The former Royds Bank

The former Royds Bank

This building comprises three distinct phases of construction, combining a bank with associated residential and office space. The earliest element is a single-bay staircase block of around 1800, built of orange brick in Flemish bond. This was followed in 1879 by a Greek Revival style bank extension to the left, designed by James Cheetham and constructed in sandstone ashlar. The third phase, undertaken in 1913-14 by Cecil Jackson, involved the redesign and refacing of a former residence as a bank in neo-classical style, using white Portland stone ashlar. All sections are roofed in slate.

The front elevation displays these three distinct phases clearly. The 1879 bank extension occupies the western side, comprising a single storey and four bays in severe Greek style. The façade is decorated with banded rustication throughout. The left-hand bay is lower in height with a projecting moulded eaves cornice. The main three-bay block features a parapet entablature with dentils, an incised Greek key pattern and projecting antefixes. At the centre is a slightly recessed rectangular doorway, now obscured by security boarding, with a round-arched overlight and a relief panel inscribed "BANK" above. Stone steps lead up to the doorway. Two tall two-light mullion windows flank the entrance, with a smaller two-light mullion window in the first bay. All windows share a moulded sill band and have plain square stone mullions with no surrounds. The timber window frames retain their historic form documented in a 1909 photograph, though the top lights, which originally pivoted open with bottom hinges, are now boarded over.

The adjoining staircase block is two storeys in height and single bay wide. Its ground floor features an Ionic doorcase with attached columns, an open modillioned pediment, a semi-circular enriched fanlight, and a six-panel timber door. Shallow bowed stone steps lead to the door; historic photographs show this doorcase was originally positioned in the central bay of the adjoining house, before the 1913-14 remodelling. The first floor contains a six-over-six pane sash window with a gauged brick head and stone sill.

The 1913-14 remodelled bank occupies the eastern side, constructed from the former manager's house. The elevation is symmetrical and neo-classical, built in white Portland stone across two storeys and five bays. A plinth, rusticated quoining, and a parapetted dentil eaves cornice are present, with a triangular pediment over the central three bays. The ground floor features a central doorway with a semi-circular porch supported by Ionic columns and deep entablature, approached by shallow steps. The round-headed doorway has an enriched fanlight above the timber door, flanked by narrow side lights with decorative glazing bars. The ground-floor bays on each side have tall rectangular windows with moulded stone frames and giant keystones, glazed with three-by-four pane arrangements. Between the first and second bay windows is a recessed niche containing a cash-point machine, with a flight of narrow steps extending from the porch. The first floor has a slightly recessed central bay with a round head extending into the pediment, containing a relief carving of a double-headed eagle. Five rectangular windows are present, with a guilloche sill band and triangular pedimented hoods; the central window is enriched with a relief-carved swag above. The east side elevation, facing Lyceum Passage, comprises four bays with similarly detailed windows on both floors.

Interior Plan

The staircase block doorway opens into an inner lobby with an enriched plaster cornice and architrave, and timber and glazed double doors. The staircase is an openstring design with decorative iron balustrading and a ramped timber handrail. A wide round-headed arch at first-floor level opens from the landing into the spine corridor of the adjacent bank. A doorway at the rear of the landing, with fluted architrave and foliate corner motifs, provides access via a modern timber door.

The main banking hall contains delicate Adamesque plasterwork to the ceiling, divided into a large rectangular central panel flanked by narrower panels. To the rear is a private office accessed beyond a wide shallow arch flanked by fluted pilasters and infilled with a timber and glazed screen. A fielded-panel and half-glazed door opens to the left of the screen. The banking hall is now subdivided by modern partitions and a modern banking counter. The first-floor spine corridor has timber fielded-panel and half-glazed double doors flanked by fluted pilasters with a small-pane glazed overlight. Doorways off the corridor have fluted architraves and foliate corner motifs; doors feature four fielded panels with a horizontally glazed top panel. The far window has similar architrave treatment with fielded-panel returns and soffit. Other windows have moulded architraves and similar panelled returns and soffits. The rear east room contains a small bolection moulded mantelpiece. Many rooms have modern suspended ceilings.

The interior of the 1879 bank extension contains no original fixtures or fittings of architectural or historic interest, and has a modern suspended ceiling.