Lloyd'S Bank

Bank. Built in 1891 by Alfred and Paul Waterhouse for Foster and Co bankers, and extended in 1935 by Munro Cautley and Barefoot of Ipswich. The building is constructed of limestone ashlar with bands of red brick, with a tile roof; the 1935 extension uses limestone ashlar and a stone tile roof. It occupies a large corner site, with the 1935 extension set on the corner’s apex at the south end. The design is Dutch Renaissance style, with a neo-Tudor extension in 1935.

The three-storey Sidney Street elevation is symmetrical, with a 1:2:1 bay arrangement. The end bays project forward, featuring elaborate Dutch gables with pilasters, pinnacles, a stone balcony to second-floor windows, and consoles supporting scrolled pediments over the attic windows. Similar pediments adorn the centre first-floor windows. The ground floor features pairs of round-arch windows. To the right (south) is a round arch doorway, flanked by a Jacobean Ionic column, a scrolled broken pediment, and a niche above containing a putto. Above this is a tall, elaborate hexagonal clock tower with a lantern over, culminating in a tiled spire with lead lucarnes and a small lantern at the apex. The Hobson Street elevation is distinguished by its fine and complex design, constructed in ashlar with red brick bands and pilasters and gables. The 1935 extension on the corner is relatively plain, gabled to the left and right of a larger corner gable that features a two-storey oriel on the first and second floors. Stone mullion-transom windows contain leaded panes.

The 1891 interior is notable for its fine tiled finishes, including an Italianate octagonal banking hall with an arcade supporting a large dome and a glazed lantern. The arcade is faced in moulded glazed tiles (likely by Burmantofts) decorated with classical motifs. Original features include curved counters with panelled fronts, doors and doorcases, a Gothic clock, and tessellated floors.