National Westminster Bank

This building is a National Westminster Bank, dating to 1870, with a 20th-century addition. It was designed by Garlick, Park and Sykes of Preston for the Lancaster Banking Company. The building is constructed from sandstone ashlar with ashlar dressings, set upon a deep plinth of Carboniferous limestone. It has a slate roof and tall gable chimney stacks.

The design is in the Italian palazzo style, based on a rectangular plan. The structure is two storeys high, with a tall basement visible at the rear due to the sloping ground. It has nine bays, divided by pilasters on the first floor. The doorway is located in the sixth bay. The facade features a prominent modillion cornice between the storeys and Corinthian pilasters on the first floor, supporting a heavy entablature with brackets carved with acanthus leaves. The blocking course has acroteria carved with palmettes above the pilasters and is raised at the corners. The ground floor is banded with rustication, and the windows have moulded bands at the impost level, plain reveals, and keystones carved with heads. The first-floor windows have moulded architraves, recessed sills, and vermiculation below. Panels carved with the coats of arms of Lancaster and Lancashire, set within florid scrollwork, are located in the fifth and seventh bays.

The projecting doorway is flanked by free-standing Tuscan columns of polished pink granite, which stand on the plinth. The frieze above the doorway bears the inscription 'BANK'. The bays to the left and right of the doorway are blind. A single-storey, three-bay extension in an early 20th-century classical style is located to the left.

The interior banking hall is supported by four free-standing Corinthian columns and is divided into compartments with modillion cornices. A glazed lantern is in the central compartment.

The Lancaster Banking Company, one of the first joint-stock banks in the country, was established in 1826 following the collapse of two other local banks.