42 Hill Street, Newry, Co Down, BT34 1AR

42 Hill Street, Newry, is a three-storey building with attic, constructed in granite and faience with a Classical Revival frontage. It stands on the west side of Hill Street, opposite the Cathedral of St Patrick and St Colman. The building was purpose-built by the Provincial Bank of Ireland on the site of the town Post Office and a dwelling house, opening in 1905. The architect may have been John Brown of Kilmorey Street, Newry. The Provincial Bank had previously occupied number 38 Hill Street.

The pitched roof is natural slated with a string-coursed and cornice faience chimney to the right gable. In the centre of the front pitch sits a flat lead-roofed dormer containing two 2/3-paned timber casements. Gable dormers rise from the wall head at each end of the façade. A broad parapet gutter with cast metal downpipes drains to left and right.

The ground floor is executed in very smooth ashlar granite, polished at the doorcase jambs. The upper floors are finished in golden-coloured faience-ware. The façade is symmetrical except for the door position and chimney placement.

The ground floor comprises a doorway on the left and four equally spaced openings to its right. The doorway consists of a pair of timber doors topped by an oval timber transom with square glazing panes and a circular central pivoting section. The transom and door sit within a deep ashlar granite surround. The transom architrave is egg and dart moulded with projecting keystones at cardinal points; the spandrels are panelled. Band-rusticated piers rise on each side of the door and transom, each with a tapering pilaster attached halfway up, resting on a corbel and rising to door head level. At the door head, a moulded bracket projects and supports a deep broken pediment, creating a canopy over the transom. The pediment is dentilled with a panelled underside. Ashlar granite walls rise on each pitch of the pediment to create a flat-headed parapet just below first floor level.

To the right of the door are four 2/2 fixed-pane timber windows. Between each is a tapering Ionic demi-column rising from a square base at ground level and supporting a fascia above. To the right of the rightmost window is an Ionic pilaster of similar detailing rising to the fascia. Below each window is a decorative panelled stall-riser. The right window accommodates an ATM. A frieze supported by the demi-columns carries modern plastic lettering. The fascia runs over the windows only, level with the parapet over the door, and has a dentilled cornice separating it from the first floor.

The first floor contains five equally spaced 1/1 sliding sash windows with horns. The wall to the centre of the façade is slightly recessed and contains three of the windows. Each end of the façade contains one window, set within a concave reveal tympanum above. Walls are horizontally channelled, tapering to demarcate voussoirs. The walls to the central recessed panel are smooth. Each window has a moulded architrave and raised ears to head and cill. Each head has a raised keystone supporting a cushion-moulded block, upon which rests a cornice running across the recessed section and projecting slightly over each cushion mould. The walls to the outer sections are band-rusticated.

The second floor has five windows, the central three positioned in the recessed central panel and all in line with those below but diminished in height. Each of the three central windows has a moulded architrave on a raised surround with bracketed moulded cill. Resting on each surround head is a cyma-recta cornice on a raised base, running the full width of the façade. The windows to each end of the façade are identical to the central ones but flanked by panelled pilasters, each resting on individual corbels projecting from either side of the window head below. The pilasters continue to eaves level, crossed by the moulded stringcourse.

At parapet level, the central portion of the façade remains recessed, with a dentilled moulded cornice running the full length and supporting a balustraded open parapet. Three lengths of balustrading are separated by recessed panelled plinths, all topped by a moulded baluster rail. On each side of the façade, broken pedimented gable dormers rest on plinth blocks set on the cornice. Each pediment contains a circular window with 3/3 glazing pattern. Each roundel has a raised moulded reveal and projecting keystones at cardinal points, with the roundel head breaking the moulded base of the gable pediment.

The rear elevation is now abutted at first floor level by a modern rear return extending to The Mall, replacing a previous structure. The roof pitches to the rear with a hipped return to the left and a flat lead-roofed return to the right. A four-windowed 2/4-casement dormer with flat lead roof and slated sides and cheeks sits on the right; a single modern skylight appears on the left of the main roof. A chimney base in brick stands on the left gable. Rainwater goods are cast iron.

Walls are red brick with a hipped roof return projecting to the left and a flat-roofed return to the right. Between these is a first-floor return with a slated lean-to roof rising to the second-floor cill level. At first floor on the left is a modern escape door with sidelights; to the right is a fixed timber window. The second floor has two 1/1 sliding sashes. The right return at the half-landing between ground and first floors contains an escape door with sidelights. At the half-landing between first and second floors is a pair of 1/1 sliding sashes within a single opening. The left return at first floor has a 1/1 sliding sash window with granite cill and brick head; the second floor has two 1/1 sliding sashes.

The left gable is abutted by an adjacent property; the right gable is abutted by a lower building. The exposed section is cement-rendered. The chimney of the neighbouring property abuts the gable and rises up the faience chimney on the right side.

The building is located within a conservation area and retains significant architectural interest in its style, proportion, and ornamentation, though alterations detract from the original scheme. It remains in use as a bank.