Lloyds Bank

This is a bank building constructed in 1907 for Lloyd’s Bank Limited, designed by George Hastwell Grayson of Grayson and Ould. The building was commissioned as a banking hall and chambers, with a manager's house to the rear, forming an L-shaped plan. It is built of sandstone ashlar, brick, and incorporates some half-timberwork, with a graduated Cumbrian slate roof.

The front elevation, facing Telegraph Road, has an irregular three-window range arranged under three gables connected by a parapet, all with coping. The first floor has two three-light and one four-light windows, with labels and mullions, the latter incorporating a king mullion. The ground floor features two, three, and four-light windows of similar detailing, the three-light window being larger to allow light into the banking hall and including decorative glazing bars. An entrance tower, almost detached, is canted with a pyramidal roof and a dentil cornice, topped with a lead finial. Above the doorway is a small window, and the surround features a shaped pediment containing a beehive device. The end wall facing The Mount has a gable with coping and a three-light window to the first floor, and a large three-light window to the ground floor, mirroring the front elevation. Stone returns to the left for one bay, featuring a two-light window to the ground floor and a timber-framed gabled attic window; the rest of this side is brick, with stone kneelers to the gabled end wall of the principal range. Further windows on this side are two and three-light, with iron glazing bars to those on the ground floor. Corbelled ridge stacks are present.

The rear is asymmetrical, with varied elevations, including a shallow wing with a massive brick stack featuring set-offs, connecting to the banking hall. A pentice connects this wing to a polygonal stair turret in the inner angle of the L-shaped plan. Above the pentice are two three-light windows, one of which is a gabled dormer. The rear floor and much of the main rear wing (the house) are half-timbered with herringbone nogging. The inner face of this wing features a canted and gabled oriel. A large external end stack is partly concealed by a sensitive brick lean-to addition. The interior remains uninspected. Grayson, a partner in the Cheshire firm of Grayson and Ould, also undertook important work at Trinity Hall, Cambridge, and this varied and well-managed complex design is considered among his best.