Bank Chambers and outbuilding to rear

This is a former late 17th-century town house that was substantially remodelled in the mid-18th century, with further alterations made in the 19th, 20th and early 21st centuries. As of 2017 the building was disused. At the rear, standing on the south side of a small courtyard, is a 19th-century outbuilding.

The building has an ashlar façade with brick rear elevations, brick chimney stacks and plain tile roofs.

Layout

The building stands on the south side of Tuesday Market Place and is formed of three distinct sections: a double-pile range at the front and a rear staircase cross wing, both of three storeys, plus a two-storey service wing at the rear. The internal courtyard formed by the layout of the three ranges was covered with a glass roof in around 2008.

Exterior

The principal elevation to Tuesday Market Place is a symmetrical composition of five bays and three storeys beneath a balustraded parapet. The central entrance has a 20th-century eight-panelled door flanked by Tuscan engaged columns, while the ground-floor window bays are divided by Doric pilasters, all supporting a continuous frieze with triglyphs and guttae. Over the door is a triangular pediment. All the windows date from the 20th century, with one-over-one horned sashes on the ground floor, six-over-six horned sashes on the first floor and casements with square-paned glazing on the second floor. The upper floor windows all have eared architraves, while those on the first floor are also embellished with pulvinated friezes, hoods and bracketed sills.

At the rear is the former internal courtyard, which was covered with a glass roof around 2008, thereby obscuring the ground floor. It is enclosed on its north, east and south sides by the double-pile range, the staircase wing and the service wing respectively, while the rear boundary wall with 22 Tuesday Market Place encloses the west side. The brick walling of the double-pile range (of which the ground floor was demolished in approximately 2008) and the staircase wing is laid in an irregular English bond up to the level of the second-floor window sills (the first-floor levels are also painted white), while the walling above is in Flemish bond. The double-pile range has single six-over-six horned sashes on each floor, while the staircase wing has two identical sashes on each floor. The first-floor windows all have timber lintels. The first floor of the two-storey service wing is of early 20th-century painted brick with a contemporary tripartite sash window. Its south and east walls are also largely of early 20th-century brick, incorporating some late 17th-century brickwork. Exposed on the east gable wall are two narrow, blocked cupboard or stair windows with stone jambs. At the centre of the ground floor is an early 20th-century canted bay window overlooking a small courtyard to the east.

Interior

The special interest is concentrated in the building's main range, with the rear service wing being of lesser interest.

The pedimented doorcase on Tuesday Market Place leads directly into a late 20th-century open-plan ground floor which occupies the whole of the double-pile range along with the former internal courtyard, following the demolition of the ground-floor rear wall in approximately 2008. The fixtures and fittings to this open-plan section, excluding the 19th-century wooden panelling beneath the main windows, are largely of a late 20th-century or early 21st-century date. Standing on the alignment of the original central corridor are two late 20th-century steel columns which now support the upper storeys following the removal of the partition walls. At the southern end of this former corridor are two short sections of truncated walling which indicate the position of the blocked mid-18th-century doorway to the staircase wing. This wing is now entered by a late 20th-century six-panelled door which has been inserted into the partition wall to the left-hand side of the blocked mid-18th-century doorway. Visible around this doorway are fragments of mid-18th-century panelling.

In the staircase wing is a small room with a corner fireplace with a mid-18th-century surround featuring eared stone piers beneath a broken flat pediment supported on acanthus brackets.

The ground floor of the former service wing at the rear was fitted out in the early 21st century to accommodate a kitchen and a dining room and retains no fixtures and fittings of note. The original service stair has been replaced with a 19th-century dog-leg staircase with a closed-string and turned mirror balusters.

The principal stairwell in the staircase wing is clad with mid-18th-century large-framed wood panelling with an egg and dart cornice below ovolo dentils. Its open-string staircase has two turned balusters with bobbins to each tread, along with a ramped and wreathed mahogany handrail. From the first-floor landing, triangular pedimented doorcases with pulvinated friezes and eared architraves open to the right (north) and left (south) via six-panelled doors. A more modest straight-flight stair of an identical design continues to the second floor within a stairwell clad with large-framed wood panelling.

The two principal mid-18th-century first-floor rooms are situated at the front of the building and were divided by a straight-flight staircase in the 19th or 20th century. This was probably inserted in the position formerly occupied by closets and/or dressing rooms. The north-east corner room retains its mid-18th-century large-framed wood panelling along with contemporary features including a dentilled cornice, hinged and panelled window shutters and a plain fire surround with bolection moulding. Two blocked doorways in the east wall suggest that the building was at one time linked with the neighbouring property. The panelling on the west wall also has a similar blocked doorway which probably provided access to a closet or dressing room in the position now occupied by the 19th or 20th-century staircase. Set within the panelling to the right-hand side of the blocked doorway, within an enlarged closet or dressing room doorway, is a 20th-century six-panelled door which gives access to both the staircase and the north-west corner room. This room again retains its mid-18th-century large-framed wood panelling along with contemporary hinged and panelled window shutters, window seats with panelled backs and a moulded cornice. The corner fireplace has a Regency-style surround with ovolo moulded jambs and lintel with roundels in the corners. Set within the panelling on the east wall is a further blocked closet or dressing room doorway. Dividing this room from the rear room of the double-pile range, which was fitted with customer toilets for restaurant use in approximately 2008, is a stud wall of a probable contemporary date.

At the rear of the staircase wing is a small room with small-framed wood panelling in a late 17th-century style. However, as the panelling appears to be contemporary with the other mid-18th-century features, it may have been fitted in this style to suit a smaller and less formal bedchamber. In the corner is a chimneypiece with fluted pilasters.

The rear service wing, which originally comprised two rooms, was subdivided in the late 20th century to create a third room. All three rooms contain no fixtures and fittings of note.

The second floor originally comprised two rooms at the front and two, possibly three, at the rear. In the early 21st century the north-west corner room was subdivided with a stud wall, while the rooms at the rear were remodelled to create a shower room, staff changing rooms and several toilets. In the western half of the former north-west corner room there is a blocked mid-18th-century corner fireplace with an eared surround, while the eastern half contains no features of note. The north-east corner room has a plain mid-18th-century fire surround with a moulded mantelshelf. The rear rooms contain no fixtures and fittings of note.

The attic retains clasped purlins, collars and rafters of probable mid-18th-century date, along with 19th and 20th-century replacement timbers.

Outbuilding

A 19th-century single-storey outbuilding stands on the south side of the small courtyard that lies to the east of the former service wing. It is of painted brick with a mono-pitched roof covered with pantiles. At the centre of its north wall is a 19th-century two-light casement window with square-paned glazing. Standing to its left is a 20th-century plank and batten door and to its right is a shallow porch with an early 21st-century wooden sliding door. This structure contributes to the special interest of the principal building and is included in the listing.