39 Hill Street, Newry, Co Down, BT34 1AF

39 Hill Street is a three-storey-plus-attic high Victorian commercial building, purpose-built in 1890 for the Munster and Leinster Banking Company and designed to make the most of its prominent corner site at the junction of Hill Street and Marcus Square in Newry. The building features some mannerist detailing and an imposing corner tower. Although a significant feature in the conservation area, the loss of its interior fittings and the addition of a large rear extension have reduced its special architectural and historic interest, and it is no longer listed — the conservation area designation now provides the more appropriate level of protection. It is currently in use as offices.

OVERALL FORM AND ROOF

The building faces west, with its canted corner angled to address both Hill Street and Marcus Square. Above eaves level, the corner rises into a single-stage octagonal tower with a steeply pitched roof covered in lead and natural slate, topped by a highly decorative wrought iron finial incorporating a crown. The main roof is natural slate and L-shaped in plan, gabled to the rear and to the front left, with the tower occupying the front right corner. Cement render chimneys sit on each gable and on the ridge immediately to the right of the tower as seen from Marcus Square. The pitch facing Marcus Square incorporates a cast iron skylight. Rainwater gutters sit behind an open balustraded parapet, with metal downpipes discharging to both main elevations.

MATERIALS AND GENERAL CHARACTER

The walls to both main elevations are finished in painted lined render, with a chamfered base course and a variety of render details in a mannerist style.

HILL STREET ELEVATION

This elevation is one bay wide, framed on each side by a pilaster running the full height to eaves level. At ground floor, these pilasters have raised base courses, banded rustication, and foliated capitals, above which they become decorative corbels at frieze level, supporting a moulded cornice between ground and first floor.

The main entrance is centred between these pilasters. It consists of a pair of four-panelled modern timber storm doors with an infilled transom over, set within a further pair of pilasters with raised base courses and raised panels running up to just below door-head level. At that point a plat band carries a moulded render shell, above which is a smooth frieze, then a moulded projecting cornice at door-head level. The inner pilasters are plain at transom level but rise to foliated capitals at the head of the transom, which in turn support a deeply moulded entablature. Centred over the transom, below the entablature, is a keystone decorated with the head of a bearded man. Modern raised letters, individually fixed to the wall over the door and on the frieze above, advertise the current occupant.

At first floor, the pilasters are reeded up to second floor level. The window at this level is a single two-paned casement with a segmental-headed fixed transom above and a security grille over, set within a segmentally headed opening with a highly decorative surround. On each side of the opening a plain pilaster rests on a battered plinth and rises to a moulded cornice level with the casement head. From this cornice a deeply moulded bracket supports a moulded entablature. Below the entablature, over the window head, is a decorative keystone and stringcourse. The second floor window surround rests upon this entablature. To the left of the first floor window is a security alarm box; to the right is a modern hanging sign.

At second floor the pilasters are plain and are crossed by a stringcourse which forms a frieze at eaves level. Each pilaster carries a floral roundel panel at frieze level. The second floor window is a 1/1 sliding sash with a segmental head, set within a segmentally headed opening. A moulded cill course runs between the pilasters, and the apron panel below the window — which rests on the first floor window entablature — is reeded. Plain pilasters flank the window on each side, with a moulded cornice just below window-head level, and a moulded architrave links the pilasters and rises over the window head. Above the second floor frieze, a dentilled moulded cornice — raised forward over the pilasters — supports an open parapet of balusters with a moulded rail. Over each pilaster the balustrade is enclosed by a panelled post topped with an urn, although the urn is missing from the right pilaster.

MARCUS SQUARE ELEVATION

This elevation is three ornamental bays wide, with four pilasters — one at each end and two between the bays — all rising to urn-topped posts and a balustraded parapet. All details above ground floor match those on the Hill Street elevation, with three windows to each upper floor. At ground floor, the pilasters are detailed as on Hill Street, except that the second pilaster from the left carries the date '1890' raised in render at frieze level. The right bay at ground floor contains a doorway detailed identically to the one described on the Hill Street elevation. The left and central bays at ground floor are each inset with pairs of two-paned casement windows with fixed transoms over, painted render cills, and lined render stall risers.

CANTED CORNER TOWER

At ground floor the tower sits between the end pilasters of each elevation, with the ground floor frieze and dentilled cornice continuing around from the main elevations. The corner itself has a two-paned casement window with a fixed transom over, flanked on each side by a band-rusticated pilaster with a foliated head rising to frieze level. Each cheek of the cant contains a fixed timber window with a single transom over.

At first floor, similar windows appear but with segmental heads. They have plain pilasters to each jamb and a moulded cornice level with the casement head, above which a moulded architrave rises over the segmental window head. Each window has a decorative moulded keystone — the corner one featuring a figurative mannerist mask — with a stringcourse running between first and second floors.

The second floor windows are similarly detailed. A stringcourse creates a frieze below eaves level, and above the corner window is a decorative panel bearing the intertwined letters 'M', 'L' and 'B'. The moulded cornice at eaves level continues from the main elevations and forms the cill of the attic windows in the tower. The corner window at attic level is a modern two-paned casement with a transom over; the windows to either side are modern single casements with single transoms. These have plain reveals with simple plat bands at casement head level, and a simple moulded cornice over the windows forms the eaves of the tower roof.

REAR ELEVATION AND EXTENSION

The left gable on Hill Street forms a party wall with the adjacent property. The rear elevation is gabled and cement rendered. A modern extension now fills the entire yard to the rear. At first floor level, a projecting return with a lean-to natural slate roof abuts the full width of the elevation. The ground floor extension has no windows or doors, and its flat roof incorporates three modern skylights. The first floor return has two equally spaced modern top-hung 1/1 windows. Just below second floor level, to the right of the rear elevation, is a 2/2 vertically divided sliding sash window at half-landing level, with a similar window above it between second floor and attic. Both windows have render cills.

HISTORICAL NOTES

The building was erected in 1890 by a Mr Wheelan of Newry, as confirmed by the datestone and by a reference in the Irish Builder of 15 June 1890 (vol. 32, p.147), which makes oblique reference to its construction. The same builder was also responsible for the Belfast Bank on the opposite corner of the square. A late 19th-century photograph in the Lawrence Collection (no. 2145) shows the earlier three-storey Georgian building that preceded it on this site. The valuation revision books held at PRONI record the premises in the valuation book only from 1919, when the rateable value increased from £37 to £125 — either indicating an error in the valuation record, or possibly suggesting a second rebuild in that year, though the documentary evidence points firmly to 1890 as the construction date. The Munster and Leinster Banking Company ceased trading in the early 1970s.