Northern Bank, 1 Queen Street, Warrenpoint, Newry, Co Down, BT34 3HZ

Northern Bank, 1 Queen Street, Warrenpoint

This large, prominently situated former bank with attached manager's residence occupies the north-east corner of Queen Street and Great George's Street. It was erected in 1914 for the Belfast Banking Company, and first appears in the 1916 Valuation revision book as a bank office and manager's house, valued together at £120. The building was designed by Samuel P. Close & Son and is externally little altered. A full evaluation can only be completed once an internal inspection has been carried out.

The building is two-and-a-half storeys, double pile, and built in red brick laid in Flemish bond with a chamfered brick base course. Most decorative detailing is in red sandstone. The main block has a steeply pitched natural slate roof of double-pile form, with a returning roof at the rear right. Abutting the rear right gable is a two-stage rear return, which diminishes at each stage. All rear gables have plain painted timber bargeboards. All front gables have pitched red sandstone copings with plain kneelers, raised decorative blocks halfway up each pitch, and foliated finials. All chimneys are decorative red brick with moulded red sandstone cappings — one to each gable of the front pile, one at each end of the rear returning roof (the rear one on its north-west pitch), and another on the end gable of the lowest rear return. All roofs have overhanging eaves with exposed rafter tails carrying cast-iron rainwater goods attached to the wall by decorative iron brackets.

There is a single wall-head dormer on the front pitch of the main block, with a hipped natural slate roof, terracotta ridge tiles, and a ball-topped finial. Its front elevation has a pair of casement windows; its left and right cheeks are slate-hung and blank.

A prominent moulded sandstone stringcourse runs between each floor on all elevations of the main block except the rear. On the north-west side elevations, the stringcourses are terminated by foliated stops at the north-west end. A lesser stringcourse, set seven brick courses below the stringcourse between ground and first floors, frames a plain frieze. All stringcourses wrap around the corner tower and loop over the downpipes. All window openings have chamfered reveals, splayed sandstone cills, and chamfered sandstone lintels. Windows are typically original flush timber casements with top-hung transoms. Some have masonry transoms and mullions as described in detail below.

South-West Elevation (Queen Street — principal front)

This two-and-a-half storey, two-bay principal elevation is dominated at its left corner by a three-stage octagonal tower, which clasps the corner from first-floor level upwards. At ground floor, the tower is supported by a narrow, slightly advanced brick pier to both the south-west and north-west faces, each pier carrying a corbelled sandstone base at frieze-course level. The first and second stages of the tower each have five full and two half faces exposed, with a narrow casement window to the south-west and north-west faces of each stage; the remaining exposed faces are blank. The third stage is free-standing, shorter than the other two, and constructed entirely of red sandstone, each face having a louvred, deeply chamfered lancet opening. The tower roof rests on a projecting moulded cornice and is conical, with eight faces built in coursed sandstone blockwork in which each course projects slightly proud of the course below, topped by a foliated finial on a square shaft.

The remainder of the left bay contains the main entrance, approached by five dressed granite steps — the bottom step with curved ends — rising to a pair of narrow panelled storm doors set within a semi-elliptical headed opening. Each door has eight chamfered panels, and their heads curve with the doorway opening. The chamfered doorcase has stepped reveals and moulded bases. The spandrels over the doors are foliated, and above is a glazed transom containing three glazed and leaded round-headed windows, all with masonry mullions, incised spandrels, and chamfered reveals. The left and right sides of the transom are flanked by octagonal attached colonettes resting on foliated corbelled stops. Above the transom the wall is blank until the frieze level between ground and first floors, where the doorcase head advances as a shallow ogee parapet. Its curving front frieze reads "BELFAST BANKING CO / LIMITED" in raised letters, framed to left and right by brackets that rest on the colonettes and support the cornice and leaded parapet. A modern ATM machine has been inserted into the wall immediately to the left of the entrance.

