Lloyds Bank

CREDITON

SS826000 HIGH STREET 672-1/5/65 (South side) Nos.30 & 31 Lloyds Bank

GV II

Bank and office. Probably late 1860s. Flemish bond brick, left end rendered with stone dressings; slate roof; axial stack with corbelled brick shaft and multiple pots. High Victorian eclectic, a mixture of Italianate and Egyptian. Plan: Double depth plan with the banking hall to the left front. Exterior: 3 storeys. 5:3-bay front.Front treated as 2 compositions, divided by a wider bay with a cast iron down-pipe, but in a matching style, the bank slightly more elaborate.Roof with deep eaves on acanthus carved brackets. Moulded strings at first and second floor sill level; all windows and doors in architraves with rounded upper corners; blind slits in the brickwork between each bay. Bank symmetrical above the ground floor. Banking hall has a central door with a grandiose porch with pilasters with acanthus-carved capitals, panelled stone band over lintel extends to left and right and rises over door and window openings where it is decorated with carved rosettes. Moulded keyblock over lintel; curved, corbelled stone porch hood with moulded cornice forms first floor balcony with iron balustrade. Large window to banking hall to the right, glazed with a C20 timber 3-light transomed casement. One-light window to the left, similarly glazed. Doorway to extreme left with steps up to a pnelled door with a deep overlight. 5 first floor original 2-pane sashes linked under a cornice on pairs of richly-moulded consoles. Segmental pediment over the centre window, the consoles carved with bearded heads. Stone band, decorated with carved rosettes, extends across the front below the cornice and rises above the windows which have shield-shaped keystones. First floor windows consistent across the whole 8-bay front: 2-pane sashes with a stone band similar to the other storeys, carved with rosettes above the windows, and round-headed sunk panels between them. The 3-bay office to the right has a similar, but somewhat plainer front. Central recessed doorway with steps up to an original panelled 2-leaf door with a deep overlight. 2-pane sashes to left and right. 3 first floor 2-pane sashes under a cornice, but here without a pediment. Second floor windows described above. Interior: Not inspected but may retain features of interest. This large, heavily-decorated, high Victorian building is an important foil to the plainer C18 houses in the High Street.

Listing NGR: SS8308300308