Hsbc Bank (Including Harbour View Cafe)

Bank and commercial development built in 1891–1892 by Walter Brierley of the practice Demaine and Brierley, designed for the York City and County Bank. The building occupies an irregular plot on Baxtergate in Whitby, with principal frontages to both Baxtergate and New Quay Road.

The Baxtergate elevation is two storeys with an attic. The ground floor is constructed in stone ashlar with a plain frieze and cornice, whilst the upper storeys are red brick with extensive stone dressings. The elevation features three shaped gables with first floor windows beneath each, the windows having eared architraves with the central window's architrave extending into the frieze and supporting a cornice without consol brackets. Four plain ashlar bands link these windows. Each gable contains an attic window with eared architrave topped by a cornice and no frieze, with shaped sills forming a continuous band. Decorative iron tie bar ends embellish each gable. The original shopfronts are of twentieth-century date. Set back at the north-east end, the bank entrance is sheltered by a portico with a curved front supported by a pair of pillars and pilasters with carved capitals featuring individual heads. The portico is crowned by a balustrade bearing a cartouche inscribed "Established 1830" in relief.

The New Quay Road elevation is constructed in stone ashlar with a three-bay gable flanked by lower cross wings, single storey to the right and two storey to the left, unified by a tall plinth. The gable contains three large, tall ground floor windows that are cross-mullioned with nine lights; the lights are leaded, with many modern replacements featuring surface-applied leading. The windows are slightly recessed within basket-arch recesses and separated by engaged columns raised on tall pedestals. These columns support an entablature surmounted by four heraldic lions clasping shields. High in the gable sits a two-light attic window set in an eared architrave, above which is a tall frieze with swag ornament topped by an open segmental pediment with central pinnacle. Decorative iron tie bar ends embellish the gable. The side wings are more simply detailed but retain fine features including a dentilated course at the base of their moulded eaves cornices. The rear section fronting Baxtergate is set back, rendered in red brick without stone dressings, and more utilitarian in design, though retaining windows subdivided with fine glazing bars.

The north elevation is now more prominent than originally intended, following realignment of the road and clearance of buildings between the bank and the swing bridge. The right bay features the entrance portico. To the left stands an almost blind gable end with prominent brick stack, continuing the Baxtergate detailing with ashlar ground floor and stone-banded brickwork above. Set back further left is the prominent roof of the banking hall, which features a small louvered dormer at its centre. Extending forward from the banking hall is the stone ashlar gable of the single-storey side wing, which also has a prominent chimney stack. A single-storey two-bay range in stone with tall parapet, possibly a later infill but sympathetic in design, links the two gables.

The interior banking hall features a basket-arched vaulted ceiling enriched with ornate plaster mouldings including cherubs, fleur-de-lis and other decoration, all set above a projecting dentilated cornice. The walls are oak-panelled to a cornice set just above door lintel height. The banking counter is also oak-panelled with more ornate treatment than the walls, supported by a series of individually carved brackets each featuring a different motif. Evidence of past rearrangement exists, with careful modifications to the joinery. The lobby between the banking hall and entrance is oak-panelled, showing signs of modification including a large opening into a former neighbouring shop to create additional customer service areas. The double doors at either end of the lobby are considered original, retaining ornamented handles and semicircular fanlights above with curving timber glazing bars. A good-quality staircase is reported to exist within the secure part of the bank, though not inspected. Office areas were similarly not inspected.

The building was originally designed with three shops to the west of the bank, fronting onto Baxtergate. The bank expanded into the two adjoining shops before 1974, with the shopfronts replaced in stonework in 1977. At the time of inspection the third shop remained separate as Mills Café. Sometime in the late 1960s or early 1970s, the junction between Baxtergate and New Quay Road was reorganised, with clearance of a block of buildings between the bank and the swing bridge to the north, exposing the northern elevation and making it far more prominent than originally intended.

The building is constructed of stone ashlar and red brick with stone dressings, beneath a red tile roof. The York City and County Bank was a regional banking company with branches extending from Doncaster to Sunderland. It was taken over by Midland Bank in 1918, which was later subsumed into HSBC in the later twentieth century. Walter Brierley was a notable late nineteenth to early twentieth-century architect to whom over sixty listed buildings are attributed, including at least five banks.