Historic Building Details

HB Ref No:
HB23/07/016

Address :
Bangor Telephone Exchange beside 77 Southwell Road Bangor Co Down BT20 3AE

Townland:
Corporation

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Survey 2:
B2

Date of Listing:
13/12/1993 00:00:00

Date of De-listing:

Current Use:
Telephone Exchange

Former Use
Telephone Exchange

Conservation Area:
No

Industrial Archaeology:
Yes

Vernacular:
No

Thatched:
No

Monument:
No

Derelict:
No

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OS Map No:
115/12

IG Ref:
J5034 8162

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Owner Category

Exterior Description And Setting

This telephone exchange comprises a 1930s three-storey front section and return. It is aligned north-east/south-west, with its principal façade facing directly on to the east side of Southwell Road. There is a larger 1950s four-story over semi-basement rear extension and the modern exchange to the north. The roofs of both sections are of flat reinforced-concrete, with concrete-coped brick parapets. The gutters along the inside faces of the parapets discharge into external cast-iron down pipes. Unless otherwise stated, all the walls are of rusticated machined red brick and all openings have flat heads. Doors are of timber and all window openings have metal-framed casements with concrete heads and cills unless stated otherwise. Front section (1930s) The front section of the building is three floors high and five openings wide. Its facade is symmetrically arranged except for the entrance doorway at ground floor right. The ground floor is faced with ashlar Ballycullen sandstone over a slightly projecting base course and under a deep platband, both also of ashlar sandstone. At right is a double-leaf panelled door with rectangular overlight (sheeted over), set in pilastered ashlar jambs with a moulded sandstone cornice over. The four regularly-spaced windows to its left are sheeted over, but their 3x3-paned frames survive internally; they have cut sandstone cills. There are five regularly-spaced 2x4-paned window openings to the first floor, all in line with the ground floor openings. They have decorative voussoired brick heads and share a common concrete cill course. The middle and two end openings are set within semicircular-headed recesses with moulded concrete imposts. A patterned concrete frieze with moulded cornice runs across the tops of the remaining two openings which are flush with the face of the wall. Above these friezes are two rectangular dressed sandstone plaques, each with a ‘ringing telephone’ in bas-relief. Across the top floor are five regularly spaced window openings of diminished height and containing 3x3 windows, also with voussoired heads and concrete cills. A flagpole projects from underneath the middle window. A deep concrete frieze with bas-relief circles runs across the tops of the windows, with a moulded concrete cornice between it and the parapet course above. The top of the cornice is coped with ashlar sandstone. At the right-hand end of the frontage is a pair of ashlar sandstone gate piers into a passage along the south side of the building. The original gates have been replaced with steel palisade-type gates. The gate piers at the left end of the frontage are long gone. The north elevation of the front section is slightly advanced from the rest of this elevation. Its wall detailing is identical to the façade, with the platband, cill course, frieze and cornice wrapping around this side. The only difference is that the brickwork to the ground floor has a smooth face rather than rustication. The ground floor has two 3x3 windows and a double-leaf semi-glazed door (now disused). The right-hand end of the upper floors is abutted by a concrete-block connecting link to the adjacent 1970s exchange (all these floors have internal doorway insertions). The exposed section of the first floor has s 2x4 window in a semicircular recess (again, with moulded concrete imposts), and a 3x3 window to the top floor. A linking corridor from the modern exchange runs across the top of this elevation to connect with the top floor of the rear part of this building; there is a window at its left end. The south elevation of the front section is detailed as the front elevation and is also slightly advanced; as with the north elevation, the ground floor brickwork is smooth rather than rusticated. There is a 1x3 window to the ground floor (with sandstone head) and a 2x2 window to each of the upper floors, both with voussoired heads and flush with the wall. Front section return (1930s) The original return to the front section is clearly distinguishable immediately right of the south elevation of the front bay. It rises to the same height as the three-storey front bay but contains four floors internally. It is of plain rather than rusticated brick. There is a semi-glazed single leaf door (with rectangular overlight) and three windows (1x2, 1x2 and 1x3) to the ground floor, three 4x4 windows to the first floor (with common head), seven 2x3 windows to the top two floors (all with common head and cills). Rear block (1950s) The exchange was enlarged in the early 1950s with a four storey extension, visible at north, east and south. On each floor of the extension’s north elevation is a double-leaf semi-glazed door with rectangular 1x3-paned overlight. The upper loading doors have cantilevered concrete balconies. Mounted on the parapet directly above them is a projecting jip for an electric hoist. To the right of the doors on the ground floor are four brick-infilled window openings; an air vent projects from one. Whether they were blocked originally is uncertain. Each of the upper floors has a row of three contiguous 4x3-paned windows (with common head and cill) and a 2x2 window at right. The east elevation of the extension is devoid of openings except for a small vent to the ground floor and a shuttered fire escape opening on the first floor, both at the right-hand end. The left end of this wall steps up to the pipe tower at the SE corner of the building. On the south elevation, each of the four floors has a row of contiguous windows; from left to right, their fenestration is 2x3, 4x3, 4x3 and 3x3, all with common heads and cills. At ground level is an external concrete stairway to a doorway into the semi-basement which is lit by windows identical to those above. The stairs are protected with a steel wire cage. At its right-hand end of this elevation, an ope-less pipe tower rises over the roofline. Setting Situated on the east side of Southwell Road in a residential area with two-and -a-half storey terrace dwellings to the west, three and two-and -a-half storey terrace dwellings to the south, a 1970s telephone exchange to the north and a steep bank to rear with carpark beyond.

