Historic Building Details

HB Ref No:
HB10/14/011

Address :
Site of former Police Station Bowling Green Strabane County Tyrone

Townland:
Town Parks of Strabane

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Survey 2:
Record Only

Date of Listing:

Date of De-listing:

Current Use:
Demolished

Former Use
House

Conservation Area:
No

Industrial Archaeology:
No

Vernacular:
No

Thatched:
No

Monument:
No

Derelict:
Demolished

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OS Map No:
72/4 SW

IG Ref:
H3473 9767

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Owner Category

Police

Exterior Description And Setting

Site, at the eastern corner of (the ) Bowling Green, formerly occupied by a large three-storey house of probable pre 1833 construction, used as a bank from 1862-82 and a Police Station, from 1926 until its demolition c.1985. A new large police station complex is now is place. The first survey description of 10 February 1970 reads: ‘Pre 1833. A three-storey building with rendered walls, quoins and slated roof. The eaves cornice is square. Drop-hung windows with full glazing bars are enclosed in square moulded architraves. Doric columns support an entablature and pediment forming a porch. Ground floor windows are protected by iron grills. Run down. Five windows wide.’

Architects

Not Known

Historical Information

A building of similar (but not identical) plan to that on this site until relatively recently, is shown on the OS map of 1833-34, with a large well-planted garden to the southeast and outbuildings to the southwest. Unfortunately the town plan of Strabane drawn up to accompany the valuation of 1832-34, has been lost, making it extremely difficult to trace any details of the buildings within the town at this date any degree of certainty. The Bowling green section in the valuation book, however, does contain several entries dealing with very large houses in the vicinity, one occupied by Sir John James Burgoyne, with its main section measuring 42ft x 34 x 28, the other the home of James Hamilton Esq., measuring 54 x 35 x29. As the building as shown on the map appears to be the largest single property in the area at that point, it is more likely to have been the latter property. The valuers’ entry for this particular dwelling reveal that as well as the main section of the house, there were ‘additions’ of 13½ x 22½ x 24, 31 x 22½ x15, a ‘cellar as store’ of 54 x 35 x 8 and ‘offices’ (i.e. outbuildings) of 30 x 22½ x 15, 66 x 18½ x 15½ and 121 x 22 x 16. The whole property had a rateable value of £41-14-5, and was regarded by the valuers as ‘not new’- quality letter ‘1B’, suggesting that it was at least 25 years old at that stage and perhaps considerably older. As the map for the second valuation of 1857 has survived, we can be certain of the details regarding the property at that point. Unfortunately these details are sparse, the valuation book merely telling us that the building was unoccupied, a George Fitzmaurice was the immediate lessor, with the rateable value £55. The valuation map shows a plan similar to that shown on the OS map of 1833-34. The building remained unoccupied up until 1862 when it was acquired by the Belfast Bank for use as premises under the management of a William Smyth.* The bank added a ‘new office’ to the site in the same year, which, judging from later map evidence, may have been to the rear of the main building. The property continued as a branch of the Belfast Bank until 1882, when the branch ‘removed’ to the commercially more important Main Street. The building reverted to a private dwelling once again, (although it retained the name ‘Bank House’ into the early 1900s), with a Robert S. Smith [?a relation of William Smyth] recorded as the occupant between 1882 and 1899, and Charlotte A. Smyth between the latter year and 1908. The valuers state that Robert Smith carried out ‘repairs’ to the house in 1892; it must have been in some need of them, for its rateable