Summary

Former bank, built in 1931 for the Capital and Counties Bank Ltd (part of Lloyds Bank) to architectural designs by Henry Munro Cautley and Leslie Barefoot; converted to five flats in 2016.

Description

Former bank, built in 1931 for Lloyds (formerly the Capital and Counties Bank Ltd ) to architectural designs by Henry Munro Cautley and Leslie Barefoot; converted to five flats in 2016.

MATERIALS: the roof has a reed thatched covering, the walls and chimneystacks are constructed of red brick, and the walls have roughcast render over a red brick plinth.

PLAN: located at the corner of Globe Lane and Main Street, the building is roughly L-shaped on plan with a long eight-bay range extending north along Globe Lane (north range), and a shorter five-bay range extending west along Main Street (west range). The interior was converted to five flats in 2016 comprising: 3 ground-floor flats in the former banking hall and bank manager’s office (1A), the former bank manager’s accommodation (1C), and the former strong room and staff rooms (1E); and 2 first-floor flats in the former bank manager’s accommodation (1B and 1D).

EXTERIOR: the former bank building is two storeys in height and has a reed-thatched roof with a decorative ridge. The roof sweeps down low over the single-storey porch at the south end of the east elevation and former bank manager’s accommodation at the north end. There are three groups of three tall, octagonal chimneystacks, constructed of red brick with cusped chimneypots, one over the west range and two over the north range. The walls are constructed of red brick, with roughcast render over a brick plinth; the former banking hall is gabled to the south and east, and there is another lower gable near the north end of the east elevation, each gable having a drop finial to its apex. The south gable is jettied over the first-floor windows and retains a pargetted band of bunches of grapes and vines with a central cartouche featuring the black horse of Lloyds Bank. The east gable of the banking hall has a beam over the first-floor windows with horizontal bands of carved ornament. The north gable is jettied over a first-floor oriel window and retains a pargetted band with vine and grape ornament.

The windows are flat arched with moulded timber mullions, metal-framed leaded lights with some top-hung casements and concave terracotta sills. Each window is of a standard width, with lights arranged alone or in groups of two, three, four or five. A four-light window was introduced near the west end of the south elevation in 2016 (to the former strong room) using reclaimed windows from elsewhere. The porch at the south end of the east elevation has a gutter over the door suspended by scrolled wrought-iron brackets, and the south elevation retains two scrolled brackets for hanging signs (no longer present). The main entrance to the former banking hall (now Flat 1A) has a four-centred arched door surround with moulded architraves and ornamental foliated carving to the spandrels, retaining evidence of timber pegging; the door with vertical glazed panels was replaced in 2016. To the right of the door under the window is an original cast-iron letter box. Roughly halfway along the east elevation is a four-centred arched door surround (to Flat 1B) with moulded architraves, ornately carved spandrels, and two leaded windows to the left; the timber door has three vertical panels and metal studs, and retains ornate wrought-iron hinges, a window, door knocker and letter box.

The north elevation of the north wing has a flat-arched door with three vertical panels to the former manager’s accommodation (now Flat 1C); a small, single-storey thatched range projects westward. The rear elevation of the north range has a two-storey gabled projection, to the north side of which a stair was added in 2016 (to Flat 1D). On the south side of the gabled projection an ornate hopper survives. To the south the rear entrance to the former bank manager’s accommodation (Flat 1B) has a flat-arched three-panelled door, and there is a tall stair window to the first floor. At the angled junction of the north and west ranges a rear entrance door was introduced in 2016 (Flat 1A). The windows on the rear elevation are generally metal framed with plain mullions (as opposed to the substantial moulded mullions found on the front elevations) and the sills are of sloped plain tiles. The north side of the banking hall retains a five-light timber-framed window with leaded lights, two top-hung casements and moulded mullions. From the west end of the west range (Flat 1E), a single-storey thatched range, formerly the staff rooms, projects northwards.

INTERIOR: the interior of the former bank building was converted to five flats in 2016. Each flat retains carved timber mullions (except Flat 1E in the former strong room), and secondary glazing was introduced to the interior of all windows in 2016. Acoustic ceilings were added to each of the ground floor flats in 2016. A high proportion of three-panelled timber doors survive throughout.

Within Flat 1A (occupying the former banking hall and bank manager’s office), the porch to the former banking hall is timber framed and pegged, with moulded beams, an ornately carved cornice, and an ornately carved timber panel over the door to the banking hall featuring carved bunches of grapes and vines and the date of construction ‘1931’. The north wall of the former banking hall features a red brick fire surround (replaced in the late C20 or early C21), and two reinforced boarded doors in moulded surrounds to the former bank manager’s office (now a bathroom and kitchen). The west side of the former banking hall has been subdivided to create a lounge and two bedrooms. Comparison with records of the building held in Suffolk Archives suggests the former banking hall had plasterwork and beams, counters and cashiers’ desks and fireplaces to take ‘Cozy’ stoves; these are no longer present however the original beams may be concealed by a suspended acoustic ceiling.

