The Ulster Bank was established in 1836 but it was not until 1840 that it opened a branch in Londonderry. In 1876 the Bank, which by then had been registered as an unlimited liability Company, took a lease of lands at Waterloo Place. The branch would remain in this location for over one hundred years with one break caused by the explosive elevation of the original Victorian building. The lease granted to the Bank by the Irish Society was for a term of fifty one years from 29th September 1881 reserving a ground rent of seventy pounds and ten pence.
It would seem that the Bank's investment in the property taken in conjunction with the growth of its customer base caused it to give more permanence to its physical base within the City. As a consequence in 1891 it acquired the fee simple of the lands it had previously held under the 1876 lease together with lands occupied by a firm by the name of Wray & McClintock for the sum of two thousand pounds. By that time the Bank had adopted limited liability status, (1883).
Ultimately the Ulster Bank site at Waterloo place would include the lands comprised in a fee farm grant dated 26th September 1910, Irish Society to George McCool, (Painter) and those comprised in a fee farm dated 20th May 1913, Irish Society to William Alexander Frizell, (Chemist and Druggist.) I seem to remember that the Frizell lands were occupied by, "Lewis Fastravel," during the 1960's and early 1970's
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