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Summary

Description

David Bryce, 1846. Colossal 3-storey 5-bay Imperial Roman bank. Cream sandstone ashlar, with orange hue subsequent to cleaning. Channelled ashlar ground floor with massive doorway at centre and architraved windows between pilasters; deep-set panelled 2-leaf door, consoled cills and cornices. 1st and 2nd floors set back behind 6 free-standing fluted giant Corinthian columns with heavy entablature breaking forward over each supporting statues (Navigation, Commerce, Manufacture, Science, Art and Agriculture); balustrades between bases of columns; windows with consoled pediments at 1st floor, consoled and balustraded individual balconies at 2nd floor. Balustraded parapet behind statuary.

Timber 8-pane casement windows, plate glass at ground.

INTERIOR: simple entrance hall leads to palatial stair hall with compartmented ceiling; stone stair to left with scrolled and gilded balustrade; landing supported by consoles; arched flat niche contains chimneypiece with pedimented overmantel war memorial with gadrooned frame; flanked by similar smaller examples lit by wrought-iron lamps. Cruciform Banking Hall ahead on axis with tripartite stained glass window divided by Cornithian columns (Governors? Window) above door;

3 bays by 5, with polished Peterhead granite columns and pilasters and side aisles lined with mirrored arches; consoled attic with rich plaster swags and busts of eminent Scots; flat ceiling with Greek cross coffers and central dome of engraved glass; Minton tile floor continues from hall. Boardroom at front entered from landing through massive door with consoled pediment and bolection moulded vine leaf frieze, repeated inside; panelled dado and plaster panelled walls with built in portraits; grey marble chimneypiece at either end, pedimented doors to ante room; dentilled and modillioned cornice and compartmented ceiling. Much original furnishing survives throughout. Linked with No 37 (see separate listing).

LAMP STANDARDS: 4 cast-iron lamp standards on pedestals flank door and elevation.

Statement of Special Interest

Built for the British Linen Bank to replace their adjoining premises, at a cost of ?30,000. The external statuary is by A Handyside Ritchie; the Governors? window by William Wilson, 1953. The building replaced three 3-bay houses acquired by the Bank in 1825. Its design is closely related to Cockerell?s rejected design for the Royal Exchange in London, itself a development of Palladio?s Loggia del Capitaniato in Vicenza.

References

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