The left bay at first floor, above the entrance, has a pair of casement windows with transoms in a shared opening. The right bay is finished as a large gable with pitched natural slate roof. At ground floor it has a central two-staged buttress with sandstone copings, the top of which supports the base of a first-floor oriel window. To either side of the buttress is a transom and mullion window containing two side-hung casements with top-hung transoms. The first-floor oriel window has a corbelled sandstone base (rising from the buttress) at the frieze level between ground and first floors; its front face has a large fixed window with transom, and its cheeks have similar but narrower windows. It has a masonry head and a steeply swept lead roof. To either side of the oriel on the wall is a narrow casement window with transom. The gable above has a pair of casement windows with transoms in a common opening, and above these in the gable apex is a blank sandstone shield.

North-West Elevation

This elevation is three bays wide: the left bay is the narrowest and the right bay the widest. The central and right bays are finished in large gables; the left bay has eaves as the south-west elevation. The extreme right corner is clasped by the octagonal tower described above.

The left bay contains the doorway to the former manager's house. The stringcourses do not extend to this bay, and lower ceiling heights allow three floors to be accommodated below eaves level. At ground floor there is a three-by-three panelled door set within a chamfered brick surround. The door has bolection-moulded panels, the top three being smaller, with a modern aluminium letterbox. There is a narrow leaded transom light over the door, and to its left a narrow casement window with transom. Each upper floor has a pair of similar windows in a common opening; that to the second floor is diminished in height.

The central bay has a masonry transom-and-mullion window with a transom light at ground floor, and a similar tripartite window at first floor. Aligned above at attic level is a pair of timber casements in a common opening. The gable apex has a plain sandstone shield.

At ground floor of the right bay are a pair of transom-and-mullion windows matching those in the central bay. To the centre of this bay rises an advanced chimney stack resting on a brick corbelled base at frieze level between ground and first floors. To its left on each upper floor is a single casement window with transom, that at attic level being wider than the first-floor window.

North-East Elevation (rear)

The rear elevation is in two parts: the left part is set back, and the right part advances under the returning roof. The left part is abutted by a single-storey return with a pitched natural slate roof, built in brick with three segmental-headed windows on its south-east face, which is flush with the south-east gable of the main block. The remainder of the left part was not inspected.

The right part of this elevation has an end gable facing north-east and is abutted by a lower two-storey return. There is a vertically divided two-over-two sash window to the left of the exposed section of wall. This two-storey return has a hipped natural slate roof with terracotta ridge tiles and a ball-topped hip knob. Eaves and rainwater goods match the main block. Floor levels follow those of the main block, with a sandstone stringcourse between ground and first floors. The return's right (north-west) elevation, facing onto Great George's Street, has a timber-framed tripartite window in a common opening at ground floor, and a pair of casement windows with transoms in a common opening at first floor. Its left (south-east) elevation was not inspected. Its north-east end wall is blank and is abutted by a lower single-storey return.

This single-storey return has a pitched natural slate roof with terracotta ridge tiles and a chimneystack to the end gable, with plain bargeboards and exposed rafter tails. Its right (north-west) elevation has two pairs of casement windows, each pair in a common opening. Its left (south-east) cheek was not inspected, and its north-east end gable is blank.

South-East Elevation (Great George's Street)

This two-bay elevation has a wider gabled left bay and a plainer, narrower right bay. Between the two bays rises a narrow chimneybreast leading to a slender stack with three terracotta pots. The sandstone stringcourses are present only on the left bay, wrapping around from the principal front and terminating on the chimneybreast.

At ground floor of the left bay there is a masonry-framed transom-and-mullion window at the right end. At first floor is a wide timber casement window with transom over. At attic level are two small casement windows with transoms. The right bay is plainly built in brick with no decorative detailing. It has a small circular four-paned window at ground floor. Each upper floor has a segmental-headed sash window: that to the first floor is one-over-one, and that to the attic is two-over-two and slightly diminished in height.

Setting

The boundary to Queen Street and Great George's Street is enclosed by a red brick dwarf wall with red sandstone coping, which has been raised slightly in brick, presumably when railings were removed during the Second World War. A modern wrought-iron gate serves the doorway on Great George's Street. The rear yard has a brick wall with a tongue-and-groove sheeted door opening onto Great George's Street.