Ulster Bank, 14 High Street, Omagh, Co. Tyrone, BT78 1BJ

Ulster Bank, 14 High Street, Omagh

An attached three-storey stone bank with classical detailing and Art Nouveau elements, built in 1909 to designs by architects Blackwood and Jury. The building is situated on the north side of High Street, facing south.

The main structure is rectangular on plan and four windows wide across its principal elevation, with a central two-window-wide breakfront. A single-storey parapet-roofed porch projects from the front, with a modern rear flat-roofed two-storey block to the east. To the south, a two-storey pitched return is attached via a three-storey lean-to linking block. A slightly projecting two-storey extension extends eastward from the linking block, and a single-storey hipped addition sits to the south of the return.

The roof is natural slate with roll-top blue and black ridge tiles. A limestone balustraded parapet sits above a modillioned cornice. The central breakfront features a shaped gablet with a "Hand of Ulster" cartouche. Stone chimneystacks with modillioned cornices rise at the east and west ends. Metal downpipes are modern replacements.

The principal elevation is faced in ashlar limestone over a plinth with quoins. A torus-moulded sill course and first-floor lintel-level stringcourse run across. The ground floor has an entablature. Windows throughout are segmental arch-headed painted timber 1/1 sashes with keyblocks and hoodmoulds; upper floor windows have lugged architraves. The breakfront interrupts the cornice and parapet. On the ground floor, window jambs display Gibbs-blocking except at the breakfront, which instead has tapered Art Nouveau-style columns with foliated capitals in the jambs.

The porch features a round-headed entrance with a varnished and stained timber door with moulded panels. A chamfered limestone lintel sits above, with a lattice-glazed fanlight and flanking lattice-glazed sidelights with moulded stone sills. Gibbs-blocking, a protruding keyblock, voussoirs, and a stop-ended hoodmould complete the entrance surround.

The linking block is constructed of red brick in Flemish bond. The return to the south is similarly detailed, with a two-storey canted bay at its left end, three first-floor windows to the right, and two windows at second-floor level. A projecting chimneybreast sits at the right end.

The extension to the east is two openings wide, faced in Flemish-bonded red brick with limestone quoins above a splayed ashlar limestone plinth. The ground-floor right end has a segmental arch-headed varnished and stained timber door with a lattice-glazed fanlight, flanked by loop sidelights, dressed limestone surrounds, and a deeply projecting hoodmould. Ground-floor windows include three openings, with the fascia embossed "ULSTER BANK LIMITED."

The building sits on High Street between the Tyrone County Club to the west and the Omagh Civic Centre to the east. To the rear is an enclosed tarmac parking area, with the modern Strule Arts Centre and River Strule beyond.