Bank House

Bank House is a house, later used as a bank and now offices, built in painted stucco. The main front is a plain, large four-storey, four-window facade, with wider spacing in the centre. A raised stucco plinth runs along the base. The ground floor has nine-pane timber sash windows with stone sills, set within a basement level. A raised band sits above the ground floor, and the remaining openings have 12-pane timber sash windows with stone sills. A broad raised band extends upwards, forming the base for the upper window heads. Above this is a raised eaves course beneath a close-eaved hipped slate roof, featuring a broad rendered rear stack with approximately 15 chimney pots. Cast iron rainwater goods are present.

The right side originally served as the main entrance. It has a band above the basement and a broad upper band consistent with the front facade. A fine, broad flight of 19 stone steps rises from pavement level to a flat platform with a stuccoed wall, leading to a first-floor doorway. This doorway is broad and arched, featuring a very large, unusually fine and elaborate fanlight with intricate tracery. Blocked sidelights flank the 6-panel door, which has four fielded panels. The steps have rubble sides, with a basement door and window incorporating stone voussoirs. A wrought iron balustrade, with scrolls on the rails and urns at intervals along the handrail, provides edging. To the left of the doorway is a large, full-height blank arched recess with a stone sill, situated between the basement and top bands. Above the door, two bays of openings are visible. The left bay has a 20th-century fire-escape door on each floor, while the right bay has 12-pane sash windows on each floor. A fluted rainwater head is located to the right. A large 20th-century fire escape is also present.

The left side is similarly rendered but lacks the band above the basement. The two-window range is set to the left and features 6-pane sashes with narrower side panes, and stone sills. A basement door, arched and with a 20th-century door and plain fanlight, is in the right bay. A blocked sub-basement opening is positioned under the left bay. Again, cast iron rainwater goods are used.

The original main entry is now at first floor level, leading into a hallway with an opening for the staircase on the north side. The stair continues down to the basement. An inner hall doorway mirrors the main door, featuring reeded pilasters, blank sidelights and a broad fanlight. Two plaster cross-vaults with double reeded arches resting on leaf capitals lead to a plain (possibly replaced) ceiling at the foot of the stairs. The staircase itself has a cantilevered stone first flight with shaped tread ends, a thin rail, and alternating wrought iron scrolled balusters with plain (possibly added) stick balusters. A straight landing rail is present on the first floor. The first-floor landing has an axial passage with an elliptical arch east of the stairs, decorated with reeded mouldings on small corbels. The flight from the first to second floor is cantilevered timber, with wrought iron balusters of a different pattern, scrolled tread ends, a landing rail at the second floor, and reeded moulding around the curved stair wall. A flat, 20th-century oval glazing has been placed over the stair, presumably beneath a roof light. The basement contains a plaster-vaulted lobby with an original cambered-headed 4-panel door leading north.