Kilkeel Credit Union / former Munster and Leinster Bank, 20 Newry Street, Kilkeel, Newry, Co Down, BT34 4DN

Kilkeel Credit Union / Former Munster and Leinster Bank

A formal, symmetrical early 20th-century building erected around 1900 on the north side of Newry Street in Kilkeel. Originally constructed not specifically as a bank but as a general commercial building, though it was subsequently occupied for banking purposes until the Munster and Leinster Bank ceased trading there in 1973. The building is now in use as a credit union premises. It is a three-storey structure with fine neo-classical detailing throughout, containing a wealth of interior details that merit continued protection.

The building features a pitched natural slate roof, hipped to the left and gabled to the right, with terracotta ridges and finials. Two cement-rendered chimneys rise from the structure—one from the right gable and one from the wall head of the left elevation—each with swept overhanging copings and five pots. Gutters are set behind a plain parapet, with box-section metal downpipes fitted with hoppers decorated with anthemion ornament.

The front elevation is painted lined render with a chamfered rendered base course. Advanced bays to the left and right ends rise the full height and are band rusticated, each containing a doorway at ground floor. The central portion of the ground floor has three window openings. Each doorway is a ten-panelled bolection-moulded and fielded painted timber door set over a 5x3 paned metal transom light. The doorway reveals are band rusticated, and flanking each side is a slender, tapering Ionic pilaster with a moulded plinth. Above is a full frieze with dentil cornice. The central ground floor portion now contains three modern stained timber windows set within earlier openings. These windows share a moulded cill terminating at the cheek of each advanced side bay, with a narrow rendered mullion featuring moulded base and head between them.

The upper floors have lined render to the centre and banded rustication to the advanced side bays. Each floor contains four windows—one to each advanced bay and two to the centre. All are 1/1 sliding sashes, with those to the second floor diminished in height. First-floor windows each have a projecting cill, moulded architrave, and projecting cornice hood, all in render. Second-floor windows have moulded cills and fluted apron panels resting on the moulded cornice of each first-floor window. Each second-floor architrave has a raised, eared head, and all windows are linked by a broad moulded plat-band. An advanced, moulded dentil cornice runs at eaves level, supporting a raised, plain rendered wall head which is stepped and coped over each advanced bay for added effect.

The left elevation is abutted by an adjacent lower building, with the remaining visible wall finished in lined cement render, painted as quoins to the corner, and the facade parapet running full width. The right gable is similarly abutted and detailed.

The rear elevation is complex. The right side is abutted by a two-stage return—the first stage is two storeys and the second stage is single storey. The remaining wall to the left side is abutted at ground floor by a modern flat-roofed extension. Both first and second floors of the main rear wall have two 1/1 sliding sashes. The rear return roofs are hipped, with the second stage lower. Both have terracotta ridges and finials. The cheeks of all rear returns are rendered in unpainted cement and are blank. The end wall of the first stage return is abutted by the second stage, with the remaining wall blank. A cement-rendered chimney rises from the wall head, matching those of the front facade. The left cheek of the first stage has a 1/1 sliding sash window and a sheeted timber door serving a store. At first floor are four similar windows, with the right window set in the second stage. The second floor has two 1/1 sash windows. The rear wall of the second stage return has a sheeted timber door at ground floor to the right (serving a disused outside toilet) and above is a sheeted and glazed door with a window to its left, served by a flight of concrete steps.

A modern single-storey flat-roofed extension adjoins the ground floor to the left, with cement-rendered walls. Its rear wall contains two small 1/1 sliding sashes, and its right cheek (stepping out as it meets the main block) has a sheeted and glazed door. Its left cheek forms the yard wall. The yard is paved and leads to a garden with a lawn enclosed by a rubble stone wall.

The building underwent significant remodelling around 1994. The original right entrance to the banking hall was blocked up, the vestibule doors were relocated to accommodate a new door into the banking hall from the left side, and the banking counter was moved from its original position running the depth of the building. The original counter position may account for a drop-beam in the ceiling that creates irregular panel divisions corresponding to the public and private spaces below.

Valuation records show that the site previously held two earlier buildings. The 1900 valuation revision book records a substantial increase in valuation (from £3 10s 0d to £13 10s 0d) and a change of function to shop, indicating the erection of a new structure and change of use at that date.