Lloyds Bank

Lloyds Bank, Nos. 53 and 55 Corn Street, Bristol

Bank built 1854-58, designed by W.B. Gingell and T.R. Lysaght, with early 20th-century extension. Constructed in Bath and Portland ashlar in the Italian Palazzo style.

The building is two storeys with a six-window range. The front elevation is regular and richly decorated with relief carving to spandrels and friezes. A Portland ashlar entrance bay was added on the left-hand side in the early 20th century. The plinth is banded and vermiculated, with a deep ground-floor sill band. Attached ground-floor Tuscan columns support an entablature with frieze and modillion cornice. First-floor plinths carry attached Ionic columns, paired over the entrance, supporting a larger entablature and blocking course.

A large left-hand doorway is set back between pilaster jambs, with a plate-glass overlight in a semicircular arch with acanthus architrave and carved head key. The numerals 53 and 55 are inscribed in round spandrel panels with large acanthus consoles on each side of the entablature, which breaks forward; urns on pedestals stand above.

Semicircular-arched ground-floor windows feature blocked Ionic columns with pulvinated frieze and cornice topped by a bay-leaf archivolt. These are set back from pilaster jambs within an outer arch with a key of bearded biblical heads. Reclining allegorical figures fill the spandrels, above which is a frieze of garlands, cartouches and horses.

First-floor Venetian windows have swagged Ionic capitals and pulvinated friezes, with cast-iron railings on the cills featuring curved rails and finials. Reclining female figures occupy the spandrels, with carved keys of ships' prows and volutes. A Portland frieze above depicts children with symbols of trade and industry and cartouches. The top cornice incorporates fish heads, and the blocking course displays large square urns at the ends and doorway. Windows are of plate glass.

The interior contains a lobby with a hemispherical roof supported by Corinthian columns on a curved entablature. A semicircular arch with a coffered soffit sits above steps, with a flight of stairs to the left featuring square balusters. The banking hall is articulated in a grid of six by five bays by paired Composite columns supporting an entablature set forward. Semicircular arches around the sides feature a modillion cornice. Coved ceiling beams with guilloche ornament support a glazed ceiling. Architraves run between the columns, with porches at each end on the west side featuring pilasters and entablature. Front offices have coffered ceilings. The former entrance leads to a circular domed hall with paired attached columns supporting an arch. Three doorways have carved consoles with festoon and lion heads beneath bay-leaf friezes with dentil cornice all round.

The design is modelled on Sansovino's St Mark's Library in Venice. Gingell was a noted designer of banks and this is regarded as one of the finest compositions of its type in the country. Thomas Lysaght did little of the carving, as he was then working on the Houses of Parliament. The building was cleaned and restored in 1974. It occupies the site of the Bush Tavern, famously visited by Mr. Pickwick.