Former Barclay'S Bank

The Former Barclay's Bank, located at 239 Lewisham Way, was designed in 1885 and built around 1886 by J and J S Edmeston for the London and South West Bank Ltd. This former bank, now converted into flats, is constructed in red brick and buff terracotta in a baronial style. It is a rectangular corner building with two narrow bays on the front and three and a half bays on the side, standing three storeys tall with an attic.

The ground floor is entirely clad in buff terracotta with a projecting base, sloping down towards Friendly Street. Pilaster strips rise to the first floor, creating an arcade with voussoirs set into a plain band reminiscent of a Gibbs surround. A broad sill band under the second floor supports bartizans. The building features a heavily modelled modillion cornice below the parapet, with a gable and dormers. The single gable facing Lewisham Way has a pair of dormers on Friendly Street, all adorned with inverted volutes and intricate ornamentation in the Serlian style. There is a smaller dormer behind the parapet with a hipped slate roof and iron cresting. The gables and dormers are topped with terracotta copings, while the bartizans are finished with terracotta spirelets.

All windows are casements with mullions and transoms, framed in terracotta architrave surrounds with banded decoration. A projecting terracotta porch features an ornamented pediment and a frieze inscribed with the word 'BANK', supported by extended openwork consoles. The second floor has 'BANK BUILDINGS' inscribed in a cut-brick cartouche. There are area railings along Friendly Street. The interior has not been inspected.