National Westminster Bank

The National Westminster Bank in Bridgwater is a bank building dated 1904, constructed from limestone ashlar with Flemish-bond brick infill, featuring a polished granite-faced plinth and red sandstone blocks around the doorcase. The building has a rectangular plan and is designed in the Edwardian Baroque style, comprising two storeys.

The structure has two facades with four bays on the right and three on the left, flanking a concave entrance bay at the corner. A balustrade sits above a dentilled cornice and entablature that spans both facades, returning to the sides. This is supported by full-height Ionic columns in antis on pedestals, which define the bays on the west and south facades. The pilasters next to the columns are banded, and this banding continues around the first floor of the entrance bay.

The entrance bay features a 6/6-pane sash window set within a keyed moulded and shouldered architrave, positioned behind a convex stone balustraded balcony. Above this is a segmental open pediment leading to a Tuscan-style doorcase, which has blocking at the lower part of the columns and a wide 20th-century twelve-panel door.

On the first floor, each bay displays three bands of alternating stone and brick, with another 6/6-pane sash window in a keyed moulded shouldered architrave, resting on a cill string-course between the columns. Below the moulded cill-course, carved stone festoons of fruit rest on the large keystones of the ground-floor windows, which have segmental arches with shouldered moulding over large 2-light fixed windows. Decorative cast-iron railings are present on the cill, which also features 20th-century ornamental railings. The interior has not been inspected.