Northern Bank(Ex), Gates, Railings And Walling, 3 Shore St., Cushendall, Co.Antrim

Former Northern Bank, 3 Shore Street, Cushendall, County Antrim — detached three-bay, two-storey-over-basement rendered former bank building, rebuilt around 1925 following a fire in 1922, and possibly incorporating part of an earlier structure on the same site. The building is set back on the southeast side of Shore Street, behind cast-iron gates, railings and rendered walls, and sits to the northwest of Turnly's Tower. It is a substantial presence among the earlier terraced houses of the street, and remains the only example of early 20th-century bank architecture in the centre of the village.

ARCHITECTURAL DESCRIPTION

The building is T-shaped on plan, facing northwest. The roof is hipped natural slate with black clay ridge tiles, and three profiled red brick chimneystacks rise from the side and rear elevations; these were rebuilt around 2011. Moulded cast-iron guttering is carried on overhanging timber-sheeted eaves, with cast-iron downpipes. The external walls are painted cement render, with a decorative red brick frieze below the eaves incorporating rendered panels with red sandstone discs. The front elevation alone has a flush red sandstone ashlar fascia.

Window openings throughout are square-headed, with painted masonry sills and single-pane timber sliding sash windows fitted with margin lights and slender ogee horns.

The three-bay, two-storey-over-basement front elevation has a central door opening flanked by a rectangular oriel window to the right and, at ground floor level to the left, an original tripartite window with sliding timber sash windows and an applied moulded surround (added around 2000). The oriel window has a flat roof behind a cornice and replacement top-hung timber casement windows with margin lights. The square-headed front door is set within a sandstone ashlar doorcase with a hood cornice, and fitted with a raised-and-fielded hardwood panelled door with an iron overlight above. The door opens onto a concrete-paved platform reached by five steps enclosed by original iron railings.

The northeast side elevation has a three-sided canted bay window to the left at ground floor level and a single window at first floor level, all retaining their original timber sliding sash windows. The decorative detailing below the eaves is repeated here. A screen wall abuts this elevation.

The rear elevation is abutted by a four-storey gabled return with painted rendered walls and single-pane sliding timber sash windows with ogee horns. The partially exposed rear elevation has a single ground-floor window glazed in the same manner, and paired window openings at basement and first floor levels with single-pane sliding timber sash windows. The southwest side elevation has a single window opening at both ground and first floor levels.

SETTING AND BOUNDARY FEATURES

The building occupies its own plot, set slightly back from the southeast side of Shore Street. A concrete-paved sloping basement area is enclosed by a painted rendered wall fitted with decorative cast-iron railings and a matching pair of pedestrian gates hung on piers. A small rear yard is enclosed to the south by a tall rubblestone wall and to the rear by a single-storey rendered former outbuilding.

HISTORICAL BACKGROUND

The site at No. 3 Shore Street was first recorded in Griffith's Valuation of 1859, which noted a house valued at £20, leased to a Mr. Peter Stone from Anne McDonnell of Kilmore House. Stone continued to occupy the building as a private dwelling until around 1873, when it was acquired by the Northern Banking Co. Ltd. and converted into the village's branch bank. The Northern Banking Company was one of Ireland's oldest banks, having been established in Belfast in 1809 as the Northern Banking Partnership. The opening of a branch in Cushendall reflected the village's commercial growth: from a minor settlement, it had developed into a popular seaside resort following the construction of the Coastal Road between 1832 and 1842.

The branch comprised both banking premises and a manager's dwelling. The first branch manager was a Mr. Hugh Kirkpatrick. The 1901 Census of Ireland records the bank as occupied by a Mr. James Park Cinnamond, and describes it as a first-class dwelling of twelve rooms with a stable, piggery and barn among its rear outbuildings. The Ordnance Survey Town Plan of 1903 depicts No. 3 Shore Street as a rectangular building with a rear return.

In 1914, the Irish Builder reported that the bank underwent alterations and was extended to designs by Thomas J. O'Neill (c.1867–1936), a Ballycastle-based engineer and architect who also served as assistant county surveyor for County Antrim.

The original building was burned to the ground in 1922 when a fire was accidentally started during a robbery. The bank was rebuilt around 1925; the Ulster Architectural Heritage Society's 1972 publication on the Glens of Antrim noted that part of the shell of the original structure was incorporated into the new building. The Annual Revisions set the total rateable value of the reconstructed bank at £40 in 1925. Under the First General Revaluation of Property in Northern Ireland (1936–57), the value was raised to £72, and by the end of the Second General Revaluation (1956–72) it had reached £74. The Northern Banking Co. purchased the lease outright in 1967. In 1970, the Northern Banking Co. was amalgamated with the Belfast Banking Co. to form Northern Bank Ltd.

The Ulster Architectural Heritage Society's 1972 survey described the building in the following terms: "A very strange building indeed … the building is generally of blue-painted stucco, with cream details including glazing in the style of the 1850s; but beneath uncommonly wide eaves there is a strange chocolate-cake-filling layer of brick and tile work, incorporating the name of the Bank and large ornamental red-tile beauty-spots … the railings appear to belong to the earlier house, and are very pleasant."

The Northern Bank was included in the Cushendall Conservation Area in 1975 — only the second conservation area to have been designated in the province at that time, described as "testimony itself to the special qualities of the village." In that same year, Cushendall was selected as one of Northern Ireland's four pilot schemes for conservation during the European Architectural Heritage Year. No. 3 Shore Street was listed in 1976, by which time the Northern Bank had vacated the building. It was subsequently converted to use as a private dwelling and commercial premises. Renovation works carried out around 2011 included the reconstruction of the chimneystacks.