Midland Bank

STRATFORD-UPON-AVON

SP2054NW CHAPEL STREET 604-1/10/35 (North West side) 09/02/72 Nos.12 AND 13 Midland Bank

GV II

Bank. 1883. By Harris, Martin and Harris of Birmingham; for the Birmingham Banking Co. Brick with ashlar and terracotta dressings; tile roof with enriched cresting and truncated brick stacks. Gothic style. 3 storeys; 2-window range with canted angle to right and 2-storey, 3-window, range to left. Shallow offset buttresses and top Lombard frieze. Ground floor has paired pointed-arched windows, the sills lowered in the 1980s; spandrels with foliage, and relief terracotta scenes above taken from Shakespeare's plays; 1st floor has windows of 3 cusped pointed lights with colonnettes and ashlar heads with roundels; 2 small triangular dormers. Narrow section to right has flanking buttresses and relief panel. Range to left has pointed entrance with hood and fanlight to half-glazed door; ground floor has pointed windows similarly treated to others, but with frieze of diapering and sunflowers to spandrels; 1st floor has 2 pointed windows with enriched ashlar tympana and enriched gable; window to right has terracotta flat arch and cornice. Corner has pointed entrance with polished granite shafts and rich capitals to columns; cusped tympanum with mosaic of Shakespeare, foliate spandrels and relief panel above; paired doors. 1st floor has 2 pointed windows with shafts and enriched ashlar tympana and spandrels; top frieze and cornice, and pyramidal roof with triangular dormer and finial. Right return to Ely Street is similar; 2-storey, single-bay, range with 2-storey with attic, 4-window, range and gabled 2-storey end block. INTERIOR has pointed recesses with rich capitals to pilasters and coffered ceiling. A good example of High Victorian Gothic rare in Stratford. (Buildings of England: Pevsner N: Warwickshire: London: 1966-: 418; Bearman R: Stratford-upon-Avon: A History of its Streets and Buildings: Nelson: 1988-: 23).

Listing NGR: SP2010254841