Royal Bank Of Scotland, 81-87 Commercial Street, Lerwick

The Royal Bank of Scotland, located at 81-87 Commercial Street in Lerwick, was designed by David Rhind in 1871. This three-storey, three-bay bank features a near-symmetrical design with classical details and a square plan, along with a modern gabled wing that projects to the north. The principal front is constructed of stugged ashlar, with polished ashlar dressings, all painted, and the side and rear elevations are made of stugged squared and snecked sandstone, with droved finishes at the edges. The building has a base course, a band course at the first floor, and a dentilled eaves cornice. Rusticated quoins frame the elevation, and the window sills are corniced and bracketed.

On the north elevation facing Commercial Street, the design is symmetrical above ground. There is an architraved and pilastered entrance door with a dentilled entablature at the ground level in the outer left bay. This entrance features early 20th-century two-leaf, four-panel timber and bronze doors, along with a decorative fanlight depicting ships and an etched glass inner door. To the right, there are architraved fixed-light square windows. The first floor has architraved windows with segmental pediments, and the outer bays feature tripartite windows. On the second floor, the windows have lugged architraves.

The west elevation includes a margined window at the ground floor in the outer left, and a modern two-storey gabled addition projects from the center of this elevation. The ground floor features early 20th-century six-pane timber fixed-lights with reeded transoms. The upper floors have timber sash and case windows, with plate glass on the principal front and four-pane windows elsewhere. The roof is covered with piended and bell-cast purple-grey slate, featuring an M formation at the rear, along with cast-iron gutters and downpipes that center on the rear elevation.

The boundary wall is made of random rubble with a stugged sandstone cope that bounds Queen’s Lane. There is a garden door with droved and chamfered arrises adjacent to the bank, and the wall curves at the southeast corner, incorporating stugged sandstone gatepiers topped with copes and cast-iron urns. The building also features stugged and polished ashlar stacks, which are corniced and topped with octagonal cans.