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

58 Hill Street, Newry — Former Belfast Banking Company, now Bank

This is a three-storey-plus-attic Gothic Revival bank building, constructed around 1890 for the Belfast Banking Company. It was erected by builder Alexander Whelan of Newry to designs by architect W.J. Watson, as recorded in the Irish Builder of 15 June 1890. The building occupies a prominent corner site where Hill Street meets Marcus Square, and both principal facades have been elaborately detailed to make the most of this exposed position. The building sits within a conservation area.

General Character

The roof is gabled and covered in artificial slates with terracotta ridges and leaded parapet gutters. The walls to both main facades are lined cement render with a chamfered base course and some granite detailing. At each floor level, the corner where the Hill Street and Marcus Square elevations meet is articulated with a banded, foliated colonette.

Hill Street Elevation (Main Facade)

The main entrance sits at the ground floor to the right of this facade. It consists of a pair of large modern timber doors set within a deeply recessed, stop-end chamfered Gothic-headed opening. The Gothic arch head is filled with a circular lime render transom panel inscribed with the words "Belfast Banking Co. Limited". Between this panel and the doors is a fascia advertising the current occupant, affixed to a modern roller shutter box. Above the arch head, a projecting gabled canopy is supported on consoles and short paired colonettes. Each console is run-moulded render with a foliated drop-finial. Each colonette — the second of each pair set behind the first — has a chamfered plinth and a foliated head. To either side of the gable, at eaves level, is a concave cornice. The main body of the gable is filled by the doorway arch; the gable head is decorated in diaper work and breaks through the first-floor sill level. The gable ridge is further decorated on either side by three subsidiary gables.

To the left at ground floor is a three-paned fixed timber window — the central pane infilled with a blue-painted panel — with a leaded Gothic transom incorporating a quatrefoil motif. This window is set within a Gothic-headed opening with a canted flush granite sill. The jamb is chamfered, and to either side stands a slender foliated colonette rising to just below the spring of the arch. Each colonette is banded with a foliated head; they appear to be render applied over a metal core, which is an unusual method of construction. The window head is roll-mould chamfered and carries a plain hood mould with foliated label stops. A foliated stringcourse connects the colonettes of this window with those of the main entrance. In the spandrel to the left of the window head is a plain render, roll-mould chamfered roundel.

The centre of the ground floor is dominated by a canted pier rising to a cusped gablet, the head of which touches the foliated stringcourse that runs across the facade and rises around the pier. Above the stringcourse, the pier supports three truncated foliated colonettes with foliated drop-finials to either side. Resting on these colonettes is the run-moulded corbelled base of the first-floor oriel window. The head of the colonette at the Hill Street and Marcus Square corner meets the stringcourse crossing the elevation. In the wall between the pier and the main entrance is an automated teller machine. To the left of the ground floor window is a projecting plastic sign advertising the current occupant.

The first floor is symmetrical, with a canted oriel window at the centre of the facade and a single window to each side. The walls are lined render with a moulded stringcourse between first and second floor level. The left-hand corner has a chamfered return with a banded foliated colonette inset, as at ground floor level. The oriel has a one-over-one sliding sash window with a grille above to each cheek. Each window has a chamfered sill with a run-moulded sill course and a rectangular apron panel below sill level: the front panel has three inset quatrefoils, each side panel has two quatrefoils. Similar panels appear in the oriel parapet at second floor level. The windows in the wall to either side of the oriel are identical to one another: each is a one-over-one sliding sash with a Gothic-headed top pane, set within a stop-end chamfered Gothic-headed opening. Each has a chamfered sill, a moulded sill course shared with the oriel, and an apron panel as seen at the front of the oriel — except the right-hand window, which has no apron panel because the head of the doorway rises from below. Each window has a grille above and a run-moulded hood mould with foliated label stops.

Between the first and second floors runs a moulded stringcourse. At second floor level the walls are lined render with a continuous sill course and a stringcourse that rises as a hood mould over each window. There are two windows on either side of the oriel roof. Each is a two-over-two (vertically divided) sliding sash within a Gothic-headed, chamfered opening; below each sill is an apron panel inset with four quatrefoils. In the spandrel on either side of each window head is a roll-moulded roundel panel. The oriel roof is lean-to, canted, steeply pitched, and covered in natural slate; its ridge terminates at stringcourse level. The oriel parapet is coped and in line with the moulded sill course, with an apron panel on each canted face detailed to match those below the oriel windows.

