National Westminster Bank

WELLS

ST5445 HIGH STREET 662-1/7/83 (South side) 13/09/72 No.7 National Westminster Bank

GV II

Bank. 1856, designed by CE Giles of Taunton. Doulting stone ashlar, hipped Welsh slate roof, ashlar chimney stacks with moulded caps. Venetian Gothic style. EXTERIOR: 3 storeys, irregular fenestration. Plinth, moulded sill strings, dentilled cornice, ground floor has on left a pointed- arched doorway with label having carved end bosses, quatrefoil fanlight over segmental-arch doorway, heavy doors with 10 panels each; to right two 4-light windows set under stilted segmental arches with stiff-leaf capital columns to jambs, subdivided toplights over transoms. First floor has 3 pairs ogee-arched windows, not regularly spaced, having Purbeck stone columns as dividing mullions, also with stiff-leaf capitals, the double-arched labels have carved leaf ball stops. Above, three to each window, are circular recessed panels with a variety of quatrefoil decorations, the second floor has 4 pairs segmental-arched windows without labels, having a plain Purbeck shaft dividing each pair. INTERIOR: not seen; remodelled to ground floor. Building constructed originally for Stuckey's, the Lamport bank, on the site of the George Inn (anciently the Crystesham Inn, first mentioned in 1388). A bold design of its type, exhibiting the Ruskinian influences of the 1850s. (Holmes T Scott: Wells and Glastonbury: London: 1908-).

Listing NGR: ST5497645721