First Trust Bank, 30 Greencastle Street, Kilkeel, Newry, Co Down, BT34 4ND

First Trust Bank, Kilkeel

A substantial two-storey bank building with attic storey, designed in Edwardian Freestyle style, standing on the northern side of Greencastle Street. The building comprises a main front block with a lower single-storey pavilion-roofed section to its right and a rear extension.

The roof is finished in Westmoreland slate with red clay ridge tiles. The front ridge runs parallel to the façade and is shorter than the rear ridge, which extends further to the right. Both ridges are hipped and linked at the left end. The front roof is terminated at each end by tall, slender red brick chimneys, each with a finely dressed overhanging stone coping course and four side-vent type pots. Small slated gablets link each chimney to the main roof. Flat lead-roofed dormers abut the front face of each chimney and gablet, each containing a single casement to the front and a second on the front-facing cheek. A third flat lead-roofed dormer sits on the front pitch containing a pair of painted timber casements. The eaves are overhanging and bracketed with a closed soffit and ogee cast-iron gutters. The rear roof appears to have been extended over an extended stairwell and contains no features of special interest.

The front block is flanked to its right by a single-storey structure with a pavilion roof topped by a lead-vented finial. This configuration creates a front elevation where the right end is single-storey and the left end is two storeys high. At the extreme left end, abutting the ground floor, is a porch forming the main entrance to the banking hall. This appears to be an alteration, with evidence suggesting the original doorway was relocated from the single-storey block. Three granite steps lead to a large modern pair of eight-panelled painted timber doors beneath a semicircular fanlight. The entrance surround is executed in granite with a hollow chamfer mould, projecting moulded impost, tabled voussoirs, stepped extrados and rusticated keystone. Above runs a frieze carved with the word 'Bank', with modillons to either side supporting an overhanging coping.

To the right of the entrance porch, the two-storey section of the façade is faced in ashlar granite at ground floor with brick above. At ground floor, raised ashlar pilasters define each end, with a high chamfered plinth between them at cill level. A moulded string course at the meeting rail level of the windows continues over the pilasters. Five symmetrical window openings are set between the pilasters; the central opening is more widely spaced from the others. All are 1/1 sliding sashes (with the top pane smaller) with flush stooled cills. Small decorative granite corbel panels are positioned above the top sashes to the left and right of the central window. A single ashlar course spans all windows, meeting the end pilasters. Above this sits a modern 'First Trust' corporate sign (two ashlar courses deep), with a further ashlar course above coped with a moulded string course upon which the first-floor brickwork is laid.

The single-storey section to the right is also ashlar granite faced. Its left end shares a pilaster with the adjacent two-storey block, and its right end has a matching pilaster. It is detailed similarly to the two-storey section but includes a block parapet. Three widely spaced windows are set between the pilasters. The central window has been infilled to meeting rail level by an ATM including a plastic awning and projecting sign. The left and right windows are each crowned by a moulded ashlar cartouche. The stonework at the central window has been disturbed where the original entrance was removed.

The first floor of the main block is constructed in red brick laid in Flemish bond. Its façade contains five 1/1 segmental-headed sliding sash windows, aligned vertically with those on the ground floor. Each is fitted with a moulded brick hood-mould and a tall narrow granite keystone. The right cheek of this block is abutted at ground floor by the single-storey pavilion-roofed section. The first-floor wall to the right contains a single segmental-headed window without a keystone, and to its right is a canted timber window with decorative leaded glazing, recessed flush within a segmental-headed opening and without a hood.

The rear pile, running behind the single-storey block, is constructed in red brick. Its right third is faced in modern, much smaller brick and is covered by an extended roof. A single segmental-headed 1/1 sliding sash window, without keystone, is positioned at the extreme left end.

The right elevation comprises the right cheek of the single-storey pavilion-roofed block to the left and the two-storey rear block to the right. All are executed in red brick; the left block is original and the right block is modern. The original block has a granite pilaster at its left end (tied into the façade) and three plain 1/1 sliding sash windows, each with a dressed granite lintel. Above the brick is a modern applied 'First Trust' sign, with a granite coping to the parapet above. The two-storey rear block is abutted at ground floor left by a single-storey porch with a flat concrete roof and a pair of stained timber doors on its left, street-facing cheek. The remaining wall is blank except for a 1/1 sliding sash window (with both panes equal) at first floor above the porch.

The rear elevation is constructed in red brick and is informal in composition, divided into three bays. The central bay is narrow with an attic gable, and a similar gable is located to its right. Both are furnished with timber bargeboards. Abutting these bays at ground floor is a lean-to return with a natural slate roof, red brick walls and numerous sliding sash windows. Centred above at first floor is a pair of segmental-headed 1/1 sliding sashes. Each attic gable contains a small 1/1 sliding sash window. The left bay is completely abutted by a flat-roofed return with leaded roof and a tall modern brick chimney at its left end. Its walls are red brick. A windowless flat-roofed stairwell return abuts to the left, and two segmental-headed windows occupy the first floor. Each contains three narrow fixed panes with small top-hung casements above.

The left elevation of the main block is constructed in red brick and is almost completely abutted at ground floor by the entrance porch in red brick with a flat concrete roof, blank façade and a modern three-casement window on its left, rear-facing cheek. The remaining wall at ground floor contains a single 1/1 sliding sash window with a moulded brick hood. The first floor has four windows: to the left is a window matching that to the ground floor, and to its right are two similar windows, each diminishing in size and height with cills set progressively higher. To their right is a canted timber window recessed flush within a segmental-headed opening. This window was originally identical to the similar window at the other end but has since been replaced in modern timber with plain glass.

The street frontage features a contemporary screen comprising a blue brick dwarf wall with heavy chamfered granite coping, above which stand red brick piers topped with domed caps. Simple vertical iron railings span between the piers. The rear garden has been converted to a modern car park, enclosed by a rubble stone wall and railings.