2 St Martins

2 St Martins

Former bank, built 1900–1902. Designed by S. Perkins Pick, principal architect of the Leicester firm Everard & Pick, for Pares's Bank. Sculpture by C.J. Allen and others; plasterwork by G.P. Bankart. A single-storey addition in matching style was added to the right return around 1950, with further alterations and additions made later in the 20th century.

The building is constructed in Portland stone ashlar with a granite plinth and Welsh slate roofs, executed in the Baroque Revival style. It features a rusticated ground floor, a modillion cornice, and a pierced balustrade. Most windows retain their original glazing bar sashes.

The main composition consists of a cubic central block of two storeys with 1/3/1 bays, flanked by lower side ranges also of two storeys; the left range is splayed. A single-storey addition projects from the rear of the right range. A later 20th-century addition to the left range is not of special interest.

The entrance front is dominated by a projecting central round-arched doorway set in a rusticated coved surround with a segmental arched cornice. It is flanked by elaborate wrought iron lamp standards and contains a half-glazed double door with fanlight. Beyond are single windows. Above this doorway rises a composition of Giant Ionic paired columns in antis, flanked by a frieze of classical figures in relief. In the central recess is a 3-light rusticated window with flanking elliptical windows with keyblocks. The columns support a heavy entablature with a balustered parapet and modillion cornice. Projecting end bays are topped with domed turrets featuring Tuscan columns, each with a single small window below and a tall window with a broken pediment and cartouches above. Wrought iron area railings span the frontage.

The left return, facing Hotel Street, presents a symmetrical composition of five windows. The ground floor has seven windows. A 2-storey centrepiece incorporates a tripartite ground-floor window with rusticated surround, and above it a pedimented round-arched window with rusticated Ionic columns on consoles carved in the form of angels, flanked by female figures. The right return, facing Greyfriars, is also symmetrical with six windows and slightly projecting terminal pavilions. In the centre are four windows with rusticated surrounds and keystones; above these are four windows set between paired Ionic three-quarter columns in antis. The pedimented pavilions have single corniced first-floor windows flanked by rusticated Ionic columns on consoles. The single-storey addition features five windows with rusticated surrounds.

The interior contains a half-panelled square banking hall with a shallow dome and central skylight surrounded by zodiacal symbols. On each side are coffered round arches, each containing three smaller round-arched recesses. At the front is a tripartite window with projecting surround, flanked by oval windows. At the rear are three tall round-arched windows with a 5-light window above. Similar 5-light windows appear on each side, all fitted with non-figurative stained glass. The manager's office has a glazed wooden screen and door with fluted columns. An open-well main staircase features turned balusters and panelled square newels topped with urns. The first-floor officials' landing incorporates round arches, skylights, and original doorcases and doors. Concrete service staircases at the rear include one spiral and one dogleg staircase. Basement strongrooms employ fireproof concrete and steel construction.

This building represents a good provincial example of Baroque Revival commercial architecture and demonstrates the expanding scale of commercial operations in Leicester at the start of the 20th century.