National Westminster Bank Including Gate To Side Passage

National Westminster Bank including gate to side passage, Grimsby

A bank built in 1903-4 by W Campbell Jones of London for the Union of London and Smiths Bank Limited. The building is constructed in limestone ashlar to the front elevation, with yellow brick and ashlar dressings to the sides and rear, beneath a green slate roof. It is designed in the Edwardian Baroque style.

The exterior comprises three storeys with an attic storey, arranged in three bays with a symmetrical design and a further single-bay section set back in a passage to the left. A rock-faced rusticated plinth runs below the ground-floor sill band. The entrance to the first bay is tall and recessed, with a door set beneath a blocked overlight in an architrave with a pulvinated frieze carved with openwork foliage, modillioned cornice and bracketed hood carrying an open scrolled pediment.

To the right are tall narrow recessed windows in architraves with sill bands, carved pulvinated friezes and hoods. A frieze bearing the name-board sits at first-floor level. The central bay contains a recessed panel rising through the first and second floors in a deep chamfered reveal beneath a keyed segmental arch that breaks the eaves cornice. The first floor has a tall sash window in an architrave with pulvinated frieze and keystone supporting a segmental pediment, and a segmental-bowed balcony with blind balustrade. The side bays feature tall triple first-floor sashes in architraves with bracketed pediments. The second floor has a central sash in a keyed architrave with a shallow canted balconette, and triple sashes to the side bays in chamfered reveals with ornate carved keystones. A string course and deep modillioned cornice with an open pediment to the central bay follow, containing swags and a cartouche bearing the company cypher. The mansard roof has a pair of flat-roofed three-light dormers to the side bays. All windows retain glazing bars. Coped gables and end stacks complete the upper section.

The left return continues the eaves cornice, interrupted by a deeply recessed central panel containing a Diocletian attic window in a chamfered reveal with keystone. A side passage to the left leads to a recessed bay at its end, where a projecting single-storey entrance porch has a round-headed fielded-panel door and radial fanlight in an ashlar surround with bracketed hood. Above this is a canted first-floor balcony and a raised ashlar panel containing single 6/6 sashes to each floor with a carved panel between. A rainwater-head here is dated 1904.

The interior banking hall features a pair of Ionic-style columns and a panelled ceiling with ornate modillioned cornices and paterae. The centrepiece to the north side has octagonal half-columns, a segmental pediment and a pair of arched alcoves containing coats of arms and a First World War memorial plaque. Original features including moulded cornices remain on the upper floor.

A wrought-iron gateway to the street in the side passage has ornate scrollwork side panels and an overthrow.