Summary
The former Nottingham and Nottinghamshire Bank, built in 1879 to 1882 to designs by Watson Fothergill of Nottingham, with internal alterations of 1895 by the Seymour Harris Partnership and an extension of 1924-1925 by Basil Baily. It was converted into two retail units by the Louis de Soissons Partnership in 2004-2005.
Reasons for Designation
The former Nottingham and Nottinghamshire Bank, built in 1879 to 1882 to designs by Watson Fothergill of Nottingham, with internal alterations of 1895 by the Seymour Harris Partnership, extended in 1924-1925 by Basil Baily and converted into two retail units by the Louis de Soissons Partnership in 2004-2005, is listed at Grade II for the following principal reasons:
Architectural interest:
* Fothergill’s striking essay in the Gothic Revival idiom, along with Baily’s authoritative addition, illustrates high quality design, high standards of execution and a thoughtful application of a range of materials and ornamentation;
* for the well-planned internal spaces and the sumptuously detailed domed banking hall with its impressive ornamentation;
* although parts of the ground and first floor have been adapted to serve changing needs and uses, the level of survival of the principal spaces of the former bank is good, illustrating its original function.
Historic interest:
* for its design by Fothergill Watson, one of Britain’s foremost and prolific regional architects.
Group value:
* it forms a group with the Corn Exchange and Clinton Rooms (1849-1850) and the Thurland Hall Public House (1898-1900) which stand on the east side of Thurland Street, and with 5 and 7 Pelham Street (c1810) and Journal Chambers (1860) which stand on the north and south sides of Pelham Street respectively, all listed at Grade II.
History
Nottingham occupies an important strategic site on the sandstone cliffs which command an ancient crossing point of the River Trent to the south of the town, the site of the present Trent Bridge. There was no apparent Roman occupation but some pre-C9 history is indicated by its Saxon name – Snotingeham, homestead of the Snots. Nottingham was one of the five boroughs of the Danelaw but in 921 it was recovered by the Saxons. The medieval walled town consisted of the French settlement to the west dominated by the royal castle built by William Peveral for William the Conqueror, and the Anglo-Danish settlement to the east dominated by St Mary’s Church with the largest market place in England linking them together. The Trent fostered trade and Nottingham prospered in industry and commerce, chiefly wool-dyeing and cloth-making. The medieval town, according to Leland, ‘was both a large town and welle builded for tymber and plaister’ with thatched roofs.
After the Civil War, two fashionable quarters grew up, one round the Church of St Mary the Virgin, the other round the rebuilt castle, and by the end of the C17, Nottingham was transformed into an elegant town filled with fine brick town houses, some with generous gardens. A series of visitors left glowing records of the new town created by this rebuilding. Celia Fiennes in 1694 called it ‘the neatest town I have ever seen’, and Daniel Defoe, thirty years later, said it was ‘one of the most pleasant and beautiful towns in England’. Transformation into an industrial city began in the C18 with the commercial success of the domestic framework-knitting industry, salt-glazed stoneware and brick-making at Mapperley. The population nearly doubled from 28,000 in 1801 to 50,000 in 1830, and the gardens, orchards and other green spaces were gradually built over replacing the once green and pleasant town with a congested industrial one. This was largely caused by the corporation townsmen who were not willing to relinquish common land around the town for development. It was only after the reform of the town council in the 1830s and the eventual passing of a series of Enclosure Acts in the 1840s that land around the town was released to allow for the Victorian expansion to begin in earnest.
After the exodus of large numbers of people to the new suburbs, the lace trade took over the streets round the Church of St Mary, and the area became known as the Lace Market. The 1870s saw a spate of public works, such as Trent Bridge (1871), the first Board School (1874), the first industrial dwellings (1876-1877), and University College (1877-1881); and in 1877 the borough was extended to include Sneinton, Basford, Bulwell, Radford, and Lenton. Nottingham became a city in 1897 but its population increased most significantly when more of the surrounding villages were incorporated in the 1930s and 1950s. Nottingham suffered little war damage but in 1942 a Reconstruction Committee was appointed to plan post-war development. There were major slum clearances and an inner ring road was constructed which disrupted the old town’s plan.
