Bank Of Scotland, 34 & 34A Reform Street, Dundee

The Bank of Scotland, located at 34 and 34A Reform Street in Dundee, was designed by William Burn in 1840, with additions to the rear and a refaced ground floor front elevation by George Shaw Aitken in 1879-80. This former bank is a four-storey, five-bay building in the Renaissance palazzo style, situated on a corner site. It features grey ashlar stone and a concealed roof.

The building has a bull-faced base course and a channelled ground floor with banded piers and raised rusticated quoins at the front. The first floor is adorned with a corniced and dentilled frieze, featuring consoled and balustraded balconies, and two lions sejant with shields at the center balcony. The third floor has a modillioned main cornice, a wallhead course, and a corniced wallhead. The ground floor windows have corbelled cills, fluted pilasters at the re-entrant angles, and pilastered windows facing Bank Street. All ground floor windows are equipped with metal cill window guards, while the upper floors have architraved windows with consoled pediments on the front elevation and cornices on Bank Street. The glazing consists of two-pane timber sash and case windows, with top-hoppers on the ground floor, and there are corniced stacks.

On the front elevation, there is a two-leaf panelled door at the center, set within a moulded round-headed doorcase with a triglyph lintel, flanked by pilasters with richly decorated consoles depicting winged female heads that support the balcony. To the right of the door are two windows, while to the left is another window and a door with a balustered fanlight at the far left. Each upper floor features five windows.

The Bank Street elevation has four windows on each floor. A lower addition from 1880 is slightly recessed to the right and includes a large Venetian window in a mask-keystoned round-headed panel, flanked by oculi with blank heraldic shields. It has a plain wallhead frieze with a balustraded parapet. To the right is a later block of similar size, rendered and lined to resemble ashlar.

Inside, the ornate ground floor retains original features that are now incorporated into a public bar.