Lloyds Bank, 1-7 Queen Street

A two-storey bank originally built for Hammond & Company Canterbury bank 1895-1896 to designs by Stenning & Jennings of Canterbury and extended in 1929 for Lloyds Bank, probably by TN Wilson.

MATERIALS: external walls of Whitbed Portland ashlar and Hopton Wood stone, with iron glazing bars to the ground-floor windows. Inside, concrete floors are supported on iron girders.

PLAN: the principal volume is rectangular on plan, with a canted corner between the two street elevations on Queen Street and High Street. A rear range extends northwards on the west side of the building. The original part of the building comprises the central five bays to Queen Street; in 1929 the building was extended with an additional two bays to each end, plus the canted corner and three-bay return elevation to High Street.

EXTERIOR: the building presents a neo-classical palazzo frontage to Queen Street: two storeys on a plinth and eight bays wide, with a ninth bay forming a canted corner wrapping around to the three-bay return elevation on High Street. The canted corner now forms the main entrance, with double-panelled doors of timber and iron tracery to the semi-circular fanlight. A single door of similar design is situated at the west end of the Queen Street elevation. The central three bays of this elevation project forward, with an open pediment on curved brackets framing the original entrance, which has the same details as the other entrance. Above this is a classical pediment carried on Corinthian half-columns. The ground floor is rusticated with round-headed arched windows and with a lintel band above. These ground-floor windows have iron glazing bars. The first floor has square-headed sash windows enriched with acanthus tympana above another, smaller lintel band. The first floor is topped by a moulded acanthus frieze, a modillion eaves cornice and a parapet. The arms of the City of Canterbury and of Ramsgate are incorporated into each of the pediments facing Queen Street.