31 And 33, Corn Street

BRISTOL

ST5872NE CORN STREET, Centre 901-1/16/559 (North West side) 01/11/66 Nos.31 AND 33 (Formerly Listed as: CORN STREET (North side) Nos.31 AND 33 National Provincial Bank)

GV II

Bank, now cafe and offices. 1930. By FCR Palmer, interior 1864, by WB Gingell. Portland ashlar and red brick with Portland dressings, roof not visible. Central banking hall with antechamber and rear offices. Neo-Palladian style. 3 storey; 5-window range. A symmetrical front has pedimented 3-window section set forward with rusticated ashlar ground floor to a full-width band, tetrastyle attached Corinthian columns above to an entablature and modillion pediment, containing a large cartouche and festoon, and City arms; brick parapet. Semicircular-arched ground-floor openings with banded reveals, central doorway with well-carved key, 6-panel double doors and fanlight; small flat-headed right-hand doorway and left-hand window set in rusticated surrounds, brick above the lintel. The windows to the upper floors between the columns have architraves, with console cornices and a central segmental pediment to 6/6-pane sashes on the first floor, and ears to each corner to 3/6-pane second-floor sashes. Thin outer windows have 6/6-pane first-floor and 2/4-pane second-floor sashes. INTERIOR: marble floor to the entrance lobby, with paired Ionic pilasters with festooned capitals to semicircular arches; over the doorway is a panel with festoon, branches and a clock. Left-hand hall in 2 sections with pilasters and pilastered piers to moulded beams. The large central banking hall has paired pilasters dividing it into 3 by 2 bays, to a frieze and dentil cornice; the S end has semicircular-arched doorways flanking a flat arch, and the N end a central semicircular arch. Heavily decorated roof has paired, gilded beams to a coved ceiling, panelled spandrels, and corners with rocaille and pairs of putti holding the Queen's head; over the S bay a similar pair hold the City arms. Central glazed dome and 4 lunettes. (Gomme A, Jenner M and Little B: Bristol, An Architectural History: Bristol: 1979-: 352, 417).

Listing NGR: ST5873772986