Historic Building Details

HB Ref No:
HB10/14/003 C

Address :
Site of former no.29 Bowling Green Strabane County Tyrone

Townland:
Town Parks of Strabane

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Survey 2:
Record Only

Date of Listing:
17/01/1979 00:00:00

Date of De-listing:
29/11/1993 00:00:00

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

IG Ref:
H3471 9772

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Owner Category

Police

Exterior Description And Setting

Site, on the northeastern side of (the ) Bowling Green, formerly occupied by a three-stoey terraced house, built as part of a larger dwelling possibly some time prior to 1833, and demolished c.1988 to make way for the present police station complex. The First Survey of 10 February 1970 contains a description of the short terrace of similar dwellings to which this property belonged. It reads: ‘Pre 1833. A terrace of four, three-storey houses with rendered walls. The roofs are slated behind parapets with moulded cornices, half the terrace roof is hipped. All drop-hung windows have full glazing bars on first floor, all but one on the ground floor and only one on the second floor. Others are plain with single vertical glazing bars. The windows of two of the houses are enclosed in eared architraves. Plain wooden pilasters flank three entrances with [an] entablature [over] one. The other door is recessed in a square-headed opening and surmounted by a rectangular fanlight with semicircular glazing bars and radials. Nine windows wide.

Architects

Not Known

Historical Information

This site is shown developed on the OS map of 1833-34, with a block in place whose plan resembles that which was standing until recent years. 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. We know from the second valuation of 1857 that this house was, at that point at least, part of a larger dwelling which also took in the former no.29 (to the northwest side). This suggests that the property may have been part of the large dwelling recorded in the 1832 valuation as measuring 49ft x 52 x 32, occupied by a William Orr and rated at £38-11-11. An annotation of 1896 written into a later valuation book states that the house was ‘50 years old’ at that date, suggesting it was not standing in 1832 but was built in or around 1846. It would be wrong to accept neat terms such as ‘fifty years old’ as accurate, however, they were frequently valuers’ estimates. The building’s plain, parapeted late Georgian façade -as shown in the First Survey slides of 1970- suggests it was probably built long before 1846. Whatever the case, we can be certain that by 1857 the larger property to which no.29 belonged was then a branch of the Provincial Bank, managed by a James Crosbie with the representatives of General Henry Barnard the immediate lessor. Michael Harron (see ref below) states that the Provincial Bank had established a branch in the Bowling Green in 1839; it was certainly open by at least 1846, for is recorded in Slater’s ‘Directory’ of that year. We cannot be certain that the branch operated from this particular building prior to 1857, however. The Belfast Bank, for instance, changed premises within the Bowling Green at least once in the course of the 19th century, and the Strabane ‘Savings Bank’ moved on at least three different occasions between 1846 and 1866! The property appears to have remained a branch of the Provincial Bank until some time in the 1880s, (the valuers are not clear on the exact date), with a John C. Urqhart and a John G. Elliott had serving as managers after James Crosbie. By 1896 it was reported that the building was vacant and ‘out of repair’, however by the following year a James White had taken over the tenancy, and by 1899 he was subletting the ground floor for use as offices to a solicitor named Robert Burke. In 1910 James White, (noted in the 1905 Belfast and Province of Ulster Directory as a ‘hardware merchant’ with premises in Main Street), acquired the freehold and is listed as the sole occupier. White appears to have died in the early 1930s after which time the building was split into two properties, with one of the White family remaining in the ‘newly’ formed no.29 until 1954, when the house was bought by an Agnes V. Wagentreiber. Ms Wagentreiber was still in residence in 1972. The property, (along with no.27), was demolished in c.1988 to make way for the present police station. 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 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 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) Other
references 1 EHS HB10/14/003[A-C] First Survey report (10 Feb 1970)

Criteria for Listing

Architectural Interest

Not listed

Historic Interest

Not listed

Evaluation

Site, on the northeastern side of (the ) Bowling Green, formerly occupied by a three-storey end of terrace house, built as part of a larger dwelling possibly some time prior to 1833, and demolished c.1988 to make way for the present police station complex.

General Comments

Date of Survey

24 November 2004