The Nottingham and Nottinghamshire Bank was established in Nottingham in 1834 and traded from premises in Pelham Street. Fear of competition from the Northern and Central Bank of England, also formed in 1834, prompted the rapid opening of branches in Mansfield (1834), Newark (1835), Workshop (1836) and Retford (1836), along with a discount and exchange agency at Loughborough (1834). Although the Pelham Street building was extended in 1854, no new branches were opened until Southwell in 1874. In 1877 construction of a new head office began on Thurland Street, on a site adjacent to the original Pelham Street building, to designs by Watson Fothergill of Nottingham.
Watson Fothergill (1841-1928), or as he was known until he changed his name by deed poll in 1892, Fothergill Watson, left school in 1856 and became an article pupil to Frederick Jackson (d1893), a Nottingham-based architect and surveyor. On completion of his articles Fothergill went to work with Isaac Charles Gilbert (1822-1885), another local architect, for 18 months. He then left for London to gain experience working for the eminent architect Sir Arthur Blomfield (1829-1899). By January 1864, Fothergill had moved to Cheltenham where he assisted John Middleton (1820-1885). However, by June of the same year he had returned to Nottingham, taking an office at 6 Clifton Street, where he commenced practice as an architect at the age of 23. At Clifton Street, where he remained for 30 years, he shared premises with Isaac Charles Gilbert. Although both were listed as separate practising architects, Gilbert probably used Fothergill as an assistant, either formally or informally, during the early stages of his career.
Instrumental in establishing Fothergill’s professional career was his success in the competition to design Nottingham’s Temperance Hall which, known as the Albert Hall, was built between 1873 and 1876. Unfortunately, it was destroyed by a fire in 1906 and subsequently rebuilt to a design by AE Lambert. As a result of his Temperance Hall triumph, Fothergill subsequently established professional relationships with two organisations that would stay with him until his retirement. Along with several commissions for the Brunts’ Charity, a Mansfield-based organisation managing a bequest granted by local benefactor Samuel Brunt, who had died in 1709, Fothergill started a long association with the Nottingham and Nottinghamshire Bank, which commenced with the rebuilding of the Mansfield branch in 1874-1875.
In the early stages of his career Fothergill deployed the Gothic Revival idiom for the majority of his buildings. An entry in his personal diary states that the inspiration for the Early English style he adopted for the Thurland Street head office was influenced by Alfred Waterhouse's Manchester Town Hall. The building itself was completed in two phases: the first stage, which comprised the central tower, the adjoining north wing, the domed banking hall and a small section of the south wing, opened for business on Monday 21 March 1881; the remainder of the bank was completed in 1882. Living accommodation for the bank's manager was placed on the first floor, where it was also equipped with a library, and was accessed from a private entrance on Thurland Street. On the completion of the new head office the original Pelham Street building was either refurbished or demolished and rebuilt as a commercial office building known as Portland Chambers. When this building was offered for sale by auction in 1898 it was described as containing a rock cellar underneath the basement.
In 1924, a year after its was renamed the Westminster Bank, work commenced on a large extension on the south side of the bank, on the site occupied by Portland Chambers. Completed in 1925, the work was undertaken by Basil Baily (1869-1942) of Nottingham with a design that was in keeping with the original Thurland Street building. New banking facilities were also installed internally, including the encasement of the column bases in the domed banking hall with new teller's desks and storage units. Most of the new fixtures and fittings were manufactured from pine matchboard which was stained to match the original oak carpentry.
During the mid-C20 the Pelham Street range was altered with the reconfiguration of its internal layout and the installation of a lift. Further mid/late-C20 alterations included the removal of the bank manager's living accommodation, which resulted in the Thurland Street doorway being replaced with two windows, and the replacement of the original building's ornamental stacks with ones of a simpler design.
In 1985 internal alterations were undertaken by the Seymour Harris Partnership for the Nat West Bank. This included the replacement of some windows, the installation of a new cashiers' area and the removal of a staircase at the north end of the north wing. It is also believed that a ground-floor arcade of three roll-moulded segmental arches, with cast-iron columns painted to resemble stone, was also installed at this time.
