Description

This list entry was subject to a Minor Amendment on 9 January 2025 to amend the name and address and reformat the text to current standards.

SD4761NE
1685-1/7/164

LANCASTER
MARKET STREET (South side)
Nos.35-41 (Odd) HSBC

(formerly listed as Nos.35-41 (Odd) Midland Bank)


GV
II
Branch bank with chambers above. 1887. Possibly by EW Johnson. For the Preston Banking Company Ltd. Extended 1924 by the inclusion of Nos 37 & 39 Market Street, which were probably built a few years earlier. Sandstone ashlar above a granite plinth. Slate roofs. Free Italianate style. Both buildings have deep rectangular plans.

The left-hand building is a windowless, two storey, two bay block which contains the entrance to the present banking hall in the second bay, to the right of a flat-headed entrance to an alley. The block has banded rustication both on the plinth and on the walls below an impost band, related to the doorway. Above this, the plain ashlar wall has a moulded cornice with a pulvinated frieze, at the level of the top of the doorway, and an upper frieze, heavily decorated with swags, alternately of flowers and fruit, and of cloth, separated by tall triglyphs below a modillion cornice, which is carved with acanthus leaves. Above this the parapet is formed of square vase balusters between panelled dies, decorated with a mask and scrollwork and topped by a blocking course carrying a wreath. The doorway has a round-headed arch with a florid keystone, and is set within a squared architrave. The spandrels are decorated with female figures, and the frieze, which extends into the ground floor cornice of the facade, is carved with scrollwork and griffons. The pediment contains scrollwork and a cartouche. The doorway is flanked, above the impost band, by square panels bearing the coats of arms of Lancaster (to the left) and Preston (to the right).

The right-hand building has three storeys and three narrow bays, with a cornice above the ground floor windows. Above the facade is articulated by six giant Corinthian pilasters, these are fluted in their lower half and rise through two storeys to carry five round-headed arches below an eaves cornice. The doorway is to the right, and the door is panelled with a rectangular overlight. The windows are square-headed on the ground and first floors, and round-headed on the second floor. On the ground floor they are slightly recessed within moulded architraves, and on the first floor they have cornices.

INTERIOR: the banking hall has a rectangular lantern light with stained glass which has emblems taken from the arms of the Preston Banking Co.

HISTORY: the Preston Banking Company Ltd acquired premises in Market Street, and in 1887 their new premises were 'in course of erection'. By 1896 the company had become the London and Midland Bank Ltd.

Listing NGR: SD4761061692

External Links

• Wikidata Q26489600

External links are from the relevant listing authority and, where applicable, Wikidata. Wikidata IDs may be related buildings as well as this specific building. If you want to add or update a link, you will need to do so by editing the Wikidata entry.

Recommended Books

• 
  Surrey (The Buildings of England) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Old House Handbook: A Practical Guide to Care and Repair by Hunt. Roger ( 2008 ) Hardcover
• 
  Nottinghamshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Wiltshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) Act 1990
• 
  For the Record