Summary
Bank, 1870-1872 by John Gibson of Westminster, for the National Provincial Bank, now offices.
Reasons for Designation
Gibson House, including area walls, gate piers and railings, is listed at Grade II for the following principal reasons:
Architectural interest:
* designed for the National Provincial Bank by its own architect John Gibson in a striking French Baroque style, incorporating heavy ornamentation and sculpture that conveyed the wealth and power of the bank;
* the sculpted tympanum contains allegorical figures of Britannia, an ironworker, and a miner by Charles Henry Mabey of London, symbolising the industries that generated Middlesbrough’s wealth;
* it is an imposing building that contributes to the streetscape along with other nearby listed buildings designed during the early development of Middlesbrough.
Historic interest:
* it was built as part of Middlesbrough’s financial and commercial district quarter, an area integral to the town’s economic success and rapid growth in the latter half of the C19 as the world’s leading producer of iron, and later one of the country’s major steel centres.
History
Middlesbrough owes its existence to the industrial revolution and a demand for coal and steel. Its growth from a small farming community of around 25 people in 1801 to one of over 90,000 inhabitants by the end of the C19 has been described as unprecedented in British urban history.
The growth was spearheaded by a group of Quaker businessmen headed by Joseph Pease of Darlington who speculatively purchased the Middlesbrough estate, realising the potential of the area, planned the town alongside a new port, and extending the Stockton and Darlington Railway to the banks of the Tees in 1828.
The new town was developed in the 1830s in a grid pattern in an area north of the station and centred around the ‘Market Square’, now the location of the Old Town Hall and Clock Tower (both 1846 and Grade II listed). Further expansion came in the 1850s with the discovery of substantial ironstone deposits in the Cleveland Hills, exploited by the industrialist Henry Bolckow (1806-1878) and John Vaughan (1799-1868) who constructed the town’s first iron foundry. The town was incorporated in 1853, and by 1865 Middlesbrough had become the world’s largest producer of iron, generating a third of Britain’s output. The switch to steel saw Middlesbrough as one of Britain’s leading steel production centres. The area around the station became the focus of Middlesbrough’s financial and commercial district, undergoing significant development in 1870s.
Following the Second World War, Middlesbrough suffered from industrial decline and large parts of the old town were cleared; the Royal Exchange, once a focal point for the financial and corporate life of the town, was demolished to make way for the elevated A66 road in 1985.
Gibson House was built between 1870 and 1872 as a branch of the National Provincial Bank, on a site previously occupied by the house of John Gilbert Holmes, one of Middlesbrough’s first shipbuilders. The architect was John Gibson (1817-1892) and the sculptures by Charles Henry Mabey of London (d 1912). The banking hall was open plan, with the cashier’s desks facing the main entrance. Further offices lay to the north-east and south-west and were separated from the cashiers by timber partitions. To the rear (north-west) the two-storey element contained stairs and further offices including the Manager’s Room.
The architect John Gibson was born in Castle Bromwich and worked as an assistant to Sir Charles Barry (1795-1860) in London giving him a thorough grounding in classical architecture. He became the National Provincial Bank’s architect in 1864.
The building was converted into a private club in 1936. Known as the Cleveland Club, it was Middlesbrough’s main gentleman’s club which had been established in 1869. It has now been refurbished as private offices (2022).
Details
Bank, 1870-1872 by John Gibson of Westminster, for the National Provincial Bank, now offices.
MATERIALS: constructed in sandstone ashlar, with red brick rear elevation in Flemish bond, a Welsh slate roof with brick stacks and renewed wrought iron railings.
PLAN: occupying a square island site, the building’s principal elevation faces south-east onto Cleveland Street whilst the south-west elevation faces Gosford Street.
EXTERIOR: Cleveland Street: the principal elevation is one storey with basement and five bays. The elevation is designed in the French Baroque style, with applied Roman Doric Order with guttae and paterae to the frieze inscribed: NATIONAL PROVINCIAL BANK OF ENGLAND.
The central entrance is approached up six steps and sits below a projecting pedimented portico. The entrance has panelled double doors and a blind overlight containing modern signage, with a corniced, fluted surround. Above is a three light moulded mullioned window with modern glazing. The pediment above is supported by paired columns with guttae and paterae in the frieze and inscribed: ESTABLISHED A D MDCCCXXXIII, the date of the founding of the National Provincial Bank. The tympanum contains sculptures by Charles Henry Mabey of London depicting Britannia in the centre flanked by an ironworker on the right and a miner on the left.
The entrance portico is flanked by tall round-headed windows, with renewed glazing and modern iron grilles, in quasi-Tuscan surrounds, with scrolled keystones and moulded sills. The sills sit on scrolled consoles flanking panelled aprons. The elevations have paired columns at the ends and pilasters between the windows, all set on pedestals. The basement windows have iron grilles.
Above the frieze and dentilled cornice is a straight parapet, with pierced geometric-pattern panels, between square pedestals. There is a shallow-pitched hipped roof with corniced stacks to front and rear.
The south-west elevation to Gosford Street and the north-east elevation are similarly styled to the principal elevation, comprising a single-storey and three bay banking hall and a two storey and two bay rear element. The latter is rather plainer with square-headed windows and stone sills. The first bay on the south-west elevation contains an entrance with panelled double doors and a blind overlight containing modern signage. The frieze above both the south-west and north-east elevations is inscribed REBUILT ANNO DOM. MDCCCLXXII.
The rear (north-west) elevation is of red brick in Flemish bond. The ground floor is obscured by a late-C20 modern flat-roofed extension.
The building is retained by a stone area wall with moulded caps and plain railings. There are coupled gatepiers to the Cleveland Street entrance with a blue plaque attached to the left gatepier.
