HSBC Bank

Cadw's description

Location

Prominently sited on the corner of Rosemary Lane.

History

An inter-war bank shown in a photograph of 1939.

Exterior

An inter-war free-classical style single-storey bank. Walls are pale grey snecked rock-faced stone, on a plinth of larger coursed rock-faced blocks, with Bathstone freestone dressings. The steep hipped roof of graded slates is behind a freestone parapet balustrade on a moulded eaves cornice.

The splayed corner entrance has an ashlar surround. It has full-height tapering Tuscan pilasters and simpler inner pilasters to recessed double fielded-panel doors, under a keyed round arch with metal radial-glazed fanlight. The entablature has disc ornamentation over the main pilasters, and a billet frieze below the cornice. On the corner the parapet has a raised field below a shallow plain pediment.

The 3-window L side wall to Rosemary Lane has arcaded round-headed windows with keystones and linked hood mould, and steel-framed margin-lit glazing. The shorter R side wall to Lancaster Square has paired similar windows. The L-hand window has a deposit box inserted into the sill, and the R-hand window a cash dispenser at sill level. A freestone band beneath the eaves in both elevations has a superimposed modern bank sign. An attached cast-iron street sign is at the corner of the Rosemary Lane elevation.

Set slightly back at the end of the Rosemary Lane elevation is a lower 1-storey wing of snecked rock-faced stone, a hipped roof of graded slates and rock-faced stone stack. It has a 3-light mullioned and transomed window. Further L the elevation is continuous with a yard wall, which incorporates a boarded door.

Interior

The banking hall has a ceiling with plaster dentil cornice.

Reason for designation

Listed for its special architectural interest as a prominently-sited and well-preserved small inter-war bank in the free-classical style characteristic of the period, and for its contribution to the historical townscape of Lancaster Square.