National Westminster Bank

Summary

A bank of 1901, to designs by the firm of Blackwell and Thompson of Kettering and Leicester.

History

The historic core of Kettering centres around St Peter and St Paul Church, Market Place to its north-west, and the immediate network of streets around it. Originally a Saxon village and later a market town, Kettering was for much of its history a relatively small linear settlement comprising what are now Gold Street, the High Street, Market Street, and Market Place, and Sheep Street to the south. This core layout of medieval streets persists today, though the majority of the surviving buildings date from the C19 and early C20. Kettering was at the convergence of several important routes and benefited from this and from the wool industry, but it was the arrival in 1857 of the Midland Railway which enabled larger industries, particularly the boot and shoe making industry, to expand the town significantly beyond its historic core. The wider town is still characterised by numerous former factories and associated terraced housing.

The site of 16-18 Kettering High Street has been developed since at least the C16 and probably since the early days of the Saxon village. The 1887 Ordnance Survey (OS) map (surveyed 1884) shows long narrow buildings on the site, occupying what appear to be medieval burgage plots. The current building was constructed in 1901, and its footprint is largely unchanged from its appearance in the 1926 OS. To the rear, the footprint extended north-east in a zig-zag of short wings which extended behind 20 High Street.

The building was constructed during the boom years of Kettering’s prosperity, when the town had expanded considerably and much of the historic core was rebuilt in confident Victorian and Edwardian style, transforming the appearance of the town. Numbers 16-18 are in a strong neo-baroque style which matched the new ambition of the thriving town.

Originally built as the Northamptonshire Union Bank, 16-18 High Street was designed by the architects Blackwell and Thomson, a partnership based in both Kettering and Leicester. John Thomas Blackwell (1864-1951) was a prominent Kettering architect responsible for many of the late-C19 and early-C20 buildings in the centre of the town, often in association with EJ Storry.

The interior of the building has been much altered to suit the requirements of a modern bank. The western façade below the windows has been slightly altered to accommodate Automated Teller Machines (ATMs). A small single-storey red brick extension with a pitched roof has been constructed in the south-east corner of the plot since the 1968 OS was surveyed.

Details

MATERIALS: carved limestone with granite plinth. Black marble pilasters to entrance doorways and black marble panels below windows. Slate roof.

PLAN: the principal range is roughly square on plan facing onto High Street to the west. Projecting to the rear (east) is a series of conjoined buildings with a variety of roof styles.

EXTERIOR: the principal, west-facing, elevation is a two-storey, symmetrical design with four bays in a neo-baroque design. It is under a pitched slate roof which is hidden from view behind a parapet. The central two bays project forwards. The ground floor is of channelled, ashlar limestone. The ground floor of the projection features two round-headed windows with prominent triple keystones, with sloping black granite cills, altered to accommodate a drop-box and ATMs. The first floor of the projection is also in ashlar limestone and has a composite order of coupled, emphasised rusticated columns, and entablature, topped with a tall parapet with an ornate central cartouche. The first-floor projection features two recessed six-over-six sash windows, with extended keystones and architraves. The recessed, outer bays each have an entrance beneath segmental door hoods topped with oval windows. The oval windows have carved window surrounds with four voussoirs at the cardinal points. Above each of these oval windows at first-floor level is a six-over-six sash window with broken curved pediments and extended keystones.

To the rear (east-facing side), the bank consists of not one but several small conjoined buildings, one to two storeys in height. The lowest, one-storey element to the south east is a recent extension. These rear elements of the building are in red brick with pronounced dentilled eaves, slate roofs and tall red brick chimneys. A taller element which extends east-west behind 20 High Street has an east-facing bay window at first-floor level. Windows are mostly mock-Georgian in style with small panes and glazing bars.

Listing NGR: SP8664178586

Legacy

The contents of this record have been generated from a legacy data system.

Legacy System number:

230085

Legacy System:

LBS

Sources

Websites
Northampton Historic Environment records 7198/0/19, accessed 19 February 2021 from [https://www.heritagegateway.org.uk/Gateway/Results_Single.aspx?resourceID=1044&uid=MNN106855]
‘Thomson, Howard Henry’, Directory of British Architects, 1834-1914, accessed 22 February 2021 from [https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=GkThQYLb3ZUC&pg=PA800&lpg=PA800&dq=Blackwell+and+Thomson+of+Leicester+and+Kettering&source=bl&ots=DYWaMkspQQ&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwiO3pb5o_3uAhWFUcAKHcjNChcQ6AEwBXoECAgQAw#v=onepage&q=Blackwell%20and%20Thomson%20of%20Leicester%20and%20Kettering&f=false]

Other
OS 25” Northamptonshire XXV.14 (Broughton; Kettering) (surveyed 1884, published 1887) accessed January 25 2021 at [https://maps.nls.uk/view/114477803]
OS 25” Northamptonshire XXV.14 (Broughton; Kettering) (revised 1924, published 1926) accessed 25 January 2021 at [https://maps.nls.uk/view/114477809]
OS 1:1,250, 1968, accessed 25 January 2021 at [https://www.old-maps.co.uk/#/Map/487500/278500/12/100954]
"Parishes: Kettering," in A History of the County of Northampton: Volume 3, ed. William Page (London: Victoria County History, 1930), 218-226. British History Online, accessed January 25 2021, http://www.british-history.ac.uk/vch/northants/vol3/pp218-226.

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All text content is available under the Open Government Licence v3.0 , except where otherwise stated. Any supplied maps are © Crown Copyright [and database rights] 2026 OS AC0000815036 and may not be reproduced without permission.

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