3-5 King Street

3-5 King Street was constructed in 1838-1839 as a bank and extended westward in 1893. In the 2010s the building was converted from a bank into a restaurant.

MATERIALS: the principal south elevation is of ashlar Bath Stone and the rear elevation is rendered. The principal, south range is roofed in natural slate.

PLAN: the building is arranged in two principal volumes, comprising the five-bay body to the east and the three-bay extension to the west, both of three storeys. To the rear is a later, two-storey extension.

EXTERIOR: the principal, south-facing façade is of an ornate Italian palazzo style. The building has separate hipped roofs over the original, five-bay element and later, three-bay element to the west, with two large, ornate chimney stacks. The moulded eaves of the roof are evenly interspersed with sculpted lion heads, supported by neoclassical brackets. The brackets on the western extension are more foliate in decoration than those of the building’s eastern body, but the lion heads do not match the rhythm of the brackets as they do on the principal eastern side.

The south (King Street) elevation is arranged across eight bays, five in the main body of the building and three in the western extension. A masonry cornice runs below the first-storey piano nobile fenestration, and a decorative string course runs between these windows and the fenestration of the second storey. Second-storey windows are bounded by eared architraves. To the first storey, the windows are flanked by Corinthian pilasters that frame iron balconies and support a triangular dentilled pediment. All corners at the first and second-storey level are adorned with chamfered quoins. The elevation contains two-pane timber sashes throughout.

The façade at ground-floor level is composed of deeply channelled banded rustication. This is evenly dispersed by plate glass sash windows, excluding the third bay of the western extension which instead houses the main doorway of the building. This portal is richly adorned with neoclassical decoration, including the flanking marble Corinthian columns that support an elaborate entablature, and a scrolled broken pediment that bears the ‘J and CS and Co’ monogram. The timber door is panelled, carved with neoclassical relief, and surmounted by a wrought-iron fanlight. The C20, rear (north) extension was not inspected. It is of three to four storeys with a flat roof.