Between 2004 and 2005, following the bank's closure in 2000, the building was converted into two retail units by the Louis de Soissons Partnership. External alterations were primarily restricted to the 1924-1925 range and included the installation of a new doorway in the corner bay along with the lowering of all the ground floor windows and the insertion of frameless glass. Internally, the ground floor was subdivided with the insertion of a stud wall along the line of the C20 arcade, while walls were removed to create open-plan retail spaces on the ground and first-floors. A new lift and a timber and steel staircase were also installed in the 1924-1925 range, with its original staircase being removed.
Since 2005 the building has been occupied by the retailers All Saints and Bravissimo.
Details
The former Nottingham and Nottinghamshire Bank, built in 1879 to 1882 to designs by Watson Fothergill of Nottingham, with internal alterations of 1895 by the Seymour Harris Partnership and an extension of 1924-1925 by Basil Baily. It was converted into two retail units by the Louis de Soissons Partnership in 2004-2005.
MATERIALS: of polychrome Darley Dale Millstone Grit and red Mansfield stone with a plinth of red and grey polished Scottish granite. The rear elevations are of English bond brick and the roof is of graduated slate with C20 Millstone Grit stacks.
PLAN: the building, which stands on the corner of Thurland Street (west side) and Pelham Street (north side), is rectangular-on-plan, aligned north to south. It consists of two distinct phases; the first is the original bank building of 1877 to 1882, which stands on the west side of Thurland Street, and the second is a southern extension of 1924 to 1925, which took the building around the corner into Pelham Street.
EXTERIOR: the building, which is of two storeys with a basement and attic, is of an Early English Gothic Revival style. It has a chamfered plinth, string courses and a trefoil-pierced balustrade supported by foliated brackets to the attic. Unless otherwise stated, all the ground-floor windows are segmental arched with foliated roll moulds, all the first-floor windows are pointed with linked hoodmoulds with foliate and animal-head stops, and all the attic windows have shouldered arches. All the ground and first-floor windows have granite shafts with foliated capitals.
The original bank building of 1877 to 1882 is a symmetrical composition with a 15-window range to Thurland Street. It is centred around a Rhenish-style entrance tower and book-ended by gabled end bays with massive C20 wall stacks. All three elements project slightly with the end bays having recessed faces rising to graduated heads. The gables of the tower and the end bays contain Portland stone sculpted panels depicting the three main local occupations of the time: agriculture, coal mining and textiles. Sculpted figures on the roof include eagle gargoyles, reptilian cats and a stork. At the base of the brick chimney at the north end is a sculpted stone monkey chained to his mortgage; this was added by Fothergill as a reference to the Victorian idea of mortgages being a burden akin to having a monkey on one’s back.
The ground floor of the entrance tower has a round-arched double doorway of two orders with single shafts to the inner order, paired shafts to the outer order, all with foliated capitals, and panelled and studded oak doors. At the centre of the tympanum, which sits above a crenellated lintel with stiff-leaf ornament, is a circular terracotta plaque sculpted with the logo of the Nottingham and Nottinghamshire Bank. The remainder of the tympanum is richly embellished with a scrollwork background filled with foliated stems encircling two sculpted roundels: one showing Nottingham Castle and the other depicting a tree atop a cave. Projecting above the doorway, from the first-floor room originally occupied by the bank manager’s private library, is a canted oriel with paired, foliated brackets to a moulded corbel decorated with stiff-leaf ornament. It is divided by shafts with foliated capitals into 1:2:1-lights with quatrefoil heads with painted coloured glass. Fixed to its apron is a later, wrought-iron hanging bracket with its signboard now having the logo for All Saints superimposed on top of the former Nat West logo. Running across the top of the window is a dentilled cornice, over which is a pierced parapet embellished with gargoyles. Its hipped roof of banded stone rises to a stiff-leaf ridge piece, which in turn rises above the sill line of the triplet of pointed attic windows. The tower itself is square-sectioned with stone-coped gables flanked by corner turrets with gargoyles and crocketed spires and finials. It is terminated by a timber-framed bell-turret with a tall, pyramidal roof with lucarnes and a foliated finial.
