Building Name

Lancashire and Yorkshire Bank, 43-45 Spring Gardens, Manchester

Date
1888 - 1889
Street
Spring Gardens
District/Town
Central, Manchester
County/Country
GMCA, England
Client
Lancashire and Yorkshire Bank
Work
New build
Listed
Grade II
Contractor
Robert Neill and Sons

The Lancashire and Yorkshire Bank at 43 Spring Gardens opened in December 1889 on an important site which closed the top of King Street. Heathcote's composition in an Italian Renaissance style was asymmetrical with a Jacobean gable and tower over the main entrance to the banking hall. An ornate wrought iron entrance gate protected this entrance, dropping into the basement during business hours. The ground floor contained the banking hall, the board room, manager's office and two waiting rooms, a second entrance to the banking hall being provided from Concert Lane. The banking hall was top-lit by means of two domed rooflights filled with stained glass in a floral design and supported on granite columns, with the walls horizontally banded in alternative bands of jasper and Pavonazza marbles and fittings in mahogany and fumigated oak and the floor of mosaic. The basement contained bullion and strong rooms, the clerks' general room and dining room and heating plant. All rooms and offices were cabled in anticipation of electric lighting.

MANCHESTER - In the recent limited competition for the new premises of the Lancashire and Yorkshire Bank, Manchester, the design of Messrs. Heathcote and Rawle, of Princess street, Manchester, was selected. The site is a very prominent one in King-street. The design is in Italian Renaissance, and distinguished by bold and picturesque outline, with strongly marked shadows. The cost of the building will be £19,000. A perspective, which we hope to illustrate in this journal, will be prepared as soon as the working drawings are completed. [Building News 20 April 1888 page 562]

The opening of the new Head Offices of The Lancashire and Yorkshire Bank marks an important epoch in the history of a prosperous business concern. Established seventeen years ago the Bank has shown steady and continuous progress from that time till now. The old Head Offices in King Street, have for some years past been far too small for the convenient carrying on of the business, and so the strikingly handsome building in Spring Gardens, at the head of and looking down King Street, has been provided. Business began there on Monday last. Everything about the place is good and substantial and pleasing to the eye. The Banking Chamber has a remarkably fine appearance. It is lighted by two domes with stained glass of floral design. The domes rest on columns of red granite and the walls are lined with jasper and Pavonazza marbles, all giving a rich glow of colour to the interior. The fittings are of fumigated oak and the waiting and other rooms have high quaint oak panels. Bullion and other strong rooms, clerks' general room, dining hall, etc., are in the basement and the banking chamber contains the usual hydraulic lifts. The building occupies a commanding site, and there will be a still better view when the Improvements Committee of the Corporation are in a position to widen King Street opposite the Reform Club. The front is in the style of the Italian Renaissance, treated with a certain boldness of freedom. As the light is completely free from interference, and not affected by any neighbouring property, advantage was taken to obtain some broad effects in light and shade. Messrs Broome, Murray and Co., Chartered Accountants, occupy all the upper portion of the new building. The principal entrance to the Bank is at the northern end of the front under a lofty tower, and there is another entrance for the public in Concert Lane. The whole of the ground floor is taken up by the Bank. Messrs. Heathcote & Rawle, Architects, Manchester, designed all the work, fittings and furniture, and everything was carried out under their superintendence. [Manchester City News 14 December 1889] 

Subcontractors: George Wragge - Wrought iron casements and windows, ornamental wrought iron entrance gates, other gates and railings, door fittings in aluminium. Stone - Joseph Clayton, Flappit Spring Quarries, Cullingworth, Bradford

The Lancashire & Yorkshire Bank was established in 1872 and had 29 branches and 27 sub-branches by 1890. In 1928 It became part of Martins and later Barclays Bank and finally closed for business in May 1990 as part of a rationalisation scheme to reduce the number of branches in central Manchester. The loadbearing construction employed by Heathcote created difficulties in adaptation to new uses and the building remained empty for several years. It opened as a cafe bar in December 1994.