Architects

Ingleby Smith (Ministry of Finance)

Historical Information

Bangor’s first telephone exchange was established in 1906 at no.7 Southwell Road by the National Telephone Company Exchange. It was taken over by the Post Office Telephones in 1912 and replaced with this exchange further along the same street in 1933. Post Office Telephones was then owned by the Government and the building was designed by the Works Department of the Ministry of Finance under its Chief Architect Richard Ingleby Smith. The new exchange was officially opened by the Mayor of Bangor, Councillor Walter Malcolm J.P. on 6 January 1933. Originally it comprised only the three-storey front section and return of the present building. It could handle up to 2400 subscribers, but only had 712 users at the time of opening. Because of its under usage, it was deemed more cost effective to operate it as a manual exchange rather than install more expensive automated equipment (the switchboard operators were on the top floor). At the opening ceremony, the Mayor made a ceremonial phone call to the Postmaster General, Sir Kingsley Wood in London. Isaac Copeland, on behalf of the contractors, also presented the Mayor with a souvenir gold key. A newspaper photograph taken on the opening day shows the front block with ashlar gateways at both ends. This report also noted that the sandstone used for the ground floor came from Ballycullen, Co Down. The front block and rear return are shown on the 1939 OS maps. By 1960, however, the entire block is shown in its present form. Unfortunately no information on the exchange survives in the Ministry of Finance records at PRONI. However, Ralph Coleman, Regional Property Manager with Telereal Trillium (who maintain the site), suggests that the four-storey rear extension probably dates to c.1952. He also suggests that the much larger exchange which adjoins to the north dates from c.1973. Today, apart from a small bank of equipment on the first floor of the front block, the adjoining exchange handles all the town’s British Telecom telephone traffic. References – Primary sources: 1. Bangor Borough Council Minutes, 6 Dec 1932 (PRONI LA/20/2DA/1, p.137). 2. Ibid, 20 Dec 1932 (PRONI LA/20/2DA/1, p.144). 3. Belfast Newsletter, Fri 6 Jan 1933. 4. Belfast Newsletter, Sat 7 Jan 1933. 5. Bangor Borough Council scrapbook for 1933 (PRONI LA/20/50GA/16). Contains copies of articles in
references 3 and 4. 6. 1930-35 Valuation Book, Princetown Ward, Bangor, re closure of original exchange (PRONI: VAL/12F/4/3/3). 7. 1930-35 Valuation Book, Dufferin Ward, Bangor, re new exchange (PRONI: VAL/12F/4/3/2). 8. PRONI OS/6/3/2/6. Fourth edition OS six-inch map, Co Down sheet 2 (1939). 9. PRONI OS/10/3/2/5/4. Third edition OS 25-inch map, Co Down sheet 2-05 (1939). 10. PRONI OS/11/115/12/1. First edition OS 1:10,000 Irish Grid map, sheet 115 (1959-60). References – Secondary sources: 1. Patton, M. Bangor: An Historical Gazetteer, p.195 (Belfast: HMSO, 1999).

Criteria for Listing

Architectural Interest

A. Style B. Proportion C. Ornamentation D. Plan Form H-. Alterations detracting from building I. Quality and survival of Interior

Historic Interest

V. Authorship X. Local Interest

Evaluation

A Neo-Classical three-storey Post Office telephone exchange built in 1933 to designs by Ingleby Smith of the Ministry of Finance. Neo-Classical three-storey stone and brick with Art-Deco details, this is a good example of the work of the Ministry of Finance in the 1930s. There is also interest in the development of the site, representing the growth in the town’s telecommunications infrastructure during the 20th century – first the replacement of the 1906 exchange with this one in 1933, then its enlargement in the 1950s, and finally its replacement by the adjoining exchange in the 1970s. The original building is in a broadly similar idiom (particularly its rusticated red brick) to two nearby buildings of the same decade in Main Street - the Post Office (T.F.O. Rippingham of the Ministry of Finance, 1936) (HB23/07/015), and Belfast Co-Operative Society building (1935-37 by Millar & Symes). It is a good example of a building of this type designed by a prominent architect and one of few of this era and style.

General Comments

Date of Survey

23 July 2010