Darlington Building Society

The Darlington Building Society, located at Nos. 29 and 31 on Corporation Road in Middlesbrough, is a shop and hotel built in 1912-1913 by Moore and Archibald Ltd for Freeman Hardy and Willis Ltd. The building was altered around 1980 when the mansard roof, transverse stacks, dormers, and part of the parapet were removed. It is now used as offices. The structure is faced with buff terracotta and features a renewed flat roof.

Designed in the Baroque style, the building has three storeys and an attic, with three bays and a chamfered right corner bay. The ground-floor office frontage, which dates from the late 20th century, is topped by a shallow fascia and cornice. The upper floors showcase an applied Ionic Order in antis and banded rusticated pilaster strips at the ends, all beneath a deep overhanging cornice. The windows have been renewed and are framed in architraves, featuring double keystones, open segmental pediments in the end bays, and a central open-pedimented Roman Doric aedicule on the first floor.

Ramped buttresses are positioned between the recessed attic windows, and there is a cornice along with the remains of the parapet. The corner bay has similar windows and a renewed blank tablet between the floors, supported by engaged Roman Doric colonnettes flanking the first-floor window. The right return, which faces Albert Road, has a similar three-bay design with renewed doors in a Roman Doric doorcase to the right of a central three-light mullioned window on the ground floor.