Description

David Bryce, 1846. Colossal 3-storey 5-bay Imperial Roman bank. Cream sandstone ashlar, with orange hue subsequent to cleaning. Channelled ashlar ground floor with massive doorway at centre and architraved windows between pilasters; deep-set panelled 2-leaf door, consoled cills and cornices. 1st and 2nd floors set back behind 6 free-standing fluted giant Corinthian columns with heavy entablature breaking forward over each supporting statues (Navigation, Commerce, Manufacture, Science, Art and Agriculture); balustrades between bases of columns; windows with consoled pediments at 1st floor, consoled and balustraded individual balconies at 2nd floor. Balustraded parapet behind statuary.

Timber 8-pane casement windows, plate glass at ground.

INTERIOR: simple entrance hall leads to palatial stair hall with compartmented ceiling; stone stair to left with scrolled and gilded balustrade; landing supported by consoles; arched flat niche contains chimneypiece with pedimented overmantel war memorial with gadrooned frame; flanked by similar smaller examples lit by wrought-iron lamps. Cruciform Banking Hall ahead on axis with tripartite stained glass window divided by Cornithian columns (Governors? Window) above door;

3 bays by 5, with polished Peterhead granite columns and pilasters and side aisles lined with mirrored arches; consoled attic with rich plaster swags and busts of eminent Scots; flat ceiling with Greek cross coffers and central dome of engraved glass; Minton tile floor continues from hall. Boardroom at front entered from landing through massive door with consoled pediment and bolection moulded vine leaf frieze, repeated inside; panelled dado and plaster panelled walls with built in portraits; grey marble chimneypiece at either end, pedimented doors to ante room; dentilled and modillioned cornice and compartmented ceiling. Much original furnishing survives throughout. Linked with No 37 (see separate listing).

LAMP STANDARDS: 4 cast-iron lamp standards on pedestals flank door and elevation.

Statement of Interest

Built for the British Linen Bank to replace their adjoining premises, at a cost of ?30,000. The external statuary is by A Handyside Ritchie; the Governors? window by William Wilson, 1953. The building replaced three 3-bay houses acquired by the Bank in 1825. Its design is closely related to Cockerell?s rejected design for the Royal Exchange in London, itself a development of Palladio?s Loggia del Capitaniato in Vicenza.

External Links

• Historic Environment Scotland Listing
• Wikidata Q17568158

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

• 
  Gwent/Monmouthshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of Wales)
• 
  Oxfordshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Liverpool: Pevsner City Guide (Pevsner Architectural Guides: City Guides)
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  [(Cumberland and Westmorland)] [By (author) Nikolaus Pevsner] published on (January, 1967)
• 
  Hampshire: South (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Dorset (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)