Barclays Bank

Barclays Bank is a building located in Bicester Market Square, dating from the early to mid-19th century, with some earlier elements and 20th-century alterations. The exterior features painted ashlar, rendered walls with stucco dressings, and coursed limestone rubble, topped with Welsh-slate and old plain-tile roofs.

The main structure consists of two sections, with significant extensions at the rear. It is two to three storeys high, with three taller ashlar bays on the right side of the front. These bays have storeybands, a moulded cornice, and 12- and 6-pane sash windows on the first and second floors. The ground floor is rusticated and features an arcade of two blind round-headed recesses flanking a wide segmental archway. This archway contains an elaborately-framed depressed-arched sash window, flanked by panels and a vertical-sliding external shutter.

The carved keyblocks, along with the rustication, band, and cornice, are echoed in stucco on the two-storey, three-window range to the left, which is a later addition and includes plain 16-pane sash windows and the main entrance. The shallow-pitched hipped roofs are covered with slates and are concealed by plain parapets. At the rear of the taller section, there is an earlier rubble building with a steep-pitched tiled roof, which is two storeys plus an attic and retains casement windows, rising above later single-storey extensions. The interior has not been inspected.