45 Station Road Banchory

A large, symmetrical two-storey neoclassical bank building set on a corner plot in its own garden grounds on the main road east of Banchory's centre. Built around 1902-1907, probably designed by architect Robert Gordon Wilson, it is constructed in dressed Aberdeen bond sandstone with a raised rusticated base course and paired string course bands.

The south entrance elevation features a central arched doorway with corbelled entablature carved with 'BANK', flanked by three windows on each side. A late twentieth-century ramp with railings leads to the front door. The first floor has a central window flanked by tripartite windows under paired gables with timber-bracketed overhanging eaves and circles to the apexes. The side elevations have single gables with irregular window patterns. Two lower two-storey ancillary sections project from the rear north elevation.

The windows are timber sash and case with predominantly twelve-pane over plate glass glazing, changing to four-pane glazing at the rear. The roof is slated with corniced stone chimney stacks.

The interior retains much of its early twentieth-century bank decorative scheme, including etched glazed vestibule doors, arched fanlights over principal doorways, and pitch pine panelled walls to dado height. Minton geometric tile flooring with decorative edging is present, along with an open staircase with timber bannisters. The windows feature unpainted timber shutter-style panelling in the reveals, with brass window pulls and door furniture throughout.

Low sandstone boundary walls with angled copes enclose the site, with paired gateways on the south and east sides. The squared rusticated gate piers have corniced caps with ball finials; further pillars stand at the corners.

The site previously held a large villa called Broombank, shown on the first and second edition Ordnance Survey maps (1865-1903). In response to the 1907 merger of the North of Scotland Bank (founded 1836) and the Aberdeen Town and Country Bank (founded 1826) to form the North of Scotland and Town and Country Bank, this building was constructed. Though the exact build date remains uncertain—sources variously suggest around 1907 or 1902—the building was confirmed in use as the North of Scotland and Town and Country Bank by 1914 when mentioned in the Aberdeen Press and Journal. The second revision Ordnance Survey map (1923-1925) shows the current rectangular plan with two northern projections and two gateways in the south wall, a footprint unchanged to the present day. The western gateway remains unaltered; the southeastern gatepost is a remnant of an earlier eastern gateway relocated when the corner road was widened in the mid to late twentieth century. The building served as a bank from its construction until the early 2000s and is currently in office use.