Flat 1B, a first-floor flat comprising the majority of the former bank manager’s accommodation has two reinforced panelled wooden doors to the east and west, retaining original door furniture. The stair hall is understood to have a decorative tiled floor concealed by a linoleum floor covering. The stair has square-profile newel posts with squat finials, turned balusters and a moulded handrail, and rises to a half landing, providing access to a corridor to the south, and a stairwell and bedroom to the north; the north end of the former bank manager’s accommodation has been subdivided to create Flat 1D to the north. Within Flat 1B, a high proportion of three-panelled doors survive, and two fireplaces survive in a bedroom and the sitting room (formerly the drawing room). These fireplaces have timber surrounds with filleted or boss ornament to an overmantel crown, a panelled overmantel and a mantel shelf; the fire openings were infilled with tiles in 2016.

At the north end of the north range, Flat 1C, a ground-floor occupying the former dining room, kitchen, pantry, larder and coal store of the bank manager’s accommodation, retains a wooden fire surround in the living room (former dining room), with a bracketed overmantel crown, a panelled overmantel and a mantel shelf; the flat also retains a number of three-panelled doors.

Flat 1D, a first-floor flat at the north end of the building, occupying the north end of the former bank manager’s accommodation, retains some three-panelled doors, one in a moulded surround at the north end.

Flat 1E, a ground-floor flat at the west end of the building, occupying the former strong room and staff rooms, does not retain any historic interior features of note.

History

The former Lloyds Bank building in Littleport was constructed in the vernacular style in 1931 for the Capital and Counties Bank Ltd to architectural designs by Henry Munro Cautley and Leslie Barefoot. Henry Munro Cautley (1876-1959) trained in London and practiced in Ipswich between 1901 and 1957. A committed medievalist, he served as Diocesan Surveyor for St Edmundsbury and Ipswich from 1914 to 1947 and was a leading authority on Suffolk churches. Cautley was joined around 1925 by Leslie Barefoot (1887-1958), and together they had an office at 22 The Thoroughfare, Ipswich. The practice had a prolific output in East Anglia, in particular around Ipswich and in east Suffolk and east Norfolk; their practice was later taken on by Barefoot’s son and became Peter Barefoot and Partners.

Amongst their commercial works, Cautley and later Cautley and Barefoot designed a large number of bank buildings for Lloyds Bank, including those at Gentleman’s Walk, Norwich (1924), St Ives (1924-1925), Wisbech (1926-1928), and Tuesday Market Place, King’s Lynn (1928), each listed at Grade II, all in a Beaux Arts style with round-arched windows. Elsewhere in Cambridgeshire, Cautley and Barefoot also designed the Ely branch in 1924 and extended the Cambridge branch in 1935, originally built in 1891 to designs by A and P Waterhouse (listed at Grade II*).

Other commercial projects included the Golden Hind public houses in Ipswich (1936, listed at Grade II) and Cambridge (not listed), and the Suffolk Punch public house in Ipswich (1936, listed at Grade II). They designed a number of hospitals, convalescent homes and schools in Suffolk, including the Bartlet Hospital at Felixstowe (1923-1926, listed at Grade II*), and public buildings including Ipswich Public Library (1924, listed at Grade II). Cautley designed a number of war memorials in Suffolk including the Grade II-listed war memorial in the churchyard of St Mary in Whitton, Ipswich and at Bentley (each listed at Grade II). The vernacular style of the Littleport bank bears some similarities to the house Cautley designed for himself, Drumbeg at 4 Constitution Hill in Ipswich (1935, listed at Grade II).

Plans of the Littleport bank held in Suffolk Archives show the building was designed to provide a banking hall and bank manager’s office in the south-east corner of the building with a strong room and WC to the west, and private living accommodation for the bank manager and his family at the north end of the ground floor and the whole of the first floor. The living accommodation comprised a stair hall, dining room, pantry, kitchen, larder and coal store at ground floor level, and five bedrooms, a drawing room, bathroom and WC at first floor level. The former bank at Littleport was adapted for use as offices in the early C21 and the interior was converted to five flats in 2016.

Reasons for Listing

The former bank building, constructed in 1931 for the Capital and Counties Bank Ltd (part of Lloyds Bank) to architectural designs by Henry Munro Cautley and Leslie Barefoot, is listed at Grade II for the following principal reasons:

Architectural interest

* as a distinctive and unique former bank building of strong architectural quality
* for its design by Cautley and Barefoot, an established architectural practice with a number of listed bank buildings to their name;
* as an extremely rare example of a bank constructed in the vernacular style with a thatched roof, it is a celebration of vernacular craftsmanship.

Group value:

* for the contribution the former bank makes to the historic Main Street of Littleport, and the group value it holds with nearby listed commercial buildings, in particular Adams Heritage Centre at 17 Main Street (listed Grade II).

Recommended Books

• 
  Development and Design of Heritage Sensitive Sites: Strategies for Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas
• 
  Berkshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Yorkshire West Riding: Leeds, Bradford and the North (Pevsner Architectural Guides / Buildings of England)
• 
  Bedfordshire, Huntingdonshire, and Peterborough (Pevsner Architectural Guides): Written by Charles O'Brien, 2014 Edition, Publisher: Yale University Press [Hardcover]
• 
  For the Record
• 
  Gwent/Monmouthshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of Wales)