Former National Westminster Bank

Former bank, now commercial and residential premises, built 1900-1902 by Sir George Oatley for the Stuckey Banking Company Ltd. The building is vacant as of October 2019 and has undergone late-20th and early-21st century alterations.

The building is constructed of Hamstone ashlar and cut and squared limestone with red pointing and Hamstone dressings, set under hipped and gabled plain tiled roofs. Ashlar chimneystacks with moulded caps are positioned to the side walls, downslope and to the ridge. Cast-iron rainwater goods are present.

On a corner site, the building was originally L-shaped, comprising a main two-storey and attic building with an adjoining single-storey block facing onto Newbury (originally book room and store in 1989) and a single-storey block on the south side facing Station Road (originally yard, boiler room and former staff room). A single-storey addition (strong room in 1989) has been built to the rear.

The building is Edwardian Baroque in style with two principal facades onto Newbury and Station Road flanking a corner entrance. Each facade has an ashlar plinth, rusticated quoins, a plat band between floors and modillion projecting moulded eaves.

The Newbury elevation has two storeys and attics with an adjoining single-storey block to the left under a gabled roof with raised coping. The facade features banded rustication to the tall ground floor. The central two bays step forward under a gabled roof with two large fixed-light ground-floor windows in keyed flat-arched openings, two six-over-six pane sashes in keyed moulded shouldered architrave with aprons beneath at the first floor, and an oculus with rusticated surround at attic level. The outer bay to the left has matching windows to ground and first floors; the bay to the right contains the main entrance and no opening above. The projecting and angled entrance features two Ionic columns with blockings supporting an entablature and a closed segmental pediment with a modillion cornice and carved decoration to the tympanum. Two steps lead to a large flat-arched doorway with richly-ornamented architrave of blocked pilasters and a two-leaf door with raised and fielded panels and rectangular light.

The Station Road return (west) has five bays arranged 3:2. The left-hand three bays break forward under a hipped roof with two ground-floor and three first-floor windows reproducing the Newbury facade details. The two bays to the right are a simpler version of the same style, lacking rustication. A blocked entrance (inset with an ATM) has a plain keyed surround and a hood with mouldings on brackets; above is a tall nine-over-nine pane sash window. To the right is a full-height canted bay with string course and sill band and a window on each floor. The attic is lit by a flat-roofed dormer timber window of three lights.

The south return has paired windows to the first floor with matching keyed surround to the openings elsewhere. Between two tall stacks is a dormer containing a replacement window in uPVC within a stone keyed surround. The rear elevation is less detailed but has ashlar quoins and timber sash windows with ashlar lintels.

The ground floor interior retains some original doors, both panelled and plain, with brass fittings and architrave, and some moulded cornices with egg and dart detailing in the former banking hall. Internal reconfiguration has been undertaken, with late-20th century partitions and joinery introduced. The upper floors have been converted to seven bedsits.

Around the outside of the building are low boundary walls of stone and brick surmounted by metal railings with splayed heads and supporting brackets. The Station Road elevation includes pedestrian and vehicular gates. The Newbury elevation includes a modern access ramp and steel handrails.

A late-20th century single-storey extension to the rear (south-west and south-east) with an external staircase leads to an early-21st century half-glazed door and toplight accessed from a metal staircase. This extension and the modern steel handrails are excluded from the listing as they are not of special architectural or historic interest.