value by that year had fallen by £7 from its 1883 high of £56. The final private occupant of the house was a Johnathan Reilly who lived there from 1908 until 1926, when the property was acquired by the Northern Ireland Government for use as a Royal Ulster Constabulary station. The building continued to serve as such until c.1985, when it was demolished to make way for a new larger police station. [*Since 1834 the bank had occupied a property on the other side of the Bowling Green, the present no.6.] References- Primary sources 1 ‘Pigot & Co’s City of Dublin and Hibernian Commercial Directory (Manchester 1824) 2 PRONI VAL/1B/638A First valuation, Camus parish (1832-c.38) 3 PRONI VAL/1B/638B First valuation, Camus parish (1832-c.38) 4 PRONI VAL/1B/638C First valuation, Camus parish (1832-c.38) 5 PRONI OS/6/5/5/1 OS map, County Tyrone sheet 5 (1833-34) 6 Lewis, Samuel, ‘Topographical history of Ireland’ (London, 1837) 7 ‘Slater’s National Commercial Directory of Ireland (Manchester, 1846) 8 ‘Slater’s National Commercial Directory of Ireland (Manchester, 1856) 9 PRONI VAL/2B/6/41 Second valuation, Camus parish (1857) 10 PRONI VAL/2D/6/18A Valuation town plan of Strabane (1857 [-59]) 11 PRONI VAL/2D/6/18B Valuation town plan of Strabane (1857 [-59]) [PRONI also holds a microfiche copy of this plan, catalogued under the ref. T/2933/4/252.] 12 PRONI VAL/12B/42/31A Annual valuation revision, Strabane ED(1860-64) 13 PRONI VAL/12B/42/31B Annual valuation revision, Strabane ED (1864-73) 14 ‘Slater’s Royal National Commercial Directory of Ireland’ (Manchester, 1870) 15 PRONI VAL/12B/42/31C Annual valuation revision, Strabane ED (1874-81) 16 PRONI VAL/12B/42/31D Annual valuation revision, Strabane ED (1882-91) 17 PRONI OS/8/25/1/1-17 OS town plan of Strabane (1883) 18 PRONI OS/9/22/2/1-17 OS town plan of Strabane (1883) 19 PRONI VAL/12E/187/1/1-12 Valuation town plan of Strabane (1884 [-1908]) 20 PRONI VAL/12B/42/31E Annual valuation revision, Strabane ED (1892-96) 21 PRONI VAL/12B/42/31F Annual valuation revision, Strabane ED (1892-96) 22 PRONI VAL/12B/42/31G Annual valuation revision, Strabane UD (1897-1910) 23 PRONI VAL/12B/42/31H Annual valuation revision, Strabane UD (1897-1910) 24 PRONI OS/8/25/2/1-3 OS town plan of Strabane (1905) [The building is marked as ‘Bank House’ on this plan.] 25 ‘Belfast and Province of Ulster Directory’ (Belfast, 1905) 26 PRONI VAL/12B/42/31J Annual valuation revision, Strabane UD (1911-22) 27 PRONI VAL/12B/42/31K Annual valuation revision, Strabane UD (1911-22) 28 PRONI VAL/12B/42/31L Annual valuation revision, Strabane UD (1922-31) 29 PRONI VAL/12B/42/31M Annual valuation revision, Strabane UD (1922-31) 30 PRONI VAL/3B/7/14 First General Revaluation of Northern Ireland, Strabane UD (1935 31 PRONI VAL/3C/7/23 First General Revaluation of Northern Ireland, annual revisions, Strabane UD (1936-57) 32 PRONI VAL/3G/159/1/1-3 Valuation town plan of Strabane (1936-55) 33 PRONI VAL/3G/159/2/1-3 Valuation town plan of Strabane (1951-55) [Sheets 1 and 3 are currently missing.] 34 EHS OS map (1:10,000 scale), sheet 72 (1983) Secondary sources 1 Simpson, Noel, ‘The Belfast Bank 1827-1970’ (Belfast, 1975), p.45 2 Harron, Michael, “Economic Developments in Strabane 1800-1900” in Bradley, Jim, et al, ‘The Fair River Valley: Strabane Through the Ages’ (Belfast, Ulster Historical Foundation, 2000) [Harron states that the Belfast Bank moved to Main Street in 1885, but the valuations suggest this move took place in 1882.] Other
references 1 EHS HB10/14/011 First Survey report (10 Feb 1970)

Criteria for Listing

Architectural Interest

Not listed

Historic Interest

Not listed

Evaluation

Site, at the eastern corner of (the ) Bowling Green, formerly occupied by a large three-storey house of probable pre 1833 construction, used as a bank from 1862-82 and a Police Station, from 1926 until its demolition c.1985. A new large police station complex is now is place.

General Comments

Date of Survey

24 November 2004