Bank House and 2-4 King's Arms Street

Bank House and 2-4 King's Arms Street

A building of 1856 comprising commercial premises fronting King's Arms Street and a private dwelling to the rear, built by George Cubitt, a local ironmonger and industrialist.

The commercial range fronting King's Arms Street is two storeys high over a basement, six bays wide, and finished in buff brick with a rendered ground-floor shopfront. A dentilled eaves course with egg-and-dart moulding runs across the top. The hipped roof was originally covered in pantile and has late-20th-century pantile covering; a buff-brick chimneystack that formerly stood on the south side was removed in the late 20th century. The first floor has four flat-arched window surrounds each with a vermiculated keystone and four-over-four pane sash windows, and a canted window in the northernmost bay. The ground floor shopfront is rendered across five bays over a moulded plinth, with the southernmost bay unrendered. It features a cornice, plain fascia, five round-arched window openings with plain keystones and moulded surrounds, and a central flat-arched moulded door surround containing a replacement glazed door and plain overlight. The two southernmost bays, now containing windows, show evidence of formerly being door openings. The rear (west) elevation of the commercial range is cement rendered with metal-framed top-hung casement windows and a mid-20th-century single-storey strong room.

Bank House projects westwards from the rear of the commercial range. It is two storeys high over a raised basement with a garden (south) elevation six bays long. The hipped roof, formerly slate covered, now has late-20th-century pantile covering and buff-brick chimneystacks. The walls are constructed of red brick laid in Flemish bond. A two-storey porch projects from the second bay from the east, likely added shortly after construction around 1856. The porch is ruled-and-lined rendered with an ornate brick balustrade, quoins, and cast-iron cresting to a first-floor window containing two-over-two sashes. A guilloche stringcourse runs over the ground floor, with side windows to the ground floor containing four fixed lights. A half-glazed and panelled door (likely original) leads to the interior, and steps with railings descend south to the garden. A classical door surround was added to the flat-arched porch entrance in the late 20th century. The windows generally contain four-over-four sashes with cast-iron sills, most probably manufactured by Cubitt's foundry. The west end of the domestic range comprises a lower (north) and a higher (south) section, both two storeys over a basement. The lower (north) section is probably a remnant of an earlier building and has a slate-roofed lean-to at basement level.

Interior of the commercial range: sections of margined cornicing survive on the ceiling, with insulated ceiling panels added to the interior of the margins in the 20th century. A stair off the north side provides access to first-floor domestic quarters. On the first floor, the north room retains a picture rail and window seat to the bay window, and the south room retains a picture rail and fire surround (blocked).

Interior of Bank House: the stair hall features a fine stair with panelled spandrel containing a cloakroom, right-hand newel post with volute, and an ornate balustrade composed of cast-iron scrolled balusters (probably manufactured by Cubitt's foundry) and timber spindles, with a moulded handrail and wall rail opposite. North of the stair hall, a corridor runs east to west with three-centred arches on scrolled brackets; the easternmost arch formerly provided access to the commercial range to the east but was blocked when the commercial range became a bank in the late 19th century. West of the stair hall, the sitting room retains a cast-iron ceiling rose (probably manufactured by Cubitt's foundry), plain cornice, picture rail, and panelled window shutters. West of the sitting room, the former housemaid's room formerly contained a servant's stair which appears to have risen from the basement to the first-floor bedrooms, now removed in the 20th century. At the west end of the corridor, the kitchen retains its pantry with original timber and slate shelving. Between the kitchen and former housemaid's room, a brick stair descends to a two-room basement showing evidence of earlier construction. The south basement room has a brick and pamment floor, brick-built cellar bins, and a stair in its north-east corner rising to the former housemaid's room (now blocked). The north basement room retains a pamment floor and tall fire surround on the north wall. Off the half-landing of the main stair, the first floor of the porch contains a water closet. From the first-floor landing, a corridor runs east to west off which are a shower room (previously an access route to the first floor of the commercial range, now blocked) and four bedrooms. The south-east and south-west bedrooms each have a blocked fireplace, and the principal bedroom west of the landing has a round-arched and scalloped cast-iron fireplace with pivoting trivets. The former servant's stair, formerly located between the principal bedroom and the south-west bedroom, has been replaced by an antechamber and cupboards on the south side, and a cupboard on the north side off the corridor. At the west end of the corridor, steps descend west to a bathroom, and north-west to a small bedroom which retains a plain fire surround with a cast-iron grate; this lower section probably represents part of an earlier building. A high proportion of original joinery survives throughout the domestic range including picture rails, skirting boards, door and window surrounds, and four panelled doors together with original door furniture.