15 Strand Road, Londonderry, County Londonderry, (Bank O.I), BT48 7BJ

No. 15 Strand Road is a three-storey neo-classical Bank of Ireland located at the corner of Strand Road and Sackville Street in Londonderry. The building was constructed in 1927-28 to designs of architect James Patrick McGrath, a local practitioner who established his independent firm in 1897 and undertook varied commercial, domestic, school and Catholic ecclesiastical work. This appears to have been McGrath's only commission for a financial banking company. The building was originally constructed for The Northern Bank Co. Ltd, which merged with the Bank of Ireland in 1965, and the site remains in banking use today.

The façade is built of Portland limestone with highly decorative carved stonework. The building presents three bays to Strand Road and four bays to Sackville Street, with a single bay canted corner containing the principal entrance. Ground floor windows are round-headed with fixed panes set within stepped recesses, flanked by columns with acanthus scroll carved capitals. The window bays feature carved female head keystones and rustication to ground floor level with cartouches flanking the window bay groups. First and second floor windows are square-headed with stepped recesses, fitted with 12-pane replacement timber sliding sash windows with projecting keystones.

The principal entrance doorway is flanked by pilasters with a decorative cornice and frieze above. A semicircular arch fanlight with large anthemion fronds contains a cartouche bearing the initials TNB (The Northern Bank). A projecting cornice with Greek key pattern borders the first floor sill level. The eaves feature a large projecting salient cornice with dentils and carved lion masks to each corner. The parapet is balustraded and divided by segmental pedimented piers. A segmental date stone inscribed 1928 marks the canted corner.

The building was severely damaged in a bomb attack in 1979 resulting from the Northern Ireland Troubles. The structure was listed in 1981. The interior was completely rebuilt in 1986 with the loss of the original plan form and fabric, though McGrath's original neo-classical façade was retained and conserved. The rebuild cost £851,000 and included three-storey redbrick extensions to both Strand Road (two bays) and Sackville Street (three bays), with the original balustrade parapet extended over these additional bays and similar glazing bars installed. The roof was replaced with Bangor Blue slates in 1986. The walls are limestone with timber fixed and sliding sash replacement windows; rainwater goods are concealed.

No. 15 Strand Road represents one of the last classically inspired banks erected in the city and remains a notable example of neo-Georgian classical banking hall design from the 1920s, distinguished by its robust and well-designed classical façade on this prominent corner location at the intersection of Strand Road and Sackville Street, one block north of the City Walls.