First Trust Bank, 71 Main Street, Strabane, Co Tyrone, BT82 8AU

First Trust Bank, 71 Main Street, Strabane

A three-storey bank with attic storey, built in 1892 to designs by architect Robert Watt. The building stands on the north side of Main Street and is a Grade B1 listed building of local architectural and historical significance.

The principal elevation faces south and is four windows wide, finished in ashlar sandstone over a projecting plinth. The roof is pitched natural slate, concealed by a balustraded parapet over cornice, with ashlar chimneystacks topped by corniced caps. Windows throughout are 1/1 timber sliding sash windows with horns, set over a moulded sill course on each floor. The ground floor is flanked by pilasters between two door openings. At the left is the banking hall entrance, a round-headed opening with moulded archivolt and keystone springing from moulded imposts. Two-stage rebated jambs are framed by pilasters supporting a plain entablature with applied bank signage to the frieze. At the right is a square-headed entrance to private quarters, now infilled and housing an ATM, framed by pilasters and fitted with a replacement four-panelled timber door. Both entrances are accessed via three bull-nosed granite steps.

The building is rectangular on plan with a three-storey gabled rear return, further extended by a two-storey gabled return. The remainder of the walling is brick. The west gable is abutted by a two-storey commercial building dating from around 1990. The east gable is abutted by a three-storey commercial building from around 1970. Modern extensions to the ground floor on the north side have no architectural merit. The roof is fitted with parapet gutters and uPVC downpipes.

The internal layout is noticeably skewed, indicating that the bank was integrated into an existing urban setting with plans adapted to accommodate the irregularities of the already developed site. Dummy doors to the upper floors suggest former connections with a neighbouring building to the east, now demolished. The twin entrances reflect the former commercial practice of providing self-contained living accommodation for the bank manager and his family in the upper floors.

Originally built as the Provincial Bank of Ireland, the building is first recorded on the third edition Ordnance Survey map of 1905. Valuation Revisions record it from 1894 as a "house, office and yard, occupied by the Provincial Bank of Ireland Ltd," valued at £100. The Provincial Bank was established in the early nineteenth century and pioneered branch banking throughout Ireland, expanding to forty-two branches by 1846, though this was reduced to thirty-eight in 1850 following agricultural price slumps. The bank subsequently became part of Allied Irish Banks.

Although the original banking hall no longer survives, a good proportion of original fabric remains intact, and the building continues in its original banking use. It is one of the more significant architectural buildings in Strabane town centre.