History

Bank building built 1900-03 by George Morgan & Son, architects, Benjamin Howells & Sons Ltd contractors, at cost of £3238, for the London & Provincial Bank, whose premises had been nearby from 1873. On the site of Commerce House, drapers shop. Taken over by Barclays Bank 1918. Photographs of 1930 show Art Nouveau leaded and stained glass to entrance door and windows with London Provincial Bank Ltd in decorative lettering, also heavy wooden panelled counters within.

Exterior

Bank, Northern Renaissance style, rock-faced grey Pennant stone with Bath stone dressings and slate roof with prominent ashlar-capped end stacks. Three storeys, 4 bays, the outer bays narrow. Roof has end copings swept up as shaped gables and with the end stacks rising through them centrally. Ashlar ground floor, upper floors with flanking bays slightly projected, balustraded parapet to centre and ashlar panels to the outer bays with shell-headed niche and finial over. Main parapet has centre block with curved head. Modillion cornice broken forward over outer bays, with frieze over window heads. Windows of upper floors have small-panes to upper half only and curved upper angles. Second floor has single window to each outer bay and triple window to 2 main bays. Sill course. First floor has similar windows to outer bays but with stone transoms, and centre large ashlar shallow-curved oriels with triple mullion-and-transom windows and stone balustrades. Moulded and carved curved stepped bases. String course at oriel window head level and dentil cornice over ground floor broken forward over outer bays and above curved bases. On ground floor, 2 broad round-headed windows in centre with moulded arches and keystones, channelled squat jambs with moulded capitals and sunburst carving in spandrels. Paired pilasters on panelled plinth between windows, single pilaster on plinth each side. Timber glazing in 3 arched lights with barley-sugar turned shafts and 6 lights in arch above. Outer bays each have an ornate doorway with shaped head and with arcaded top-light over. Left bank entrance has moulded door frame, squat balusters to 3 top lights and overall shouldered frame stopped at high plinth. Above in frieze of ground floor cornice is plaque with London and Provincial Bank Ltd. Above cornice is a small curved pediment. Nine-panel door with shaped head. The right door, to upper floors, is similar but simpler, moulded door frame and 2-light top-light but no outer frame. Moulded plinth.
Left end wall has external chimneybreast, 2 single light windows (as on outer bays of main front) to each upper floor and ground floor big 3-sided bay in angle to NW rear wing. Bay has 1 light to S and 2-light to SW, both with transoms, cornice and balustrades. Iron railings across angles. Projecting wing in stucco with ashlar parapet and rubble stone gable end to Red Street. Coped shallow gable between raised piers. Paired sashes to first floor, single large sash below, in architraves. C20 added wing to Chapel Street. Rear of main building has stucco gable, big chimney and long roof, lower range attached of 3 storeys with overhanging verges and small brick end stack.

Interior

Interior has lost wooden panelled counters, but retains much original detail in hardwood. Panelled ceiling with panelled beams, roundels on the joins, and heavy wooden cornice with triglyphs in panelled frieze, modillions and soffit panels between. Row of detached tall Ionic square pillars across centre with pilaster responds on walls, all with high panelled pedestals, panelled lower shafts, panelled mid band and fluted upper shafts. Ceiling forward of row of pillars is slightly more ornate than that to rear, which lacks the pilasters also.

Reasons for Listing

Included as an impressive bank building of 1900 by notable local architect on the principal square of the town. Retaining good orignal character.

External Links

• Cadwr Listing
• Wikidata Q29488227

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

• 
  London 4: North: North v. 4 (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  The Victorian House Manual (2nd Edition): How They Were Built, Improvements & Refurbishment, Solutions to All Common Defects - Includes Relevant ... ... Properties (Haynes Manual) (Haynes Manuals)
• 
  Lancashire: Liverpool and the South-West (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Bedfordshire, Huntingdonshire, and Peterborough (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Gloucestershire 1: The Cotswolds: Cotswolds Pt. 1 (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Essex: Buildings of England Series (Buildings of England) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)