Provincial House And Gatepiers To North East

This building is a bank, constructed between 1927 and 1929 by F.C.R. Palmer for the National Provincial Bank. It is built of buff-coloured Flemish bond brick, with red brick and Portland stone dressings, topped with a clay tile hipped roof and moulded Portland stone eaves. The chimney stacks feature Portland stone weathering and moulded stone caps.

The layout is almost square, designed to fit the site alongside what was formerly a railway line, with the main entrance and staircase on the north front and the banking hall at the rear.

The architectural style is Neo-Georgian/Wrenaissance. The north front is symmetrical, with three bays, and quoins set back at the corners. The ground floor features windows and a large, central round-arched doorway with rusticated architraves, voussoirs, and a band at impost level. A broad stone stringcourse runs above, topped by a tall central first-floor window within a moulded stone architrave with a cornice on consoles. Flanking windows and the second-floor window are framed by red brick architraves with keystones; the second-floor window is flanked by carved stone festoons. A projecting cornice and balustrade tops the front, with urns on the corners. The attic is set back and has a hipped roof with a dormer that has a segmental pediment. The side and rear elevations are similarly designed. Rainwater heads are dated 1928.

Inside, the banking hall has a moulded plaster ceiling. A small entrance vestibule leads to a geometric stone staircase with an iron balustrade and a brass handrail.