A stringcourse runs between the second floor and attic level. At attic level, a central gabled dormer rises from the wall head. It has a run-moulded eaves cornice with knee stones and two gablets up each side of the ridge, topped by a truncated octagonal pinnacle. The gable is inset with a pair of small two-paned modern timber casement windows — smaller than those elsewhere on the elevation — set within Gothic-headed openings with rendered heads incorporating a decorative render roundel. Each has a chamfered reveal and a decorative cast iron Gothic balconette resting on a projecting sill supported on four moulded brackets with holes punched through. The pair of windows shares a single hood mould. In the spandrel above the windows is a roundel panel inset with a blind quatrefoil. The gable head is decorated in diaper work. To either side of the gabled dormer are parapet walls with stepped coping, each terminating in an octagonal pinnacle at the corner; the pinnacles are finished with octagonal spires and ball finials. The left-hand pinnacle is partially missing. Behind the parapets on either side, the walls rise to the eaves level of the central dormer and are clad in artificial slate hanging.

Marcus Square Elevation

The ground floor of the Marcus Square elevation is detailed in the same manner as the Hill Street facade: chamfered base course, corner colonette to the right, foliated stringcourse at window head level, roundel panels in each window spandrel, and a plat band between ground and first floor level. There is a door to the left and four equally spaced windows occupying the remainder of the elevation. The door is a stained timber sixteen-panelled door with a Gothic head, set within a chamfered Gothic-headed opening. The windows are detailed exactly as the ground floor window on the Hill Street facade.

At first floor level the walls are lined render with a moulded sill course, a plat band between the first and second floors, and a banded colonette at the right-hand corner. There are five windows: the leftmost is narrow and aligns with the door below, while the other four align with the ground floor windows. All are one-over-one sliding sashes detailed as the windows on the Hill Street facade. The area between the ground floor plat band and the first floor sill course contains five grilles, as on the Hill Street facade; the second and third from the left are covered by a fascia. Above the first and third windows from the right are deep run-moulded corbel brackets rising to stringcourse level and supporting balconettes at second floor level.

At second floor level the wall is lined render with a moulded sill course, a stringcourse at window head level that rises over each window as a hood mould, a stringcourse between the second floor and attic level, a colonette at the right-hand corner, and a roundel panel in each window spandrel. There are five windows aligning with those on the first floor; all are two-over-two sliding sashes except the narrow opening to the left, which has a top-hung casement. The first and third windows from the right have projecting balconettes with fretted quatrefoil panels to the front of each cheek and a moulded parapet at sill level.

The attic on this elevation has a gabled dormer similar to that on the Hill Street facade, rising from the wall head and centred over the second window from the right. It has a run-moulded eaves cornice with knee stones and two gablets up each side of the ridge, topped by a truncated octagonal pinnacle. The gable is inset with a pair of small two-paned modern timber casement windows within Gothic-headed openings, the heads rendered with decorative render quatrefoils. Each has a chamfered reveal and a decorative cast iron Gothic balconette on a projecting sill supported on four moulded brackets with holes punched through. The pair shares a single hood mould. In the spandrel above the windows is a roundel panel inset with a blind quatrefoil, and the gable head is decorated in diaper work. To either side of the dormer are parapet walls with stepped coping — the left-hand one longer than the right — each terminating in octagonal corner pinnacles with octagonal spires and ball finials. The left parapet has an additional pinnacle to balance the composition. The pinnacles to the left and right are partially missing. The cheeks of both gabled dormers have small modern doors giving access to the parapet gutters. The right-hand gable is a party wall with the adjacent property and is finished in plain cement render.

Rear Elevation and Returns

The rear elevation is gabled and rendered. It is abutted up to attic gable level by a three-storey, narrow return with a shallow lean-to roof, which is itself abutted by two further three-storey returns. The left-hand of these additional returns is gabled; the right-hand one has a mono-pitch roof. All returns are rendered with artificial slate roofs. Filling the ground floor space between the returns, and projecting beyond their gables, is a modern flat-roofed extension.

The rear wall of the main block has a two-over-two sliding sash window at attic gable level. The shallow return has two modern casements to the left at second floor level — one positioned over the right pitch of the left return roof — and two windows at first floor level to the right and centre. The rear wall of the ground floor extension is rendered and has four modern timber windows and a sheet metal security door to the right.

The left-hand return, whose floor levels correspond to the half-landing levels of the main block, has two windows in its rear wall: a two-over-two sliding sash to the left at first floor level and another to the centre at second floor level. Its left cheek abuts the adjacent property; on its right cheek are three second floor windows, all two-over-two sliding sashes. The right-hand return, also at half-landing level relative to the main block, has two large six-over-six sliding sash windows — one at first floor and one at second floor level. Its right cheek abuts the adjacent property and its left cheek is blank. The rear yard is enclosed by high rendered walls.