Former Union Bank of Manchester, Heywood, Heywood, Rochdale

Summary

Former Union Bank of Manchester bank, 1909 to designs by J D and S J Mould of Bury and London in Edwardian Baroque style. The modern rear brick extension is of limited interest.

Description

Former Union Bank of Manchester bank, 1909 to designs by J D and S J Mould of Bury and London in an Edwardian Baroque style. The modern rear brick extension is of limited interest.

MATERIALS: sandstone ashlar with slate roof and leaded domes.

PLAN: the bank is a narrow, wedge shape and is of two storeys with a basement. The banking hall is on the ground floor with offices on the first floor and a basement strong room.

EXTERIOR
The narrow, two-bay front elevation faces north onto Church Street. It has a deep plinth, tall ground floor and lower first floor with a domed turret to the right-hand outer corner and a recessed, slate mansard roof. The plinth is of large, squared blocks. It incorporates a square-headed basement window with a chamfered lintel and a horizontal iron bar to the left and on the right-hand side is angled out from the wall face to meet the large, projecting portico. The angled section is stepped down in the centre and is surmounted by a decorative wrought iron railing. The door portico has alternately blocked columns with ionic capitals supporting an entablature and a broken triangular pediment with relief-carved tympanum and oval cartouche topped with a ball finial. The doorway is recessed to the rear of the portico with panelled double doors and a rectangular, multi-pane overlight. To the left of the portico is a pointed bay window with Gibbs surrounds and alternately blocked pilasters with ionic capitals. The two tall windows have nine-over-nine pane horned sashes. A cash-point machine has been inserted beneath the left-hand window. Above the window there is a stone balcony with bulbous stone balusters supported on large consoles. Over the portico there is a second balcony with a balustrade of solid stone blocks. The right-hand turret has clasping corner pilasters supporting round-headed arches behind which is a lead dome on a low octagonal stone base. The first-floor window has a Gibbs surround and a six-over-single pane horned sash frame, with a relief-carved swag of fruit above and a blind roundel in the arch head. To the left of the turret is a tripartite, square-headed window with alternating block jambs, square-cut stone mullions and six-over-single pane horned sash frames. There is a moulded, modillion eaves cornice. At the left-hand corner is a short stretch of stone parapet.

The seven-bay west elevation faces onto Hind Hill Street with a domed turret at each corner, that to the left-hand end embellished with a relief-carved swag of fruit. It has a deep plinth with five square-headed basement windows with chamfered lintels and horizontal iron bars. The ground floor has alternate banded stonework, with a frieze band between the ground and first floors. The five tall ground-floor windows have small-paned horned sash frames; the windows in the three central bays are more closely spaced. The left-hand first bay has a narrower window and the right-hand seventh bay has a doorway (now - 2022 - blocked) with a Gibbs surround incorporating a round-headed arch with a giant keystone and a relief-carved cartouche in the arch head. On the first floor there is a shallow oriel containing the three central windows with a cartouche beneath the central window. The oriel is flanked by windows in the second and sixth bays. The windows all have alternating block jambs and six-over-single pane horned sash frames. There is a moulded, modillion eaves cornice between the turrets.

The narrow south end bay forms one side of the right-hand Hind Hill Street turret and is blind.

The east side elevation originally abutted a row of shops on Church Street (demolished) and is blind. It is now mostly obscured by modern brick facing and a set-back, two-storey modern brick extension.

INTERIOR
The banking hall retains a panelled ceiling with enriched cornices. It also has a partially under-drawn ceiling and a glazed and metal-framed entrance lobby from the modern refurbishment. The offices and ancillary spaces have modern under-drawn ceilings and original doors have been replaced with modern solid doors. The inner wall of the staircase at the rear of the banking hall is built of modern brick.

History

The Union Bank of Manchester was founded in Manchester in 1836. It later expanded into neighbouring towns and in the early C20 a number of new banks were built for the company in towns in the north-west. The bank in Heywood was built in 1909 in a robust Edwardian Baroque style to designs by J D and S J Mould of Bury and London. It was constructed by Samuel Barker of Heywood. The building was built opposite the parish church on a wedge-shaped site at the corner of Church Street and Hind Hill Street. The Heywood Advertiser of 27 November 1909 described it as 'a commodious and convenient banking house …with good cellars, and a capital suite of offices above the bank, and the elevations have been so contrived that the attentive observer in the street would not be able to discover that the site is not square.' The public entrance on Church Street led into a vestibule from which the manager’s office could be entered, with the banking hall beyond. A service lift took books and bullion to the basement strong room. The office entrance and staircase were placed at the southern end of the Hind Hill Street elevation. The counter, screens of the manager’s room, dados, etc were of polished walnut, and the floors of the public spaces were tiled. An historic photograph shows that the leaded domes to the two corner turrets were topped by vertical flag poles and had pinnacles to the corner pilasters (no longer - 2022 - present).

James Diggle Mould commenced independent practice in Manchester in 1883 and later took his brother, Samuel Joseph Mould, into partnership. He subsequently also took Austin Porritt into a short-lived partnership, lasting from 1900 to 1906 when it was dissolved. The practice was responsible for designing a number of buildings for the Union Bank, including a 1904 bank incorporating shops and a Conservative Club premises in Bury (Grade II, National Heritage List for England: 1067213), a bank of around 1906 in Rochdale (Grade II, NHLE: 1405181), and a 1913 bank in Nelson (Grade II, NHLE: 1472844).

The Union Bank of Manchester was subsequently affiliated with Barclays Bank in 1919, though the two banks continued to operate separately until 1940 when the Union Bank was fully incorporated into Barclays.

When the bank was built it abutted a terrace of shops on Church Street. By 1989 the 1:2500 Ordnance Survey map shows that the terrace had been demolished and a large brick extension to the bank had been built set back from the street line.

The building continues to operate as bank premises for Barclays Bank. The interior has been refurbished.

Reasons for Listing

The former Union Bank for Manchester (now Barclays Bank), 2 Church Street, Heywood, of 1909 by JD and SJ Mould, is listed at Grade II for the following principal reasons:

Architectural interest:
* a good example of an early-C20 bank designed in a robust Edwardian Baroque style imbuing this small building with a monumental and distinctive architectural character;
* the front elevation is carefully composed with a projecting portico with banded columns beneath a domed corner turret, endowing the building with an eye-catching street presence well in excess of the narrow plot it occupies;
* as a building constructed of high-quality ashlar sandstone with carefully crafted detailing and relief-carved embellishments including cartouches and swags of fruit to the outer corner turret.
* an accomplished design by JD and SJ Mould who designed a number of banks for the Union Bank of Manchester, several of which are listed.

Group value:
* the bank has a proximity with a number of listed buildings, here St Luke’s Church, a war memorial and Heywood Area Central Library.

External Links

Historic England Listing

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