Former Union Bank of York, 1 and 3 Trinity House Lane

Former Pease and York Union Bank, 1 and 3 Trinity House Lane

This former bank was built around 1895 and designed by William Warlow Gwyther of London in the Classical style. The building stands on a polygonal corner site facing Trinity House Lane and Silver Street.

The structure comprises a three-storey north-south aligned polygonal range with an attached east-west aligned trapezoidal range at its south-east corner. On the north elevation, facing Silver Street, is a flat roof two-storey rectangular extension with a bowed north-west corner. To the rear is a single-storey flat roof L-shaped range with roof lanterns, and another small single-storey block to the south between the main and trapezoidal range.

The building is constructed of Ancaster ashlar with a granite plinth, and features wrought iron and concrete floors supported on cast-iron columns. The main three-storey building has an alternating mansard and pitched roof with a single low-pitched pedimented gable end facing west. It has six ashlar ridge stacks facing the streets and three brick stacks to the rear, while the trapezoidal range has four brick stacks.

The principal elevation facing Trinity House Lane has seven bays across three storeys. A deep red virgo granite plinth supports a banded and rusticated ground floor with a plain architrave and moulded dentillated cornice. The first floor has moulded ashlar window surrounds with wooden framed casements, above a pseudo-parapet with blind balustrades. The second floor displays round-headed windows with keystone and moulded ashlar arches, string bands running through window imposts and sills, with window imposts featuring square or column shafts. These windows have projecting balustraded balconettes supported on scrolled brackets. Above rises a dentillated and bracketed moulded roof cornice with a pedestal and pierced balustrade parapet.

The banking entrance occupies the second bay from the south. Two giant pilasters rise through the elevation to a dentillated and bracketed pediment containing a monogram and supporters in the tympanum. The projecting entrance porch features paired Ionic granite columns rising from the plinth to an entablature and broken swan-neck and triangular pediment with ball-finialled pedestals. The triangular pediment displays egg-and-dart moulding, and an ashlar block below contains three coats of arms in a sculpted panel, including York (central) and Pease (right). The doorway has granite pilaster jambs supporting a keystone and moulded arch with ornamental carved ashlar spandrels, a half-round glazed overlight covered by a scroll-work grill panel, and a two-leaf iron scroll-work gate. Either side of the paired columns are tall windows with matching scroll-work grill panels. Above the porch are two separated first-floor windows, and the second floor has a group of three arched windows with the outer windows having blind balustrades and the central window having a projecting balustrade parapet.

The entrance bay is flanked to the north by a single bay and to the south by two bays, with matching fenestration. The northern bay has a large ground-floor three-light window with wooden pilaster mullions, above which are a pair of first-floor windows and a pair of second-floor arched windows. The same arrangement is repeated in the two southern bays, with two ground-floor windows and two pairs of windows to the floors above.

Further south is a three-bay minor front consisting of a single-bay flanked by projecting entrance bays. These projecting bays have stepped independent side entrances with flat arched moulded keystone door surrounds and segmental pedimented porches supported on curved brackets. Above the entrances are single casement first-floor windows with projecting pseudo-balustrades; the left entrance bay has a stone mullion overlight. The second floor has a keystoned oeil-de-boeuf window to the left entrance bay and a moulded ashlar window with string band running through the sill to the right. In the centre is a recessed three-window bay, with a ground-floor three-light window with wooden pilaster mullions and three separated windows on the first and second floors with extended blind and projecting balustrades with pedestals.

The return elevation facing Silver Street has a projecting two-storey four-bay contemporary extension attached to the main three-storey block. This extension matches the ground and first-floor features of the three-storey block but with plain square pilasters marking each upper-floor bay. Its north-west corner is bowed with square moulded pilasters rising through the elevation to a blocked parapet with ball finialled pedestals and a central sculpted cartouche flanked by volutes. The ground floor has square moulded pilasters with Ionic capitals and a central bowed keystone round-arched window with decorated string bands running through the window imposts. The spandrels are enriched with carved arms of Hull and York. The floor above has three moulded ashlar window surrounds with shared ashlar mullions rising from a pseudo-parapet flanked by half ball finialled pedestals.

To the left is the three-bay north elevation of the main block, with a balustraded parapet running east from the blocked north-west parapet. The ground floor has three tall windows, the eastern pair projecting forward as a bay, and an eastern entrance porch with a moulded and keystone round-arch doorway with enriched spandrels. The doorway contains a partly-glazed round-headed double door with wrought-iron overlight and grille. The first floor has single window casements to the outer bays and a paired window casement to the central bay.

Aerial photographs show that the three-storey range and trapezoidal building contain one-over-one sashes. The single-storey extensions have square or rectangular pyramidal roof lanterns. The rear east and south elevations were not inspected.

The well-preserved contemporary ground-floor banking hall features a panelled and dentilled plaster cross-beam ceiling concealing concrete beams carried on cast-iron Doric columns and engaged square pilasters with ornamental scroll brackets. The eastern ceiling panels contain three large square roof lights. The hall has a panelled dado rail and panelled wooden splays and soffits to the windows. Private north rooms facing Silver Street are separated from the banking hall by a mahogany framed and glazed wooden screen with decorative fluted pilasters between etched glazed panels and top-lights.

Four-panelled doors with etched glass panels throughout the interior have moulded swan-neck architraves complete with brass fittings and classical ornamentation; one retains a manager's door plaque. The south wall contains a two-leaf door leading to a stone staircase and external west door.