Salisbury House

Salisbury House is a large office, bank, and retail building constructed in 1901. Designed by Davis and Emmanuel, it is built of stone and features mansard roofs covered in slate. The building is four stories high with an attic and two floors of dormers above a basement. It presents a nine-window range, with projecting pavilions that vary in width from seven to thirteen windows, the ranges nine to eleven forming a prominent central section with a double attic storey.

The architecture is characterized by flat arched windows, with a central round-arched entrance flanked by double columns on high socles, the spandrels depicting female allegorical figures representing victory and plenty. These columns are paired and attached, and the ground floor exhibits banded rustication, with recessed windows flanked by attached columns. The window spandrels are molded as Meanders. Additional entrances are located in the fourth and sixteenth window ranges. The central range features tripartite windows, and a giant distyle in antis on the first and second floors, topped by an entablature. Aedicule surrounds the centre window on the first attic storey, and a Diocletian window is set in the second attic storey. Columns and antae are extended above the piers as stacks with blind arcades. The window ranges seven and eight, and twelve and thirteen, which flank the central range, are articulated into bays by large pilasters of the Ionic order, with pilaster piers extending to the attic above. First and second floors of the end bays are recessed and framed by Ionic pilasters, topped by a pediment; pedimented dormers above are flanked by finials. The end bay recesses contain round windows within the tympana. Dormers are incorporated into aedicules and segmental pediments. Railings enclose the area, and tall stacks are positioned to the rights of the first-, fourth-, and seventh-window ranges. A short return of four windows to the west displays a round-arched entrance in the second window range, with a variation of the main elevation’s detailing. The Circus Place elevation steps downwards to align with the London Wall, presenting a six-window range with an entrance in the fourth range, surmounted by a Diocletian window in a Dutch gable, and another entrance to the right, featuring a carved lion lintel. A bank is situated in the left corner. The curved corner range is set into a rebate, above which a full-height rectangular bay is ornamented with Jacobean motifs, featuring elaborate acanthus brackets and a cartouche bearing the initials UBL. The London Wall elevation, a twenty-one-window range, has shop fronts positioned between polished red granite pilasters. An entrance, flanked by lion's head brackets, is found in the eleventh-window range. First-floor windows often include transoms, with many topped by segmental pediments, or treated as two-story shallow rectangular bays containing a Diocletian window above. These bays are set between a giant tetrastyle pilastrade, crowned by a Dutch gabled dormer. All other dormers have hipped slate roofs. Windows of the attic storey are set within aedicules. A second attic storey was added in the late 20th century and is not considered historically significant.