Caffe Bien

Caffe Bien is a former bank building, purpose-built around 1900. It is constructed of brick with stone dressings and ashlar bands, topped with a Westmorland slate roof. The building is designed in a free classical style and stands two storeys high with an attic, situated on a corner site with two bays on each side of the angled entrance, plus an additional bay on the return elevation to Oxton Road.

The entrance block features a bold segmental pediment supported by full-height attached Ionic columns, topped by a small open pedimented block flanked by volutes and ball finials. The doorway is set within a pedimented architrave, featuring banded Ionic shafts and an exaggerated keyblock, with low relief figures on either side. Above the entrance, there is a 12-pane sash window in an architrave with a shallow segmental entablature and an iron balcony.

The attic storey has a similar window beneath a modillion cornice of the pediment. The return elevations have renewed windows in their original openings on the ground floor, accented by stressed quoins and voussoirs. The first floor features 12-pane sash windows with a modillion cornice and a high blocking course, topped by a stone balustrade in front of segmentally pedimented dormer windows. On the right side of the Oxton Road elevation, there is a lower bay with a casement window set in an ornate stone lugged architrave, featuring an incised panel below and a panelled parapet above.