Bank of Ireland

Detached four-bay (two-bay deep) two-storey bank, designed 1926; built 1926-7, on an L-shaped plan with two-bay full-height projecting end bay. Sold, 2006. Renovated, 2008, to accommodate alternative use. Hipped slate roof on an L-shaped plan with clay ridge tiles, rendered chimney stacks having cornices below capping supporting terracotta pots, and cast-iron rainwater goods on rendered stepped cornice having fluted consoles. Rendered, ruled and lined walls on moulded cushion course on rendered plinth with rusticated "sparrow pecked" quoins to corners. Square-headed off-central door opening with two steps, rendered doorcase with fluted pilasters supporting cornice on blind frieze, and concealed dressings framing timber panelled door having overlight. Square-headed window openings in square-headed recesses (ground floor) with concrete sills, and concealed dressings having bull nose-detailed reveals framing one-over-one timber sash windows behind wrought iron bars. Square-headed window openings (first floor) with concrete sills, and concealed dressings having bull nose-detailed reveals framing one-over-one timber sash windows. Set back from line of street.

A bank erected to a design (1926) by John Valentine Brennan (1878?-1960) of Kildare Street, Dublin (Irish Builder 30th October 1926, 814), representing an important component of the early twentieth-century built heritage of Balla. Having been well maintained, the elementary form and massing survive intact together with substantial quantities of the original fabric, both to the exterior and to the interior, thus upholding the character or integrity of a bank making a pleasing visual statement in a rural village street scene.