Former Carlisle and Cumberland Bank and bank manager's house

Former Carlisle and Cumberland Bank and Bank Manager's House

A bank and bank manager's house built in 1898 to designs by Johnstone Brothers of Carlisle for the Carlisle and Cumberland Banking Company. The building is designed in Tudorbethan style and stands on the main street of Alston.

The structure is constructed of Eden Valley coursed red sandstone with buff-sandstone dressings and has Welsh slate roofs. The building comprises a linear range fronting the street with a bank building and attached bank manager's house to the south, a two-storey rear range, and a mid-20th-century rear extension.

The main east elevation is three storeys high with four bays beneath a pitched slate roof with a pair of end stacks, a ridge stack, and a corbelled eaves cornice. Three rounded cast-iron hoppers drain the roof. Windows are mostly fitted with ornate stone lintels and aprons featuring carved scrolled details.

The left end gabled bay contains a double-height canted bay window with chamfered detailing and a second-floor two-light stone mullioned window with a half-circle pediment and a gablet above featuring stone verges, kneelers and ball finials. The gablet is crowned with a large scrolled central finial and an 1898 datestone.

The second bay has paired ground-floor entrance and window. The entrance has a four-panelled door with an arched top panel with dentils, an overlight with coloured leaded lights, and original door furniture. The first floor contains a two-light stone mullioned window with coloured stained glass incorporating fruit, heads, scrolls and urns, with a single-light window above on the second floor.

The third bay features a triple-mullioned and transomed stone window with triangular pediment and upper leaded lights, with lower panes now replaced in modern materials. First and second floor windows mirror those of the second bay.

The right end bay is distinguished by an ornate apsidal porch reached by a pair of stone steps, adorned with plain and fluted scrolled Corinthian pilasters and egg and dart cornicing to a parapet supporting a flat roof and stone balustrade. The curvilinear six-panel double door at its centre retains original fittings and carries a dentilled cornice and a coloured stained-glass overlight inscribed with the words 'Carlisle and Cumberland Bank'. Matching side lights either side incorporate coloured glass with fruit, flowers, scrolls and leaves. A two-light stone mullioned window with rusticated jambs and scroll work sits on the first floor, whilst the second floor contains a two-light mullioned window within a half-dormer window with coped verges, kneelers and a scrolled parapet head featuring a miniature pediment and the initials 'CCB'. To the right of the vestibule is a tall passage entrance with stone door case and panelled door; a reproduction of a 1729 datestone from an earlier building on the site is mounted above, bearing the initials I D F, with a stone plaque below reading 'REBUILT A 1898 D'.

The partially visible right return displays a substantial external chimneystack. The rear elevation is roughcast with scattered fenestration; window frames are mostly modern uPVC replacements set within plain stone surrounds. A canted north-west corner features a first-floor window with a corbelled out moulded head. A two-storey rear range with flat roof and similarly detailed windows is attached, followed by a mid-20th-century single-storey flat-roofed extension with metal fire escape.

Interior

The bank's main entrance opens into an apsidal vestibule with ornate moulded stone ceiling featuring dentils and a central timber ceiling panel; stone dentils frame window and door heads. An original panelled and glazed door leads into the former banking hall, recently restored. This space retains dentillated timber panelling to dado level, a complete geometric plaster ceiling and dentil cornice. A rectangular area of black and white geometric ceramic tiles with a Greek Key border is partially fitted with modern kitchen units. A chimney breast to the opposing wall lacks a fireplace but displays a decorative ventilation grill.

Rear of the banking hall opens the former bank manager's office, accessed through an original five-panel door with curved upper panel and dentilled cornice matching the overall scheme. This room contains a simple stone fireplace with tooled stone lintel. Two further small rooms include a former strong room and a shower room.

The separate entrance to the former bank manager's house opens into a vestibule with coloured geometric encaustic tiled floor and timber panelled ceiling with dentil cornice. An inner panelled timber screen with ornate glazed and leaded upper panels opens into the stairhall, fitted with an encaustic geometric tiled floor, plaster ceiling and cornice. A substantial mahogany closed string staircase with turned balusters, ornate newel posts, ornate drops and handrail rises through rectangular landings to the first and second floors; the staircase is panelled beneath. A door at its foot opens to a rear office. The second floor is partially lit by an atrium and contains four-panel doors within original moulded architraves. The main east-facing room has a late-19th-century chimney piece fitted with a register grate; two further rooms retain late-19th-century single-piece cast iron surrounds, indicating bedroom use. First-floor rooms are understood to retain original chimney pieces and plasterwork.

A low boundary wall of red sandstone with buff saddleback coping stones stands to the front; railings have been removed.