1899 – National Bank, Rathmines, Dublin

A fine red sandstone bank branch for the National Bank. The bank, started by Daniel O’Connell was later absorbed into the Bank of Ireland group. This branch was branded as Bank of Ireland for many years. The fine carved coat-of-arms over the doorway is for the National Bank.

Internally the property is laid out to provide for the main banking hall at ground floor level with ancillary office accommodation at first floor accessed by a staircase to the north-east corner. Both levels provide with double height floor to ceiling spaces. Unlike many Irish bank branches, the manager did not live over the premises but in a house alongside.

The architect Frederick Augustus Butler obtained the Licence in Civil Engineering from Trinity College Dublin in 1866 and was in private practice in Dublin by 1874. The architect Frederick G. Hicks appears to have been his 1898 and to have shared various office premises with him until his death in 1903. He was a son of the architect John de Courcy Butler, who developed Leinster Square and Prince Arthur Terrace, immediately behind this former bank. Butler, like his father, was a Rathmines Township Commissioner and was one of the Township’s School Attendance Officers. He was also architect to Saint Peter’s Parish (Church of Ireland) from 1874.