Description

This list entry was subjected to a Minor Enhancement 11 June 2024 to amend details in the name and description, add Historical Note and Sources

SE 0423 and SE 0523
12/281

SOWERBY BRIDGE
TOWN HALL STREET (north side)
No 9
Former Lloyds Bank

(Formerly listed as Lloyds Bank, TOWN HALL STREET)

GV
II

Town hall subsequently used as a bank. 1857 by Perkin & Backhouse for the Sowerby Bridge Town Hall Company in Italianate style.
The building is of two storeys and three bays with a rounded, two-stage corner tower attached to the west.

Main building: this fronts onto Town Hall Street and has tall, round arched openings. The central bay has a large, triple-light window to each floor, the lights being separated by strip pilasters rising to consoles which, along with the keystones to the three lights, support cornices. The first-floor window is elaborated with a full-width balcony and a segmental pediment above the central light. The flanking bays break slightly forward and have rusticated quions, those to the ground floor also being punch-dressed. Each of these flanking bays has an architraved doorway with keystones, that to the left (west) now reduced to a window. The first-floor windows are similar but also have segmental pediments and extended cills, all supported by consoles. The building has a modillioned cornice which supports a parapet that is balustraded over the outer bays, these being marked by flanking vase finials. The roof has an end stack to the east and one between the western two bays.

Corner tower: the lower stage is the height of the main building, its ground floor being blind and finished with banded rustication to the stonework. The first floor has a Venetian window with a ballustraded cill supported by consoles, the lights being separated and framed by Tuscan engaged columns that support a cornice with a segmental pediment. The stage is completed with a continuation of the main building’s modillion cornice, the parapet above being balustraded and crowned by an elaborate festoon over the centre. The upper stage rises to a cornice that supports Ionic pilasters that divide the tower into six faces. Each face has a round-arched niche with an elaborate architrave and a keystone featuring a carved head. The niche facing south-west has a clock face set in a surround decorated with carved leaves. The other niches each have a two-light opening with colonnettes and a carved tympanum, the openings filled with decorative iron grilles. Above the niches is an entablature with a dentil cornice that supports a ribbed, stone-built dome. This dome is divided into six panels by pilasters rising from shaped brackets and is topped by a finial.

Listing NGR: SE0592023571

History

A meeting of local gentlemen in 1853 led to the establishment of the Sowerby Bridge Town Hall Company which planned to build a public hall and a mechanics’ institute for the town. Designed by Leeds architects Perkin & Backhouse, the foundation stone was laid in 1856. It was opened 30 September 1857 with rooms for the Local Board of Health (established 1854), the Mechanics’ Institute and, on the first floor, a concert hall seating 700. The building originally included a range that extended along Hollins Mill Lane from the corner tower, this range including the concert hall. At opening the tower was still under construction but this was complete by 1863 when a clock, paid for by local subscription, was installed. The company had expected the town to purchase the building, but this did not happen. Instead it was sold to the Halifax Banking Company in 1882, the Ordnance Survey Town Plan of 1888 marking the tower and Town Hall Street range as ‘Bank’ the rest of the building (which was demolished in 1963) as ‘Town Hall’. The town hall was bought by the Liberal Club in 1903 and had various uses before it was partially demolished. The wing on Town Hall Street remained in use as a bank until closure by Lloyds Bank in 2018. It was subsequently converted into a restaurant.

External Links

• Lloyds Bank at Wikipedia
• Wikidata Q26606026

External links are from the relevant listing authority and, where applicable, Wikidata. Wikidata IDs may be related buildings as well as this specific building. If you want to add or update a link, you will need to do so by editing the Wikidata entry.

Recommended Books

• 
  Bedfordshire, Huntingdonshire, and Peterborough (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Derbyshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Gloucestershire 1: The Cotswolds: Cotswolds Pt. 1 (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Gwent/Monmouthshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of Wales)
• 
  The Listed Buildings and Other Principal Structures at the Royal Gunpowder Mills Waltham Abbey
• 
  London 1: The City of London: City of London v. 1 (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)