Survey Data

Reg No

15310060


Rating

Regional


Categories of Special Interest

Architectural, Artistic


Previous Name

National Bank of Ireland


Original Use

Bank/financial institution


In Use As

Office


Date

1850 - 1860


Coordinates

243559, 252930


Date Recorded

01/07/2004


Date Updated

--/--/--


Description

Detached five-bay three-storey bank, built in 1858, having advanced bays to either end of the front façade (north). Front facade flanked to either end by single-storey quadrant walls with cut stone coping over. Now in use as an office building. Pitched natural slate roof, hidden behind raised leaded parapet/blocking course roof with three red brick chimneystacks. channelled ashlar limestone construction to ground floor having vermiculated apron panels under central three window openings and a projecting ashlar limestone sill course over at first floor level. Rendered finish to first a second floors with a sill course at second floor level and a string course over second floor openings. Square-headed window openings to first and second floors with cut stone sills and replacement windows. Windows to advanced bays are set in segmental-headed recesses. Round-headed openings to central three bays at ground floor level having cut stone sills and one-over-one pane timber sliding sash windows. Square-headed doorcases to advanced bays to either end, having cut stone architraved surrounds with cut stone console brackets supporting cornices over. Timber panelled double-doors with plain overlights above. Street-fronted to the east end of Dominick Street overlooking The Square to the north.

Appraisal

A good quality mid nineteenth-century bank building, which retains its early form and character. This building is lent an imposing feel on account of the advanced bays to either end and by the well-detailed ashlar detailing to the ground floor. This building has a subdued Italianate feel, which is typical of the commercial architecture of the day. This style was often adopted by the bank companies at this time to convey a sense of permanence and trust amongst its patrons. This bank building was built to designs by William Caldbeck (1824-1872) for the National Bank in 1858 and is a good example of his standard bank design, which became the template for bank buildings in the mid-to-late nineteenth-century. This bank building is very similar to the Bank of Ireland at Moate, which Caldbeck also designed c.1854.