The Belfast Bank was opened in February 1898. It was designed by Vincent Craig, a Belfast architect, and was highly praised at the time for its appearance and practical features. In particular, correspondents wrote about the secure strong room, which had brick walls, ceilings and floors which were two feet thick and “a massive steel door and frame, the combined weight of these being over two tons”.
The building incorporated a home for the Bank Manager and his family. It had a pantry, kitchen, servants’ rooms, dining room, drawing room and the luxury of indoor bathrooms upstairs. The drawing room originally had a veranda which looked over Main Street and each of the six bedrooms in the house “vied with the other in the enchantment of the views”- meaning that each had a pleasant view for guests or the members of the house.
The building was in use as a bank until 2012: as the Belfast Bank until 1970 when it became the Northern Bank and then eventually Danske Bank in 2005 before closing in 2012. It was listed as a building of significant “architectural of historic interest” in 1977 and is now a protected building, which means it cannot be demolished or altered dramatically.
Restoration, renovation and alteration work began in 2019 to convert the building into apartments and a restaurant.