The fenestration pattern to the remainder of the ground floor comprises, to the right-hand side of the doorway, a single window followed by pair of C20 windows set within the former doorway to the bank manager’s living accommodation, all with plate-traceried roundels. To the right again, the end bay has a triplet of windows with glazed heads. The walling to the left-hand side of the doorway has two paired windows, all with plate-traceried roundels, while the left-hand end bay has a triplet of windows with glazed heads.
Above the ground-floor windows is a shallow frieze with diapering and a band of 13 shields. Seven of the shields are carved with the locations of the bank’s branches at its time of construction (Nottingham, Mansfield, Loughborough, Newark, Worksop, Retford and Southwell) while the remaining five are blank.
On the first-floor, there is a single window immediately to the right-hand side of the oriel. To its right is a former staircase window (the staircase now removed) comprised of a triplet of two-light lancets with plate-traceried roundels, all with painted coloured glass, and a stepped sill band with pierced quatrefoils. To the right again, the end bay has a triplet of windows with a trefoil-pierced balcony supported on four, large, foliated brackets. To the left-hand side of the oriel there is an arcade of five windows. The centre window is blind with a quatrefoil-shaped niche carved with the date ‘1882’ along with an inscribed stone at sill level which reads 'FOTHERGILL WATSON / ARCHITECT’. Its hoodmould is embellished with sculpted owls. To the left again, the gabled end bay has a triplet of windows with a trefoil-pierced balcony supported by four, large, foliated brackets.
On the attic floor, to the right-hand side of the tower, there is a single window followed by a triplet, with two paired windows on its left-hand side. The end bays both have paired windows with pointed heads and shafts with foliated capitals.
Adjoining the left-hand gable end of the original building, taking it around the corner into Pelham Street, is a large extension of 1924-1925. Although the building replicates the original building's fenestration pattern, all its ground-floor windows were lowered and fitted with frameless glass in about 2004-2005. The ground and first-floors of its three-bay Thurland Street elevation both have three windows each, while the attic has three paired windows. The corner to Pelham Street is turned by a canted bay which rises to an octagonal tower with a crenellated parapet. Its ground floor has a circa 2004-2005 plate glass door inserted into a former window opening, while the first-floor window has a quatrefoil-pierced balcony supported on foliated brackets. Above is a single attic window. At the centre of the six-bay Pelham Street façade there is a round-arched doorway with stiff-leaf ornament, engaged colonnettes with foliated capitals and a tympanum of wrought-iron scrollwork above a moulded lintel. Projecting over the doorway is a canted oriel of 1:2:1-lights with quatrefoils to its corbelled apron and a moulded cornice with fleurons. Attached to the apron is an armorial shield bearing a portcullis in relief (the former logo of the Westminster Bank). The two ground and first floor bays that flank the centre piece continue the fenestration pattern as described above, while the attic has seven windows. The sixth bay at the left-hand end is formed by a stair turret which rises to a deep blocking course with a crenellated parapet. On its ground floor there are double oak doors beneath a shallow segmental head. A name panel over the door, which is boarded by fleurons and flanked by foliated pendants with fleur-de-lis caps, reads 'NOTTS BANK / CHAMBERS' in applied metal lettering. Over the name panel is a small, segmental-arched landing window with a foliated roll mould, while the first floor has a flat-arched window with a trefoil-pierced balcony supported by foliated brackets; both windows have shallow, segmental hoodmoulds with foliated stops. Above again, is a single attic window.
INTERIOR: in about 2004-2005 the ground floor was subdivided into two retail units when the C20 arcade at the south end of the original bank building was infilled with a stud wall; the arcade itself is comprised of three segmental arches with polychrome heads and cast-iron columns with foliated capitals. Unit 1, which is occupied by Bravissimo, occupies the south-east corner of the ground floor and the whole of the first floor, with access to the vacant attic storey also being gained through this unit. Unit 2, which is occupied by All Saints, occupies the remainder of the ground floor and the basement. As a consequence of this internal reconfiguration the original Thurland Street doorway now functions as a secondary entrance to both retail units; the main entrance to Unit 1 is from the circa 2004-2005 door in the canted corner bay, while Unit 2 is accessed from the central Pelham Street doorway.
