Former Lloyds Bank, Gateshead

Former Lloyds Bank, Gateshead

This former bank was built in 1914 to designs of George Reavell in the Edwardian baroque style. It is constructed in sandstone ashlar with a rusticated ground floor and pilasters, and occupies a prominent corner site with elevations fronting West Street and Nelson Street.

The building is rectangular in plan and rises to three storeys. Both elevations are identically detailed with projecting end bays flanking a recessed central section—two bays to West Street and four bays to Nelson Street. A plain parapet with short pilasters rises above, with chimneys featuring cornice detail.

The rusticated ground floor on both elevations contains large round-headed openings within stepped arches, each supported by enormous console keystones that carry a moulded band. The single openings in each end bay have giant, swagged console keystones. To West Street, the end bay openings are doorways with engaged Doric columns supporting lintels with fanlights above—the main bank entrance is on the left, with a private entrance on the right. On Nelson Street, the end bays have window openings. The ground floor windows to the central recessed section have carved fenestration in the form of triangular pediments.

The upper floors feature rusticated pilasters to the end bays, rising to the eaves and flanking a single rectangular window to each floor, terminating in open pediments with swags and a deep, modillioned cornice. The central section is treated as a piano nobile with Ionic engaged columns—three to West Street and five to Nelson Street—alternating with windows within lugged surrounds ornamented with motifs resembling guttae. The tall first-floor windows have segmental open pediments decorated with egg and dart, long keystones and metal balcony fronts. The Ionic columns carry a cornice, above which the words "LLOYDS BANK LIMITED" are inscribed in gilt lettering. The upper floor windows have been replaced in the twentieth century, though historic timber casements are retained behind.

The main entrance opens into a small vestibule with an ornate plaster ceiling and original panelled double doors with a circular upper panel. These doors open directly into the banking hall, which retains its original plan as a large undivided space. The hall has windows to two sides alternating with giant columns with egg and dart capitals supporting an entablature adorned with classical motifs. The original ceiling is retained with a decorative cornice of flowers, fruit and leaves and ornate roundels to the corners.

A pair of original timber doors in the east wall leads into a former office, with a Diocletian window above the right door featuring Classical fenestration. Between the pair of doors is a twentieth-century lightweight, multi-sided office enclosure. Original doors in the south wall lead to a basement containing a strong room lined with white glazed tiles, a lift, a shallow cupboard and the adjacent stair hall. Internal doors mostly have a circular upper panel and decorative guttae, with some retaining original door furniture.

The stair hall, with an incomplete mosaic floor, is also accessed through a private entrance from West Street into a small vestibule with a corniced ceiling. The timber dog-leg staircase rises to the first floor and features a moulded and ramped handrail, decorative newel posts and drops, and turned balusters.

The first floor has dropped ceilings throughout, original architraves and skirtings, and a few chimney breasts. One large room to Nelson Street has a moulded cornice and multiple windows with shutters, suggesting it functioned as a board room. Where the original ceiling can be viewed above the dropped ceilings, original moulded plaster cornices remain in situ.

The second floor indicates a domestic function, probably as the manager's apartment or another worker's residence. Ceilings are mostly original with moulded plaster cornices and original architraves to doors; some rooms have coved ceilings. Historic features include parquet flooring, storage shelves, wooden cupboards and at least two early twentieth-century timber chimney pieces and one of mid-twentieth-century date.