16-18 South Parade and rear boundary wall

Former bank, now café bar and offices, built probably in the late 1860s for the Stuckey Banking Company Ltd. The building was altered and extended to the rear in 1929, with further alterations carried out in the late 20th century.

The building is constructed of Bath stone under hipped slate roofs with two ridge chimneystacks and further stacks to the west and north ends. The rear additions match these materials but have asphalt-covered flat roofs. The building originally had a T-shaped plan but now has a rectangular footprint.

Situated in a prominent corner location at the junction of South Parade and West Street, the building is designed in Italianate style, described as a convincing Florentine palazzo. It comprises a principal three-storey L-shaped building with single- and two-storey blocks to the rear.

The South Parade elevations feature a chamfered plinth, ground-floor dentil impost band, modillion course, moulded cill and impost bands to the first floor, second-floor dentil cill band and moulded impost band, and a heavy projecting bracketed eaves cornice. The three-bay entrance front is symmetrical. The ground floor has a central tripartite window recessed in an arcade of round-headed arches with half columns and composite capitals; coats of arms are carved to the spandrels and panelled aprons beneath. The hoodmould is embellished. In the outer bays on either side are recessed entrances of paired timber panelled doors within round-arched surrounds with composite capitals to the impost band and round-arched hoodmoulds with fleur-de-lys carvings and label-stops. The left-hand doorway has an overlight of plain glass with dentil moulding; above the right-hand doorway is a tripartite keystone, and within the arch is a cartouche enriched with a festoon of fruit and flora.

To the first floor are round-headed sash windows with marginal lights: paired windows to the outer bays and three windows to the wide central bay. All have enriched surrounds of pilasters with fields of carved floral motifs, composite capitals from which spring round-arched heads with raised decoration, and rosettes to the spandrels of the three centre windows. The shorter second floor has a similar pattern of windows, though they are square-headed, with regularly-spaced fielded pilasters between the cill and impost bands, most of which form the window jambs.

The east elevation of the principal three-storey building is similarly styled, with three sash windows to each floor (those to the ground and first floors having marginal lights). This elevation continues as a slightly set-back single-storey section added in 1929, higher at its right-hand end and surmounted by parapets with stone balustrading. There is a round-arched window with embellished surround to the far right. The canted corner and rear elevation of the single-storey part has sash windows with marginal lights in plain surrounds with keystones, a late-20th-century inserted doorway with a modern canopy accessed from steps, narrow paired casement windows, a second entrance with a modern door in a tall round-arched surround with a circular toplight, and four further narrow casements beyond. The rear of the three-storey building is plainer, with cill and impost bands to the upper floors and fielded pilasters at second-floor level. Most of its windows have been replaced with uPVC except for a first-floor and second-floor sash.

The main north entrance leads through a timber and glazed lobby to the former banking hall. The ground floor was originally occupied by an L-shaped banking hall with a waiting room, manager's office and lavatories to the rear, and strong rooms behind and to the right of the banking hall. The space has been opened up and bar counters added along two sides. The room has compartmental ceilings with dentil and modillion detailing supported by columns with composite capitals. The internal face of the surround of the south-facing tripartite window is decorated with a series of paterae and dentil moulding within a bolection-moulded frame. The rear part of the banking hall, added in 1929, was originally lit by a roof lantern no longer extant, but the archway that previously led through to a former waiting room adjacent to the manager's office survives, featuring a lugged architrave and a tripartite keystone. The upper floors, accessed from the second entrance to the front of the building, were not inspected in 2017.

To the front of the building is a short flight of steps and an access ramp bounded by a low stone wall with a stainless steel balustrade, added in the early 21st century. At the rear is a boundary wall of Bath stone on a chamfered plinth of dressed local stone. Within the wall is a pedestrian gateway leading to a small courtyard containing an external metal staircase.