The ground floor of Unit 1, which is rectangular-on-plan, has a square-panelled matchboard ceiling with deeply coved north, south and west sides, with moulded ribs springing from foliated corbels, while the west side has curved braces springing from foliated corbels. The ceiling itself is painted with a floral motif, probably of about 2004-2005 date. The majority of the ground-floor fixtures and fittings are largely of about 2004-2005 date and included plastered and painted false walls, lighting units, a steel and timber staircase and platform-type lift.
The staircase and lift, which are installed at the Pelham Street end of the shop unit, rise to a first-floor waiting area with a Gothic-style fireplace dated 1880, probably by Watson Fothergill. Immediately to the north of the first-floor waiting area is a large fitting area comprised of 20 free-standing cubicles of painted MDF, all installed about 2004-2005. Adjoining the north end of the fitting room is an L-shaped room which was created in the mid/late-C20 when the staircase to the bank's managers living accommodation was removed and the stair well floored over. The former staircase window has painted coloured glass with figures depicting Art, Science, Agriculture, Commerce, Manufacturing and Mining along with text from Ecclesiastes 9:10 and 11 (King James version). This room now encloses the former bank manager’s private library (now a kitchen and staff room), which is lit by the oriel window above the Thurland Street doorway. Its quatrefoil heads contain painted glass portraits of Geoffrey Chaucer and William Shakespeare along with the Latin phrase ‘TOLLE LEGE’ (take up and read).
The attic storey is largely comprised of former offices, some of which have been opened up with the removal of partition walls. They have panelled matchboard doors and plastered and painted walls, with deeply coved matchboard ceilings to the original bank building and plastered and painted ceilings to the 1924-1925 range.
The interior of Unit 2, which is largely of red Hollington Stone, is dominated by the former domed banking hall. Of three stages, its ground floor is comprised of an arcade of 12 pointed arches supported on alternate red and grey Scottish granite columns. The arches are all enriched with foliated roll moulds with the columns having foliated capitals with sculpted animal figures, some stylised and some life-like, again including a monkey chained to his mortgage. At the centre of the dome is a fluted lamp column with brass shades. The second stage is comprised of a galleried triforium which has a wrought-iron balustrade supported by wrought-iron brackets along with a combination of blind and glazed three-light windows, the latter with cast-iron glazing bars. Above is a clerestory of wheel windows, again some blind and some with painted glass, all set within pointed recesses.
On the east side of the banking hall there are three segmental-arched polychrome doorways with mid/late-C20 matchboard frames and about 2004-2005 doors. The left-hand side doorway has a plate glass door leading to an office created in the former entrance lobby to the bank manager’s living accommodation; the central wooden security doors conceal a storage room; while the double glass doors at the right-hand side lead through to the Thurland Street doorway where there is a vestibule with a wooden rib vault.
A room annexed at the north-east corner of the former banking hall has a square-panelled matchboard ceiling with deeply coved north, south and west sides, with moulded ribs springing from wooden corbels, while the west side has curved braces pierced by a large quatrefoil roundel along with two smaller roundels. At the centre of the ceiling is a ventilation flue.
Standing on the west side of the former banking hall is a segmental-arched polychrome fireplace with paired shafts supporting a wooden hood. It is surmounted by a clock in a wooden case.
Original oak panelling survives in several areas of the former banking hall, particularly on the north wall, with some panels having human heads carved in relief. Panelling in other areas is of C20 pine matchboard which has been stained to resemble oak.
At the southern end of the unit, towards the Pelham Street doorway, the original subdivision of the 1924-1925 range, which was opened out circa 2004-2005, is illustrated by the presence of in-situ foliated cornices.
On the north wall of the banking hall is the shaft to a former service lift, to which the lift has been removed, the floor boarded over and a replacement hood installed, all about 2004-2005; it now used as a display unit. To its right-hand side is a half-glazed matchboard door with quatrefoil top lights, while a panelled matchboard door to its left-hand side provides access to the basement.
The brick basement is sub-divided into a multitude of separate and interconnecting barrel-vaulted bank rooms. One includes an original security gate with a door handle in the shape of a human hand clutching a gold bar. However, the majority of the other security doors are C20 replacements.
