Royal Bank Of Scotland Royal Bank Of Scotland, Drummond'S Bank

The Royal Bank of Scotland, also known as Drummond's Bank, is a bank building constructed around 1885 by architect George Aitchison. It is designed in a late Italianate, neo-Palladian style and is made of Portland stone with a slate roof. The building is situated on a corner block with a quadrant return to the forecourt of Admiralty Arch. It stands three storeys high, featuring a raised ground floor and an attic storey.

The symmetrical front facing Whitehall has seven windows and includes a shallow three-bay pedimented centre break. The slightly recessed quadrant corner consists of five bays that lead to a porch in front of a recessed three-bay section. The porch is designed in antis, featuring polished granite pilasters, an entablature, and a balustraded parapet. The ground floor has a deep plinth and an order of channelled, pedestalled piers, with recessed square-headed sash windows beneath the entablature.

The upper floors are adorned with architraved sash windows, with those on the first floor featuring cornices and pediments in the centre break, which is flanked by a giant order of fluted Ionic pilasters. The attic storey contains a pediment with a wreathed oculus and is channelled, articulated by squat fluted pilasters, topped with a crowning cornice and a balustraded parapet. This building forms part of the formal approach to Admiralty Arch, although Drummond refused to have his bank remodelled to align with Reginald Blomfield's design for the Victoria Memorial-Mall scheme.