Description

HIGH STREET
656-1/0/0

29/06/06
Nos.15, 16 AND 17 The Old Bank

GV II

A Neo-Georgian style bank built in 1914, possibly incorporating older fabric, to a design by Dunn, Watson & Curtis Green, restored in 1994. It has a deep plan and is built of limestone ashlar.

EXTERIOR: The three storey front has five bays. The ground floor has horizontal, vermiculated banding, with three eight/eight pane sash windows with voussoir heads with a large console shaped keystone. The outer bays have matching doorways: double panelled doors with architraves and console bracket heads. Above the ground floor is a plat band with a first floor sill band above. It has five large six/nine pane sash windows on the piano nobile, with alternating pediments and cornices to the window surrounds. The second floor has small three/three pane sash windows with eared architraves and a cornice above with the inscription 'THE OLD BANK ESTABLISHED 1760'. The building has a parapet consisting of five balustraded panels above the windows below and solid piers in between.
INTERIOR: In the entrance lobby to the left is a bronze plaque which commemorates those bank employees who gave their lives in the First World War. The banking hall is to the rear with a shallow domed coffered ceiling and clerestory lighting.
HISTORY: The Old Bank is on the site of the oldest surviving bank in Bath. The site has been used continuously as a bank since at least 1786. It was opened, at no.17 High Street, as the 'High Street Bank', by Robert Clement. Clement, since the 1750s had been carrying on some banking activities as part of his nearby drapery business. Subsequently it had various name changes and amalgamations, for instance in 1906 it was the Union of London and Smith's Bank, and was rebuilt in its current form when it became the National Provincial Bank by the prestigious London firm of Dunn, Watson and Curtis Green in a contextual Neo-Palladian style.
SOURCES: S Clew, Banking in Bath in the Reign of George III , in: Bath History (1994), pp 104- 124.
The Bath Chronicle (1994), Images of Bath, p 129
SUMMARY OF IMPORTANCE: The Old Bank in Bath (no's 15,16 and 17 High Street), was built in 1914 in Neo- Georgian revival style, possibly incorporating earlier fabric at the lower level, to a design by notable architects, Dunn, Watson & Curtis Green and displays a clear level of special architectural interest, both internally and externally. The building
has an imposing style and greatly contributes to the local streetscape in the heart of Bath's commercial centre. The Old Bank is an integral part of an important group of historic buildings in the heart of the Bath World Heritage Site.

Listing NGR: ST7508364844

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Wikidata Q26674832

External links are from the relevant listing authority and, where applicable, Wikidata. Wikidata IDs may be related buildings as well as this specific building. If you want to add or update a link, you will need to do so by editing the Wikidata entry.

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