Former National Westminster Bank

This is a former bank, built in 1921-3 by F.C.R. Palmer, with Clayton & Black as executive architects. It was extended between 1960 and 1962 in a matching style by B.C. Sherren. The building is constructed of stone and has a Mansard roof covered in slate.

The exterior presents a six-window front with a three-window return, and a single-corner range on a chamfer, creating a rectangular plan. The design evokes late 16th-century Louis style, although the proportions and details have been stylized. A flat-arched entrance leads to the banking hall, situated on the corner and featuring an architrave surmounted by an entablature with a projecting cornice, supported by console brackets. Above the entrance is a bas-relief carving of a coat of arms on an escutcheon, surmounted by a Diocletian window. The keystone of this window is carved as a female head, and the spandrels are decorated with swags of autumnal fruits. Elliptical escutcheons featuring laurel and palm fronds are located to either side of the corner range. Separate entrances to office areas are found on the party walls. The ground-floor windows are round-arched and feature historiated keystones, deep splayed reveals, and sills. The ground floor is treated as shallow banded rustication, incorporating the window jambs. A storey band is designed as an entablature but stops short of the range nearest each party wall. The window in this range is relatively plain, concentrating the design emphasis on the corner. The frieze of the decorative entablature is now partially obscured by a late 20th-century sign fascia. All first-floor windows are flat-arched, with architraves and keyed lintels. The walls between these windows are adorned with delicate ribbon ornament on shallow panels, creating the impression that the first floor is recessed behind a low pilastrade. Above the projecting cornice is a balustraded parapet, behind which is a flat-arched dormer for each window range. Each dormer has an eared architrave and cornice.

The interior was not inspected.

The building forms a group with other 20th-century commercial buildings on North Street, including numbers 153, 163, and 166-169, which comprise The Norwich Union Insurance Building.