Bank House, 1 Bank Street, Aberfeldy

Bank House, 1 Bank Street, Aberfeldy

Bank House is a two-storey, four-bay gabled former bank building of circa 1865, possibly earlier, in the style of D Bryce, with a probable extension dating to 1868. It features a single-storey entrance bay. The building is constructed from coursed and squared local chlorite-slate rubble with stugged ashlar dressings and snecked random rubble, incorporating some pointed-arch openings with hoodmoulds, raked cills, chamfered arrises and stone mullions throughout.

The principal (north) elevation displays two slightly set-back bays at the centre. The left bay contains a gabled stone porch with a narrow light to each return, a hoodmoulded pointed-arch doorway with panelled timber door, and a tiny window above that breaks the eaves into a dormer gablet. The right bay has windows to both floors, with the first-floor window breaking the eaves into a dormerhead. A broad bay to the outer left contains windows to each floor. A further gabled bay to the outer right, probably a later addition, projects at the centre and contains a tall tripartite window at ground level with a fascia above and a smaller tripartite to the first floor. The gablehead features moulded outer angles giving way to stepped detailing. A stepped single-storey bay at the outer right displays a moulded doorway with a two-leaf panelled timber door and a deep blocking course.

The east elevation comprises five bays, with an ancillary building adjoining at the outer left. Three advanced gabled bays occupy the right of centre. The outer-right gabled bay contains a canted swept-roof window at ground and a single window above. The centre bay has windows to each floor, and the bay to the left features a flat-roofed, square-plan tripartite window with single lights to the returns and a deep corniced blocking course, plus a further window to the first floor. The lower set-back bays to the left contain two windows to each floor; those to the first floor break the eaves into dormerheads, and the ground-left opening displays fixed four-pane glazing.

The south (rear) elevation shows a variety of altered elements, including a slate-hung dormer window to the right of centre, a gabled bay projecting at the outer right with a boarded timber door on its left return, and a flat-roofed single-storey breeze-block extension to the left.

The west elevation is single-storey with barred openings and an extension at the outer right.

Throughout the building, windows display timber sash-and-case construction with 6-, 8- and 12-pane glazing patterns. Those at ground level on the principal north elevation have plate-glass glazing to the lower sashes except at the porch. The pointed-arch window features a 4-pane glazing pattern with decorative astragals. The roof is covered in grey slates. Ashlar stacks with tall paired polygonal cans are present. The eaves are overhanging with plain bargeboarding, pendant finials and decorative braces.

The interior contains plain and decorative cornices, a decorative cast-iron dog-leg staircase, a panelled room at ground level in the north-east, timber fireplaces, and panelled shutters in some rooms.

An ancillary building, constructed from roughly squared and snecked rubble with squared rubble quoins, adjoins the main building. It features a slated, rectangular plan with a canted angle to the west and deeply overhanging eaves. The north elevation is gabled and contains a voussoired depressed cart arch infilled with a bipartite window; a timber forestair from the left leads to a boarded timber door in the gablehead. The west elevation features a panelled timber door at ground level to the left and an angled bay to the right with a window. The south elevation contains two bays to the left of centre with windows at ground and louvered hayloft openings above, a later brick stack at the outer left, a rubble boundary wall projecting at the centre, and two altered openings to the right. The east elevation is gabled and adjoins the bank building, with a window at ground and a small decoratively-astragalled pointed-arch window above, both hoodmoulded.

The site features low saddleback-coped boundary walls with inset railings and decorative ironwork gates.