Description

A three-storey five-bay Italian palazzo style former bank, built to the designs of David Rhind in 1846. It is constructed in ashlar masonry with quoins and a deep modillion cornice with a balustraded parapet. There are Roman Doric pilastered doorcases on the outer ground floor bays and Corinthian aedicular windows with pediments on the first floor. It is prominently located in the centre of Perth, on one of the principal shopping thoroughfares and facing the east end of St John's Kirk (listed category A, ref: LB39300).

The principal (west) elevation has a cantilevered and balustraded balcony at first-floor level and an ornamented string course between the first and second floors. The four-bay south elevation to Baxter's Vennel is similar but without the doorpieces and first floor balcony. To the rear (east) is a full-height gabled return, abutted by a two-storey rectangular-plan flat-roofed extension (added in 1971) with rendered walls and slate hung tiles to the upper floor. The north elevation has a full-height screen wall, with a plain string course and cornice, set back from the main street to the west. There is a single-storey, two-bay ashlar stone extension to the re-entrant angle facing St John Street, with moulded architraves to the shop windows and a balustraded parapet.

The interior has not been seen (2025) but recent planning documents (2022) and sales photographs (2023) show historic decorative features survive, notably an elaborate ground-floor coffered ceiling, cast-iron balusters on the main stair and a top-floor vestibule with roof lantern and columns.

Historical background

The building was constructed in 1846 and first appears on the Ordnance Survey Town Plan (published 1863). This map also depicts the two-bay extension on the north side, showing that a range of buildings once extended the full length along Oliphant's Vennel. Later maps indicate that these structures were largely demolished sometime between 1900 and 1931, leaving only the extant single-storey frontage and the three-storey screen wall behind. It is unknown whether these formed part of the bank premises but they have since been incorporated as part of its current commercial use (2025). Prior to its construction, the site of the bank, which is shown on the Perth Directory Town Plan of 1838, was occupied by older tenement buildings with a vennel and central courtyard.

The Central Bank of Scotland was established in Perth in 1834 to attract business from the farmers and landowners of the town's large rural hinterland in the southern Highlands. The bank engaged the noted Edinburgh architect David Rhind (1808-83) to design their head office on St John Street in 1846. Rhind was at that time completing the head office of the Commercial Bank of Scotland on George Street in Edinburgh (1843-7; listed category A, ref: LB28862) and would go on to design most of the branch offices of that bank. By the 1860s, the Central Bank was suffering financially and its business was eventually acquired by the Bank of Scotland in 1868, including the premises on St John Street.

The large rear extension was added in 1971 as an extension of the banking hall with plain classical interior detailing imitating the more elaborate decoration designed by Rhind. In 1990 the Bank of Scotland branch at 175 High Street was closed and merged with the branch on St John Street which in turn closed around 2004. The building was then refitted internally for commercial use but has been vacant since around 2020.

The bank is largely unaltered to the exterior with the exception of replacement doors, retail signage and two wall-mounted streetlights.

Statement of Interest

48 and 50 St John Street meets the criteria for listing for the following reasons:

• It is an outstanding example of a mid-19^th century bank building by one of Scotland's most important commercial architects of the period. The building was designed in an Italianate style and includes fine architectural detailing and stonework.
• The building's historic character has not been adversely affected by later alterations and extensions.
• The building retains its historic setting and forms part of a group of architecturally and historically significant buildings within the historic central area.
• It is an exceptional example within its common building type of purpose-built bank buildings.
• It is representative of the sophistication of regional bank branches in the 19^th century and of the national growth of centralised banks.

In accordance with Section 1 (4A) of the Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) (Scotland) Act 1997 the following are excluded from the listing: flat-roofed 1970s extension to rear (east).

Architectural interest

The building was purpose-built in 1846 as a bank and is designed in an Italian palazzo style, which became widely adopted for banks and other commercial buildings by the late-19th century. The building retains much of its mid-19th century character, particularly to the elaborate principal (west) elevation, and includes fine architectural details such as the prominent cornice and balustraded parapet, the first-floor balcony and decorative window architraves. The survival of internal features like cornicing and coffered ceilings adds to the architectural interest and authenticity of the building.

David Rhind was one of Scotland's leading commercial architects in the 19th century, noted for his exuberant Italianate public buildings and emphasis on architecture sculpture. Around 20 of his bank buildings are listed mostly in the palazzo house style of the Commercial Bank of Scotland.

The building occupies a prominent position opposite St John's Kirk (category A: LB39300) in the centre of Perth. It is notable in the streetscape around the central square, which largely comprises plainer 18^th and 19^th century terraced buildings with ground-floor shops.

The bank was converted to retail use in the early-21^st century but overall retains a high degree of authenticity and historic character with many fine classical features surviving to both the interior and exterior. The 1971 extension is standard and has no special architectural or historic features of note to its exterior or interior.

Historic interest

Purpose-designed bank buildings dating from the mid-19^th century are not rare and can be found in towns and cities throughout Scotland. This is an exceptional example within this building type for its design quality and association with a prominent national architect, testifying to the scale and sophistication of regional bank branches across Scotland in this period. The relative lack of alteration adds to the rarity.

Originally built as the head office of a regional bank before being subsumed into the Bank of Scotland, the building is also of interest as an example of the growth and expansion of the larger national banks across Scotland in the course of the 19^th century.

There is no association with a person or event of national importance.

Statutory address updated in 2015. Previously listed as 'St John Street, (E.Side) 48, 50 Bank of Scotland Formerly Central Bank Building'.

Statutory address and listed building record revised in 2025. Previously listed as '48 and 50 St John Street, (east side), Perth (formerly Bank of Scotland and Central Bank Buildings)'.

External Links

• Bank of Scotland, 50 St John Street, Perth at Wikipedia
• Wikidata Q17570938

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

• 
  Herefordshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  This Old House: Restoring, Rehabilitating, and Renovating an Older House
• 
  Cork: City and County (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of Ireland)
• 
  Old House Eco Handbook: A Practical Guide to Retrofitting for Energy-Efficiency & Sustainability
• 
  Historic Environment Law: Planning, Listed Buildings, Monuments, Conservation Areas and Objects, Supplement 2014
• 
  Bedfordshire, Huntingdonshire, and Peterborough (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)