Natwest Bank

Summary

A bank and banking hall with shop premises and office accommodation built in 1929-30 to the designs of FCR Palmer and WFC Holden.

Reasons for Designation

The NatWest Bank building, Broadgate, Coventry, is designated at Grade II for the following principal reasons:

* Architectural: It is designed by the acknowledged partnership of FCR Palmer, working with WFC Holden and has a high degree of architectural sophistication, combining classical motifs from a number of sources into an accomplished whole. It was a departure from previous banking practice in having no facade to the street, other than the two impressive entrances, the rest being taken up with shop fronts.

* Intactness: Despite the fact that the impressive curved Hertford Street elevation has been partly blocked by a post-war linking range to adjacent office buildings and several of the shop fronts have been replaced, the building retains a good degree of intact survival to its most important elements, notably the porticoed front to Broadgate.

* Interior: A degree of alteration has occurred to interior spaces, as is to be expected with commercial buildings of this type. However, the impressive banking hall and its entrances and the staircase to the upper floor, remain largely intact.

History

The bank was built in 1929-30 to the designs of National Provincial Bank's in-house architect F.C.R. Palmer, assisted by W.F.C. Holden. According to the Architects' Journal, the building's plan was 'a new departure in bank planning in that practically the whole of the frontage is devoted to shops, while the bank requires only the frontage necessary to provide two entrances, the bank office occupying the less valuable space at the rear' (1933, 411). The building survived war time bombing and was incorporated into the post-war plan for the city devised by the City Architect and Planner Donald Gibson, the bank's long, curved, symmetrical elevation to Hertford Street being masked at its northern end by a linking range to Broadgate House (1953).

The National Provincial Bank was the only one of the big five financial institutions to employ in-house architects in the inter-war period. Frederick Charles Palmer was appointed in 1920 and joined by Walter Holden soon after. Holden succeeded Palmer following his death in the mid-30s and continued as the bank's architect. The pair was responsible for the design of the interiors and their fittings and worked in a variety of styles: examples include Neo-Georgian (Southampton, 1927-9, Grade II), Jacobean (Peterborough, 1928-9, Grade II), 'Wrenaissance' (Norwich, 1924, Grade II) and Holden's own Modernist designs (Osterley, London Borough of Hounslow, 1935, Grade II).

The stainless steel doors to both entrances were designed by Holden and are decorated with motifs from British, Irish and ancient Greek coins. The doors were made by the Birmingham Guild Ltd. The same motifs were used on the doors of other branches of National Provincial Bank: in bronze at Southend-on-Sea, Middlesbrough, Luton and New Bond Street, London, and carved in mahogany at Guildford and Maidenhead.

Details

A bank and banking hall with shop premises and office accommodation built in 1929-30 to the designs of FCR Palmer and WFC Holden. The building is in a classical style. It is constructed of red brick laid to Flemish bond and Portland stone with a roof of green Westmorland slates. The windows are metal-framed and the entrance doorways are of stainless steel. The building occupies a wedge-shaped site tapering toward the main entrance on Broadgate with a long curved elevation to Hertford Street which incorporates a secondary entrance and shops at ground floor.

The building is of five storeys with the uppermost set back behind a brick parapet. There is a wide moulded string course above the second floor and the hipped roof has deep eaves with mutules. The narrow Broadgate elevation is dominated by a giant tetrastyle (four columned) Doric portico, the entablature of which carries decorative discs to the metopes in the form of coins of various designs. The central doorway is within a double-height rounded archway, the stainless steel doors are folded back within the wide jambs of the doorway; the inner doors have been modified.

The Hertford Street elevation is of 16 bays, the northern-most four blocked now by the linking range to the Broadgate House to the west. The secondary entrance is just north of the centre of this elevation and has a similar portico, albeit applied and without a pediment, to the Broadgate elevation. The entablature formerly carried the bank's name. The ground floor of this elevation is clad in stone with three large shops to the right of the entrance and two smaller shops within the portico. The shop fronts, with the exception of one of the small shops which retains its stainless steel frontage, have all been modernised.

The windows throughout have margin glazing and are set within stone surrounds; these rise continuously between first and second floor with panels between, some of which are carved with motifs representing different trades of the city.

Internally the banking hall remains relatively unaltered, retaining its decorative scheme, although the counters have been removed and replaced. The hall is top lit by a large glass lantern with geometric glazing. The ceilings to the hall and entrance vestibules are coffered and the hall has triglyph and coin metope decoration to cornice; the walls are clad in a pale green marble.

Legacy

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

Legacy System number:

505922

Legacy System:

LBS

Sources

Books and journals
Booker, J, Temples of Mammon , (1990)
A Bank at Coventry in Architects' Journal, Vol. 78, (5 October 1933), 411-13
Modern Craftsmanship in Country Life, (27 November 1942), 1044

Other
Georgian Group. Banking on change: A Current Account of Britain's Historic Banks (1992)
Gould, Caroline and Jeremy. Coventry Planned: The Architecture of the Plan for Coventry 1940-1978 (2009)

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