Historic Building Details

HB Ref No:
HB03/02/012

Address :
Ulster Bank 10 Main Street Garvagh Co. Londonderry BT51 5AD

Townland:
Garvagh

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Survey 2:
B2

Date of Listing:
22/06/1977 00:00:00

Date of De-listing:

Current Use:
Bank

Former Use
Bank

Conservation Area:
No

Industrial Archaeology:
No

Vernacular:
No

Thatched:
No

Monument:
No

Derelict:
No

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OS Map No:
41-5

IG Ref:
C8408 1609

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Owner Category

Financial

Exterior Description And Setting

A symmetrical two-storey-with-attic detached Ulster Bank, built 1870 to designs by Thomas Jackson and located to the west side of Main Street in Garvagh town centre. Rectangular plan with two-storey return to rear; two and single-storey modern extension to rear (of no interest). Pitched natural slate roof with blue/black angled ridge tiles and rendered chimneystacks to gables, having corniced caps and chamfered corners. Cast-iron half-round rainwater goods on projecting eaves with parapet gutters to principal elevation. Walling is painted roughcast render on a chamfered smooth rendered plinth with rusticated quoins; plain frieze under corniced parapet and between floors. Windows are 1/1 timber sash with horns in smooth stucco architraves with continuous sill course to first floor and with circular ornamented detail to heads and scrolled corbels under sills at ground floor. The principal elevation faces east and is five openings wide at each floor. To centre at ground floor is a segmental-headed doorcase, accessed via modern concrete steps and ramp with metal handrail. Bolection-moulded raised-and-pointed four-panel timber door with brass door furniture in a cavetto reveal with moulded surround, having raised keyblock with corbel under. Moulded panel containing red hand of Ulster motif to frieze above keyblock. The south gable has two timber casement windows to attic. Two modern timber windows at ground floor. The west (rear) elevation has three 2/2 windows at right abutted at left by the lower two-storey return. Return projects to north; exposed east gable having shaped parapet, 1/1 window at first floor and large window at ground floor; south elevation has two windows at first and ground floor; gable has window to ground floor left; north elevation is blank. The north gable has a segmental-headed 2/2 window with coloured glass margin panes. Ground floor has two modern timber windows and a modern timber door with sidelight and felt-roof canopy over. Setting: Street-fronted with modern concrete walls topped by railings to front entrance; situated to the north end of Main Street, on the west side of the street, adjacent to Main Street Presbyterian Church (HB03/02/011). Enclosed yard to rear has original two-storey roughcast rendered former stableblock to southwest corner. Original segmental-headed carriage-arch at left has been converted into a garage with mid-twentieth-century garage door; frame of 3/1 window (lower sash probably missing) over at first floor. Timber-sheeted loading door to right of centre at first floor and timber-sheeted door at ground floor right. Louvered timber opening to ground and first floor. Slated lean-to (former coal-shed) at north gable has timber-sheeted walls and large openings at gable. Yard enclosed to west with a high roughcast rendered wall (exposed rubble stone at west face) and accessed through a segmental-headed timber-sheeted gate. Yard enclosed to south gable with a large metal security gate on a square rendered pier. To north gable are mid-twentieth century metal gates. Roof: Natural slate Walling: Roughcast render Windows: 1/1 timber sash with horns RWG: Cast-iron

Architects

Jackson, Thomas

Historical Information

Garvagh branch of the Ulster Banking Company was designed by Thomas Jackson & Son and opened for business on 22nd November 1872. (Knox) The bank is first shown on the third edition OS map of 1904-5. In the mid-nineteenth century mail coaches ran passed through Garvagh on the way from Coleraine to Maghera and, according to Griffith’s Valuation (1856-64), there was ‘a great traffic through the town and good business done’. A weekly market took place on Fridays for corn, butter, pork and flax and there were fourteen annual fairs, one onthe third Friday of each month and two ‘old fairs’ one in May and the other in July. The valuer comments rather critically on the tendency of the shopkeepers to keep inferior articles and charge a high price, ‘thereby realising a large profit’. (Griffith’s Valuation) The Ulster Bank opened 20 branches in the period 1870-1880, largely in smaller market towns across Ulster but also several in the south of Ireland. Thomas Jackson and his sons undertook several commissions for the Ulster Bank at this period, including Ulster Bank Buildings in Belfast and branches in Granard, County Longford and Tuam, County Galway (www.dia.ie). The Garvagh branch was built on the site of a row of thatched cottages with a saw pit to the rear and is first listed in Annual Revisions at a valuation of £55. The attached garden which was eventually removed for the purpose of street widening, was valued at £1. The first manager was James T Gallogly and his successor, David Hoy, later became a director of the bank. (Knox) John Niblock became the manager in 1898 and is listed in the 1911 census as resident at the bank with his wife from County Meath and one of his two children. The fifteen-room house was designated first class. Subsequent managers were C W Lester (1921), Hugh Knox (1925), W B Hope (1927), John Craig (1943) George A Walker (1949) W S De G D Griffith (1953) and William Henry Borland (1958) (Knox). A plan of the bank is given in valuer’s notes from the First General Revaluation (1933-57), showing the bank with rear return and scullery return with stables and a coal shed in the yard. The accommodation comprised a general office, manager’s office, strong room and lavatory as well as the manager’s house consisting of three receptions, a box room, seven bedrooms, a bathroom and WC. The building was listed in 1977 and modifications were made in 2002-4 including the addition of a ramp and handrail to the front facade. (HB file) References: Primary Sources 1. PRONI OS/6/5/18/1 First Edition OS Map 1832 2. PRONI OS/6/5/18/2 Second Edition OS map 1849-53 3. PRONI OS/6/5/18/3 Third Edition OS Map 1904-05 4. PRONI OS/6/5/18/4 Fourth Edition OS Map 1924-33 5. PRONI VAL/2/B/5/6B Griffith’s Valuation (1856-64) 6. PRONI VAL/12/B/30/12A-F Annual Revisions (1864-1929) 7. PRONI VAL/3/C/6/2 First General Revaluation 1933-57 8. PRONI VAL/3/D/6/3/K/4 First General Revaluation 1933-57 9. HB file – 03/02/012 Secondary Sources 1. Knox, W.J. “Decades of the Ulster Bank, 1836-1964” Belfast: Ulster Bank Ltd, 1965 2. www.dia.ie

Criteria for Listing

Architectural Interest

A. Style B. Proportion C. Ornamentation D. Plan Form I. Quality and survival of Interior J. Setting

Historic Interest

X. Local Interest Y. Social, Cultural or Economic Importance R. Age S. Authenticity T. Historic Importance

Evaluation

A symmetrical two-storey-with-attic detached Ulster Bank, built 1870 to designs of Thomas Jackson and located to the west side of Main Street in Garvagh town centre. A well-preserved example of a nineteenth-century Ulster Bank, in the preferred and typical Classical style with proportions and detailing typical of the period. Remaining in use as a branch of the Ulster Bank, this is a landmark building in the town, of significant social importance and local interest and making an important contribution to the character of Garvagh. The building is also an important example of the work of the prominent local architect Thomas Jackson.

General Comments

Listing Criteria R - Age; S - Authenticity and T - Historic Importance also apply.

Date of Survey

04 October 2012