Natwest Bank

A bank and banking hall with shop premises and office accommodation built in 1929-30 to the designs of FCR Palmer and WFC Holden. The building is in a classical style. It is constructed of red brick laid to Flemish bond and Portland stone with a roof of green Westmorland slates. The windows are metal-framed and the entrance doorways are of stainless steel. The building occupies a wedge-shaped site tapering toward the main entrance on Broadgate with a long curved elevation to Hertford Street which incorporates a secondary entrance and shops at ground floor.

The building is of five storeys with the uppermost set back behind a brick parapet. There is a wide moulded string course above the second floor and the hipped roof has deep eaves with mutules. The narrow Broadgate elevation is dominated by a giant tetrastyle (four columned) Doric portico, the entablature of which carries decorative discs to the metopes in the form of coins of various designs. The central doorway is within a double-height rounded archway, the stainless steel doors are folded back within the wide jambs of the doorway; the inner doors have been modified.

The Hertford Street elevation is of 16 bays, the northern-most four blocked now by the linking range to the Broadgate House to the west. The secondary entrance is just north of the centre of this elevation and has a similar portico, albeit applied and without a pediment, to the Broadgate elevation. The entablature formerly carried the bank's name. The ground floor of this elevation is clad in stone with three large shops to the right of the entrance and two smaller shops within the portico. The shop fronts, with the exception of one of the small shops which retains its stainless steel frontage, have all been modernised.

The windows throughout have margin glazing and are set within stone surrounds; these rise continuously between first and second floor with panels between, some of which are carved with motifs representing different trades of the city.

Internally the banking hall remains relatively unaltered, retaining its decorative scheme, although the counters have been removed and replaced. The hall is top lit by a large glass lantern with geometric glazing. The ceilings to the hall and entrance vestibules are coffered and the hall has triglyph and coin metope decoration to cornice; the walls are clad in a pale green marble.