevation extends further as a lower two-storey wing six windows wide, topped by an eaves cornice and plain frieze. This wing has stepped segmental-headed window openings at first-floor level and square-headed openings at ground-floor level, with continuous moulded sills and single-pane timber sash windows.

The north side elevation of the principal block is four windows wide, all blind, and detailed as per the front elevation. At ground-floor level it is abutted by a single-storey recessed side entrance block, which also abuts the adjoining building to the north. This entrance block is surmounted by a stiff-leaf impost moulding and has a square-headed door opening set within a segmental-headed recess framed by colonettes, with a timber door of six raised-and-fielded panels, opening onto a stone-paved universal access ramp.

The rear elevation is abutted by a two-storey red brick extension built around 2005, fronting onto Bank Street.

Interior

The building has a central domed interior. The interior was fully realised from Barre's original design, and much of the original detailing survives the conversion to retail use. Larmour records that the stucco figures in the groin angles of the circular dome each represent Mechanism, Engineering, Art, War, Law, Navigation, Architecture and Industry.

Historical Background

The building replaced an earlier bank that had stood on the same site and was demolished around 1864. When completed, the Italianate bank was valued at £700 in the Annual Revisions. The Bank Manager resided at the site in a small house to the rear; in both 1877 and 1880 this was a Mr Findlater, according to the Belfast Street Directories.

By the 1900 Revaluation the bank's value had risen substantially to £1,800. The valuer noted that it contained two sets of rooms, four rooms for the manager's house and two for the porter's house, both at the rear. The 1901 census recorded the Bank Manager as Samuel John McGowan (aged 60, Church of Ireland), who resided at the site with his wife Letitia (aged 58); the bank porter was William Thomas Haslett (aged 38, Church of Ireland). The census building return described the Provincial Bank as a first-class building consisting of seven inhabited rooms. By 1911 the site contained even more rooms — 12 occupied by the Bank Manager and two by the porter.

In 1915 alteration work was carried out by the Belfast architects Watt, Tulloch and Fitzsimons, a firm formed in August 1909. This resulted in the bank's valuation being reduced to £1,780, though following a successful appeal it was increased to £2,047 in 1926, at which level it remained until the Annual Revisions were cancelled in 1930. Under the First General Revaluation of Northern Ireland, carried out in 1935, the value was raised to £2,915. The bank escaped major damage during the Second World War and was slightly reduced in value to £2,560 under the second revaluation, which concluded in 1972.

The building does not appear on the Ordnance Survey maps until the third edition of 1901–02, at which time it was depicted as a rectangular building situated along the recently laid-out Royal Avenue. The current rear extension is a modern addition of around 2005; when originally built the bank did not possess this return.

No. 2 Royal Avenue continues to occupy the original line of Hercules Place, a narrow square that once linked Donegall Place to Hercules Street (the predecessor to Royal Avenue). As a result it is set further back than the adjoining buildings. The street was transformed in 1880–81 when the Town Council's surveyor J. C. Bretland cleared Hercules Place and Hercules Street, demolishing buildings to create the long open boulevard now extending from Donegall Square to York Street and rehousing over 4,000 people in the process. This clearing destroyed almost all buildings on the street predating the 1880s, making No. 2 Royal Avenue the sole survivor of the mid-19th century on this thoroughfare.

Prior to the completion of Belfast City Hall in 1906, the bank and its large open forecourt served as a public venue for important civic occasions. In 1901, for example, large crowds gathered outside the Provincial Bank to welcome home Boer War veterans.

William Joseph Barre rose to prominence after winning the competition to design Ulster Hall in 1859 and was one of the most prominent architects of the mid-Victorian period in Belfast, often competing with his contemporaries Charles Lanyon and William Lynn. Among his other Belfast works are the Albert Memorial Clock and the Belfast Ophthalmic Hospital on Great Victoria Street. Charles Brett described the Provincial Bank as an "extraordinarily exuberant building." The building was listed at Category A in 1977.

The Provincial Bank of Ireland occupied the building for over a century. In the late 1980s Allied Irish Bank took over possession. The building is now occupied by Tesco, who renovated it and constructed the large extension to the rear around 2005.

Setting

The building stands at the junction of Royal Avenue, Castle Place and Donegall Place, within a conservation area, on a highly prominent city centre site. It is dwarfed by the Bank Buildings immediately to the south.