Former National Westminster Bank, 36 Corn Street

This list entry was subject to a Minor Amendment on 9 March 2023 to update the name, amend description due to change in building use, remove superfluous source details from text and to reformat the text to current standards.

ST5872NE 901-1/16/563

BRISTOL CORN STREET (south east side) No.36 Former National Westminster Bank

(Formerly listed as No.36 National Westminster Bank, previously listed as: CORN STREET, Centre, (South side) No.36 (Old Bank) National Westminster Bank)

03/09/71

GV II Former assurance offices, later a bank. 1865-67. Rebuilt behind the facade 1977. By WB Gingell. Sculpture by T Colley. Limestone ashlar with Pennant dressings, roof not visible. Open banking hall with double-depth plan offices. Baroque Revival style.

Three storeys and attic; five window range. An elaborate symmetrical front is articulated by paired giant order of columns on pedestals, Composite on ground floor and Corinthian across the upper two floors, single to the sides, to a dentil ground floor and modillion second floor entablature and cornice which breaks forward, and attic storey with a pedimented centre. The ground floor has a banded Pennant plinth with a raised band, banded ground floor with alternate vermiculated courses, and vermiculated voussoirs to semicircular-arched openings. Outer doorways have carved head keys, C20 doors to the left and double eight-panel doors to the right; raised windows have coved surrounds and well-carved keys with heads, and C20 glazing bars. Two marble oval panels beneath the windows are inscribed OLD BANK.

First and second floors are banded behind the columns; first floor windows have moulded lintels and egg-and-dart imposts, a plain band separates semicircular-arched second floor windows with egg-and-dart drip and heavy scrolled keys. The attic has paired caryatids, symbolising the Seasons and Elements, beneath the entablature, octagonal urns to the ends, a small segmental pediment within the main pediment, half segmental pediments each side, with egg-and-dart mouldings. The extreme ends of the building curve forward to the building line. Horned sashes.

INTERIOR: rebuilt 1977. The marble panels come from Bristol's first bank, with which the current bank merged. Formerly even more decorated, with carving symbolic of the need for insurance.

Listing NGR: ST5878472967