Barclays Bank

Barclays Bank, located on St Werburgh Street in Chester, was built around 1875 by Sir A Blomfield. This bank, which was formerly associated with the Magistrates Court No.3 on Northgate Street and the library of the Cathedral, is constructed from red sandstone and features a brown tiled roof.

The building has two storeys plus an attic. The entrance consists of half-glazed oak double doors set in a moulded arched opening with carved spandrels, all beneath a hoodmould in a projecting porch that narrows at the second storey floor level to a two-storey canted bay window. On the first storey, there is a single-light transomed window to the west of the porch, and a tripartite mullioned and transomed window with one large light flanked by four smaller lights, featuring cusped ogee heads and topped with a pair of glazed quatrefoils. A stringcourse runs along the second storey floor, while the bay window above the porch has one large light flanked by three smaller lights, also with cusped ogee heads and paired glazed quatrefoils. To the east, there is a cross-window with cusped arched heads. The stringcourse beneath the crenellated parapet is interrupted by an attic bay window with one large light flanked by three smaller lights, featuring ogee cusped heads.

A timber gabled roof-dormer on the east side has a cusped head and arched, moulded bargeboards, with a red terracotta ridge. The rear of the building displays stepped buttresses and mullioned and transomed windows with arched heads, along with floor and sill-strings. There is a gabled traceried attic window, two gabled timber roof dormers with two lights each, featuring cusped arches, close-studded apices, and arched bargeboards. Additionally, there is a timber-framed higher blank dormer and a shaped stone chimney. Most interior features are currently covered.