Ulster Bank

Detached three- or five-bay two-storey bank with dormer attic, opened 1921, on a U-shaped plan with pair of single-bay (single-bay deep) two-storey returns (east). Hipped slate roof including hipped slate roofs to window openings to dormer attic; pair of hipped slate roofs (east), terracotta ridge tiles, rendered buttressed chimney stacks having stringcourses below capping supporting terracotta pots, and cast-iron rainwater goods on ogee detailed mutuled cornice retaining cast-iron downpipes. Roughcast walls on rendered chamfered plinth with rusticated rendered piers to corners. Square-headed central door opening with two cut-limestone steps, doorcase with fluted columns on plinths having responsive pilasters supporting ogee-detailed pediment on blind frieze on entablature framing timber panelled door having overlight. Paired square-headed flanking window openings with "Cavetto"-detailed sill course, and moulded rendered surrounds with ogee-detailed hood mouldings on blind friezes framing two-over-one timber sash windows having gilded lettering. Paired square-headed window openings (first floor) with sills, and concealed dressings framing two-over-two timber sash windows. Square-headed window openings (east) with sills, and concealed dressings framing two-over-two timber sash windows behind wrought iron bars. Street fronted with mild steel railings to perimeter.

A bank erected to designs by Lucius O'Callaghan (1877-1954) of Dublin (The Irish Builder and Engineer 14th January 1922, 9) representing an important component of the early twentieth-century built heritage of Kilcock with the architectural value of the composition, one recalling the O'Callaghan-designed branch offices of the Ulster Bank in Edgeworthstown (1922), County Longford (see 13309019); Ferbane (1922), County Offaly (see 14806013); and Glennamaddy (1922), County Galway (see 30401803), confirmed by such attributes as the compact plan form centred on a Classically-detailed doorcase; the diminishing in scale of the coupled openings on each floor producing a graduated visual impression with those openings showing sleek "stucco" dressings; and the high pitched roof. NOTE: The newly opened Ulster Bank was attacked (March 1921) during the War of Independence (1919-21) (eds. Collins, Ollerenshaw and Parkhill 2005, 225).