302 AND 304, KENSINGTON

Nos. 302 and 304 Kensington is a bank building constructed in 1898 by architect James Rhind. It is made of red brick and stone and features two storeys with an attic. The building has two bays facing Kensington, a recessed corner bay, and one bay on Deane Road, with an attached, projecting section that is also two storeys and two bays wide. The ground floor is rusticated and has a cornice above, topped with a frieze and another cornice. The corner bay and flanking bays create a symmetrical design.

The ground floor windows are tripartite and supported by Ionic colonnettes. The entrance, located on the right side of the corner bay, features a bowed hood with a 20th-century sign above it. The first-floor windows are adorned with aprons, rusticated pilasters, entablatures, and keystones. The central window is bowed, flanked by low columns on corbelled plinths, and topped with a cornice. The top of the building has broken pediments with cornices interrupted by round-headed windows that have Gibbs surrounds. There are niches with coats of arms above, set in aedicules with open pediments. The central bay is concave above the first-floor window and has a stone panel and stack, flanked by Ionic columns.

The second bay facing Kensington may be a later addition and is lower in height, featuring a tripartite ground floor window, two first-floor architraved windows, and a parapet with pedimented dormers. The adjoining section on Deane Street has a domestic scale and includes an octagonal turret topped with an ogival cupola.