Former Midland Bank, 4 Dale Street

The former Midland Bank at 4 Dale Street is a five-storey concrete and steel frame building with a basement, designed in 1967 and constructed around 1971 by Thomas Harker of Bradshaw, Rowse & Harker of Liverpool. It now functions as a mini-supermarket on the ground floor with offices above.

The building sits at the south-west end of Dale Street, diagonally opposite the Grade I listed Town Hall. A Grade II listed building at 1 Castle Street adjoins its south-west side and now provides internal access to the upper floors. The ground floor is accessed via an entrance on the south-west return elevation, with a small enclosed rear yard accessed through the retail unit and a rear stairwell.

The principal elevation facing Dale Street and the narrow south-west return elevation are the building's most distinctive features. The upper floors are divided into a regular grid—five bays on the Dale Street elevation forming twenty modules, and two bays on the south-west return forming eight modules. Each module comprises four large facets of mirrored glass set in stainless-steel frames and joined by a horizontal ridge, projecting outward as modern oriel windows. Lower panels beneath the windows are opaque black glass. Bands of small black tessarae tiles run along the top of both principal elevations and above the ground-floor signage fascia, with additional tile cladding at the west corner and bordering a recessed vertical window band at the north-east end of the Dale Street elevation. This vertical band uses the same glass as the main windows with alternating panels of clear and opaque black glass. A similar styled window band appears at the south-east end of the two-bay return, without surrounding tile cladding. The ground floor originally featured a plate-glass box projection, now replaced by faceted modules of clear glass echoing the upper windows. The main entrance, on the south-west return, is modern glazed; a secondary fire exit lies at the north-east end of the Dale Street elevation, with a cash machine window inserted to the left of the main entrance. A fire exit on the top floor leads onto the roof of 1 Castle Street. The rear elevation is plain concrete with a stair projection and is windowless except for one window at the top-left.

Internally, the ground-floor banking hall designed by the Midland Bank's in-house architects has been removed and converted to retail and storage space. Access to the upper floors, basement, and rear stairwell now passes through knocked-through doorway openings in the neighbouring building at 1 Castle Street, following the blockage of the original doorway on the ground floor. The rear stair wraps around a central pier clad in black tessarae tiles matching the exterior, with a horizontal timber rail and steel balustrade. Upper floors have been largely refurbished and modernised. The fourth floor retains a series of piers around the north-west and south-west external walls supporting the window structure, preserving their original black tessarae tile cladding that mirrors the exterior and internal stair finishes. Corresponding piers on floors below have been over-clad, with the survival of any original tessarae unknown. The basement, inter-connected with that of 1 Castle Street, contains former vaults and storage areas.