Description

Peddie and Kinnear, dated 1873. 2-storey, basement (to rear) and attic, symmetrical 5-bay mansard-roofed square-plan palazzo-style banking house. Tooled coursed ashlar; snecked squared and stugged rubble to rear. Base course; cill courses; hoodmould course; prominently bracketed eaves course. Long and short quoins; raised, lugged and stop-chamfered window architraves.

SE (PRINCIPAL) ELEVATION: segmental-arched windows to 3 centre bays to ground floor; timber-panelled doors with fanlights in key-blocked corniced and consoled doorways to outer bays (cash-point inserted into original door to left). 3 timber pedimented dormers to attic.

NE ELEVATION: irregularly fenestrated. Ashlar pedimented single window off centre right breaking eaves at attic floor level. 'PK' monogram below eaves course to far left.

NW (REAR) ELEVATION: modern door to left. Irregularly fenestrated.

SW ELEVATION: regularly fenestrated to ground floor; panelled aprons to windows. Square moulded date stone panel, dated '1873' above 1st floor string course.

Plate glass in timber sash and case windows to principal elevation; predominantly 4-pane timber sash and case windows to sides and rear. Piended platformed roof; grey slates; coped and corniced wallhead ashlar stacks to SW and NE; coped ridge stack to rear; circular clay cans to SW and NW. Cill and hoodmould courses passing over downpipes.

INTERIOR: ground floor completely redesigned to accommodate modern banking operations; original stair to right hand entrance with original decorative pierced cast-iron balustrade and mahogany banister. Deep cornices and original chimneypieces to 1st floor drawing room and dining room (plain large Doric-pilastered chimneypiece to drawing room). Canted corner fireplaces to attic bedrooms (blocked).

BOUNDARY WALL and GATEPIERS: 2 pairs of coped and corniced ashlar square-plan gatepiers to SW and SE corners connected by curved low ashlar wall with modern cast-iron railings.

Statement of Interest

This bank was one of the earliest buildings to be erected at this prominent junction known as 'Holy Corner', preceded only by David MacGibbon's tenement at 10, 12, 14 Morningside Road (1868 - see separate listing) and MacGibbon and Ross's Morningside Baptist Church (1872-4 - see separate listing) to the SW. It has always been a branch of the Bank of Scotland and would originally have also housed the banking agent and his family. It relates to a number of palazzo style banks of the mid Victorian period, of which Peddie and Kinnear were an important exponent. Both John Dick Peddie (1824-1891) and Charles G H Kinnear (1830-1894) were connected to banking dynasties and the firm was prolific in their output for the larger Scottish banks throughout their long practice history, in particular for the Royal Bank of Scotland during the 1850s and the Bank of Scotland during the 1860s and 1870s. Notably, Peddie and Kinnear had designed or altered over 15 branch banks for the Bank of Scotland by the end of the 1870s. The bank at Morningside represents the combination of their domestic and commercial classical style that would have been appropriate for this neighbourhood setting. The excellent detailing in masonry work adds particular value to this fine Italianate building.

External Links

• Historic Environment Scotland Listing
• Wikidata Q17798915

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)
• 
  Kent: North East and East (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Yorkshire West Riding: Sheffield and the South (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Period Property Manual (New Ed)
• 
  Northamptonshire: Buildings of England Series (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  England's Post-War Listed Buildings