National Westminster Bank

SUNDERLAND

NZ3956NE FAWCETT STREET 920-1/20/71 (West side) 10/11/78 Nos.51 AND 52 National Westminster Bank (Formerly Listed as: FAWCETT STREET (West side) Nos.51 AND 52)

GV II

No. 51 marked `15' in error on O.S. Subscription library, now offices and bank, with attached window guards and balcony. 1878. By Austin, Johnson and Hicks, as part of subscription library. Ashlar with cast-iron window guards and balcony; light grey slate roof. Baroque palazzo style. 3 storeys, 8 windows. Rusticated ground floor, now altered, with double panelled door in third bay in round-headed opening under bracketed segmental hood, the central bracket with draped escutcheon. Giant Corinthian pilasters define bays above. Plain sashes on upper floors have keyed architraves, those on second floor with segmental heads and projecting aproned sills. Iron guards link pilaster bases and, in central bay of 5-bay bank at right, project as balcony. Top entablature has pulvinated frieze and modillioned cornice. Side consoles to 7 segmental-headed dormers with keyed architraves to plain sashes. Tall corniced ridge chimneys. Designed as part of a larger project, including Woods Bank at No.53 (qv), in which this was the front range of the subscription library. (Corfe T: The Buildings of Sunderland 1814-1914.: Newcastle upon Tyne: 1983-: 11; Milburn GE and Miller ST: Sunderland River, Town and People: Sunderland: 1988-: 160).

Listing NGR: NZ3972856999