Bank Of Scotland, The Mound, Edinburgh

Bank of Scotland, The Mound, Edinburgh

A substantial T-plan bank building designed by Richard Crichton and Robert Reid between 1801 and 1806, originally in Palladian style. The building was significantly remodelled and enlarged by David Bryce in 1863 in Roman Baroque style, with further alterations by Peddie and Kinnear in 1878. The site drops steeply to the north. The structure comprises two storeys, basement and attic, with a double-height telling hall at the centre (now horizontally divided). A ribbed copper dome on an octagonal drum with oval windows crowns the composition, surmounted by an octagonal lantern featuring scrolls added by Peddie and Kinnear in 1883, topped with a gilded statue of Victory. Open-arched square-plan towers flank the wings, each featuring clustered Corinthian columns and segmental pediments, with fish-scale slated ribbed domes surmounted by statues said to represent Prosperity and Plenty.

The exterior is rendered in cream ashlar with a vermiculated basement and vermiculated bands to the ground floor. Deep cornices to the basement and ground floors (dentilled to the ground floor), a modillioned eaves cornice and balustraded parapet adorned with sculpture groups characterise the elevations.

The south elevation facing Bank Street features a deep dentilled cornice at ground floor level. Shouldered architraves with carved masks to triple keystones, aprons and decorative consoles ornament the ground floor windows. The centre projects at ground floor with a balustraded parapet (altered by David M Walker in the 1980s), displaying vermiculated bands to Ionic columns in antis forming the portico. The entrance comprises a two-leaf glazed timber door set within a round-arched opening, decorated with wrought-iron gates and grille bearing the Bank arms and motto TANTO UBERIOR, executed by John Marshall. The first floor is defined by Corinthian pilasters, with a round-arched tripartite window set back behind Corinthian columns in antis at the centre. Above this sits a carved coat of arms and sculpture group representing Justice and Plenty, holding scales and cornucopia. Consoled cornices mark the windows in the inner flanking bays, while pediments adorn the outer bays. The advanced wings display paired Corinthian columns at first floor flanking windows with consoled pediments; swagged oculi within segmental-pedimented aedicules contain the Bank arms, rising from broken pediments.

The north elevation features architraves with prominent rough-cut keystones to basement windows. An advanced five-bay block at the centre connects to single-bay wings through quadrant bays. A projecting three-bay section at the centre rises to include a raised attic, displaying clustered giant Corinthian pilasters and half columns supporting an entablature and broken segmental pediment. Balustered aprons ornament the ground floor windows, with round-arched examples at first floor. Paired caryatids flank a consoled, pedimented window within a shell niche at attic level, surmounted by a broken segmental pediment enclosing a sculpture group. Bowed glass tripartite windows with Corinthian pilasters occupy the ground and first floors of the bowed bays.

The interior includes a vestibule with decorative brass handrail opening via two-leaf glazed doors with decorative fanlight into a Corinthian pilastered double-height transverse stair-hall with a consoled cornice. A black marble chimneypiece with fluted Doric columns stands to the west. A cantilevered stair to the right leads to a landing featuring a Memel pine timber balustrade. A pedimented three-light Corinthian doorpiece leads to a first floor gallery retaining part of the ornate compartmented coved plaster ceiling from Bryce's original banking hall. A modern two-leaf glazed door within a round-arched door piece, flanked by Corinthian pilasters and topped with sopra-porte clocks and cornucopias, provides access from the stair hall to the banking hall. This hall features marbled Corinthian columns on pedestals supporting a coffered ceiling.

Windows throughout are fitted with plate glass in four-pane and twelve-pane timber sash-and-case glazing, supplemented by fixed eight-pane windows. Corniced ashlar chimney stacks feature Ionic pilasters, round-arched niches and circular cans.

Associated structures include a pilastered retaining wall (by Peddie and Kinnear, 1878) to the north, featuring Doric pilasters with vermiculated bands on a rock-cut plinth, supporting a balustraded terrace with square-plan open-arched pavilions at either end. Corniced ashlar gatepiers and decorative cast-iron two-leaf gates provide access, with decorative spiked cast-iron railings incorporating mounted lamp standards.