1 Grenville Street

1 Grenville Street

This building society headquarters began as a late 19th-century structure but was substantially rebuilt following a fire in 1934. The architects Orphoot, Whiting and Lindsay redesigned it for the Western Counties Building Society, with construction carried out by Messrs Beer and Son. The building underwent further alteration and adaptation in the later 20th century. Contemporary local press coverage documented the 1934 rebuilding in detail, recording its form, plan and materials.

The exterior is rendered with dressings of grey Hopton Wood stone, a Derbyshire limestone marble. All window openings retain their original metal frames. The building occupies a corner site with its entrance to the east facing Grenville Street, and the south return wall running along Market Place, with the corner being angled.

The distinctive Art Deco design takes full advantage of the corner site, creating a three-sided exterior intended to be viewed as a single composition whilst emphasising the entrance elevation. The original parapet featured stepped sections to east and south masking the roof gables, but this has since been reduced to a pair of simple triangles with a concrete coping. Towards the top of the building, the wall steps back slightly in a line following the original parapet. Immediately below this, at the centre of both east and south elevations, are original lanterns shaped like miniature oriel windows; the southern lantern has lost its bracket. Three original rainwater-heads and downpipes survive, positioned at each end of the building and to the left of the angled elevation.

All ground-floor openings have plain flush stone surrounds; the upper portions of those to east and south have been painted over to obscure the original inscription reading "WESTERN COUNTIES / BUILDING SOCIETY". The entrance features a complex stepped stone surround in several planes enriched with convex mouldings, topped by a replacement ornate lantern. The door is unpainted timber with a single panel and stepped detail to the top. The entrance is flanked by tall windows rising above doorway level, with a concave section behind the lantern. Each window has a single sheet of glass below with a jazzy Art Deco multi-pane section above featuring reversed triangles. Above these are three windows of simpler design with casement sections below and geometrical glazing above; this design is repeated in all first-floor windows. Above these sits a fluted horizontal panel into which the lantern is set. A single tall ground-floor window on the angled south-east elevation matches those on the east elevation, with a single window above. To the south are three ground-floor windows reducing in height to accommodate the slope of Market Place; their lower portions are blocked with simple multi-pane panels above. Two first-floor windows occupy this elevation; the original western frame survives behind hardboard covering.

The interior begins with a small lobby from which double doors with geometrically-patterned glazing lead to the public office or banking hall, occupying most of the ground-floor space. The floor is covered with Granwood composition wood block parquet with an irregular line of darker blocks indicating the original counter position on the left-hand side. The hall is lined with simple flush panelling of Australian Silky Oak, with darker moulding defining the top of the panelling and door frames and creating panels on doors. The ceiling is coved. The stair rises with two quarter turns within the northern section of the hall, panelled with Gurjan timber and darker wood for the conical finials to newel posts and hand rails. The balustrade is pierced by decorative wrought iron panels. Beside the stair is a high moulded frame formerly for a clock, now replaced. A small office originally for the cashier opens from the hall; a later entrance to this room cuts through from the lobby. The cashier's office is panelled in the same style as the public office. At the east end of the hall, a door leads to a passage with the former strong room in the south-east corner set into the rising ground, a lavatory cubicle and a heating chamber. The strong room's metal sliding grille has been partially boxed in.

The first floor contains a pair of doors similar to those on the ground floor announcing the Board Room to the east and Secretary's office to the south in gold lettering. The board room retains its complete original decoration, lined with French walnut curved to create an oval form with a high barrel ceiling crossing the centre. The quartered veneer, waxed but unstained, is arranged to create pale vertical stripes, with pronounced dado and skirting. Set within the arches created by the ceiling curve, between paired doors to the west and windows to the east, are the original urn-shaped lights with leather shades, raised on engaged inverted pedestals dying into the panels. A paler moulded cornice steps towards these central lights. The windows are protected by Venetian blinds with metal slats, thought to be original. The board room connects with the secretary's office, a smaller room decorated with the same panelling and featuring a small integral fireplace with curved shelf and tiled insert. A lavatory cubicle with original sanitary ware opens from the south end of this office. The roof space is accessed by a retractable ladder; the roof timbers appear to date mainly from the 1930s rather than the 19th century, though they have received some adaptation.

Original materials and fittings supplied by specialist makers include decorative ironwork by Messrs W A Baker and Co of Newport, flooring by the Granwood Flooring Company of Derbyshire, board room furnishings by Shapland and Petter of Barnstaple, special electric light fittings by Waring and Gillow, and blinds by Messrs Trapnells or Messrs G Boyle of Bideford. All the building's original doors retain their handles.