This ground floor plan, accompanied by front and side elevations, details the Bank of Ireland premises at Knox Street (now Pearse Street), Ballina, Co. Mayo. It comes from an album of survey drawings of the Bank’s branches ‘as they existed in January 1879’ prepared by Sandham Symes, architect to the Bank from 1854 to 1879. Established in 1782 by Grattan’s Parliament on foot of decades of instability among private Irish banks, the Bank of Ireland opened its first branch in Mary’s Abbey, Dublin, in 1783. It purchased the former Parliament Building in College Green, Dublin, in 1803 and by 1827 had expanded to Cork, Waterford, Clonmel, Newry, Belfast, Londonderry and Westport. Fifty years later, as recorded by Symes, it had reached fifty-nine locations, from Armagh to Skibbereen.
Some of the branches recorded by Symes were adaptations of existing buildings – houses or commercial premises – while others, including Ballina, were specifically designed and built for the Bank. Many of the alterations, and most of the new buildings, were designed by Symes himself. This includes Ballina, one of his last new projects before retirement. Common to all the buildings were elements which allowed them to function as banks, in particular a public cash office, an ‘Agent’s Office’, and a safe. It is clear too from the survey plans that each of the buildings also functioned as a house, providing accommodation for the Bank’s Agent (the local manager), or a clerk, or a caretaker. Kitchens, parlours, and related facilities including sculleries or servant’s rooms, were generally located at ground floor level, with yards, gardens, stables and coach houses to the rear. Living rooms and bedrooms located on upper floors were not included in Symes’s surveys.
Several of the buildings recorded by Symes no longer exist while others have been altered. Some no longer function as banks but others, again including Ballina, continue to serve as Bank of Ireland branches, at least for now.
