NatWest Bank, including railings to basement steps

NatWest Bank

A free-classical bank of three storeys with attic and basement, constructed in ashlar with a slate roof. The building features a deep eaves cornice with coped parapet and an ashlar stack at the centre of the Pool Street elevation.

The building addresses two streets. On Pool Street there are three bays, while Castle Square has a single bay, with a splayed corner entrance bay linking them. The lower storey is distinguished by channelled rustication and a dentil cornice incorporating an egg-and-dart frieze. An entablature sits above, featuring a late 20th-century sign. The main entrance is located in the corner bay, with a replaced door and round-headed overlight bearing the monogram of the National Provincial Bank. An entablature projects on panelled consoles over lion's head corbels, with a blank entablature and dentil cornice supporting a segmental pediment. This entablature supports a first-floor balcony with coped parapet. The balcony has a two-light window with central Tuscan colonnette set within a moulded architrave, above which is a raised field with scrolled sides and deep moulded cornice. The upper storey contains a pair of two-pane sash windows in moulded architraves with Tuscan colonnette. The middle and upper-storey windows are recessed between double-height Ionic columns in antis, supporting a blank entablature below the eaves cornice. A segmental-headed roof dormer is positioned behind the parapet.

The Castle Square elevation has a basement accessed by stone steps behind railings incorporating wave bars and scrollwork on a dwarf wall. The lower storey contains two recessed segmental-headed windows, each with keystones and sunk panels to the spandrels, a central Ionic colonnette and sill band. The middle storey has a tripartite two-pane sash window in an architrave with Tuscan colonnettes and consoles supporting a cornice and pediment over the central portion. The upper storey has a similar tripartite window with sill band but no pediment. The parapet incorporates an open pediment on Tuscan pilasters and a Diocletian window with casements in a rusticated surround with prominent decorative keystone.

The Pool Street elevation shows the lower-storey entablature spanning only the central and right-hand bays. The left-hand bay contains the entrance and stair lights to the offices in the upper storey. The right-hand bay has three segmental-headed windows similar to those on Castle Square. The centre bay has a single similar window. In the middle and upper storeys, the right-hand bay has a double-height canted bay window with two-pane sashes, Ionic colonnettes to the middle storey and Tuscan above with sill band. A triple attic window sits beneath a floating segmental pediment, overarched by an outer segmental pediment on Tuscan pilasters. The narrower central bay has double-height Ionic columns with a pair of two-pane sash windows in architraves with Tuscan colonnettes to each storey. Between storeys is a raised field with scrolled sides. A gabled roof dormer is positioned behind the parapet. The left-hand bay contains a doorway in an eared architrave with keystone and panelled door, to the left of which is a keyed elliptical oculus. Above are two windows between Tuscan pilasters on a corbelled sill, beneath a deep cornice on fluted consoles and panelled pilasters. Above this is a keyed oculus with small-pane glazing, while the upper storey has a tripartite two-pane sash window with Tuscan colonnettes and sill band. The left end bay has an open pediment with Diocletian window, similar to the Castle Square elevation.

The banking hall is finished with a ribbed ceiling of square panels and classical ceiling cornice.