Hoare's Bank, No. 37. on the south side of Fleet Street, by Charles Parker (1799-1881). 1829-30. Photo © Basher Eyre, originally posted on the geograph website, and reproduced here, with thanks, under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 2.0 Generic Deed.
This Grade II* listed building, with its Bath stone frontage, was built on the site of the original site of the bank, which was founded in the late seventeenth century. It has three storeys and a basement. In the listing text, the other features of the frontage are noted in this way: "5 windows plus 1 set forward at each end. Round-arched ground-floor openings. Corniced 1st-floor windows, 2 with balconies and pediments. Centre has modillion cornice and parapet. Area railings. Courtyard at rear." Parker received the commission for the new building early in his career, and acquitted himself well: Simon Bradley and Nikolaus Pevsner describe it as "exceptionally restrained" (94), and later as "the finest early C19 bank in London" (497).
With Jeffry Wyattville, with whom Parker had trained, advising on it, the interior too was dignified: "Flush-panelled, with antae-flanked doorcases and semicircular recesses above. Counter on the two sides best favoured for daylight. In the centre a fine Grecian bronze columnar stove, made by Parker’s brother Samuel. A pierced screen wall separates this "shop" from the counting house behind: a plan common to most early banks." The result was that "Parker’s plain, masculine, discreet banking hall is a world away from the competitive display of Victorian joint-stock banks" (Bradley and Pevsner 497). According to the listing text, "The suite of rooms on the first floor retain all their early-C19 cornices, fireplaces, doorcases and doors."
The bank is still very much in operation, having been passed down through twelve generations of the family, making it the oldest private bank in the country. It has had many clients of the first importance, including members of the royal family and the world of letters (including Dryden, Congreve, Jane Austen and Byron), as well as "many firms of solicitors, insurance companies, and other businesses. Henry was banker to Lord Cornwallis, the Commander-in-chief in India, to Lord North, later 2nd Earl of Guilford, and Lord Liverpool, both prime ministers" (Hoare 45). Parker must have given full satisfaction with this prestigious project, because he was also asked to make some additions to the Hoares' country estate at Stourhead in Wiltshire. — Jacqueline Banerjee
Bibliography
Bradley, Simon, and Nikolaus Pevsner. London 1, The City of London. London: Penguin, 1997.
Hoare, Henry Peregrine Rennie. Hoare's Bank: A Record 1672-1955, the Story of a Private Bank. London: Collins, 1955.
Hoare's Bank. British Listed Buildings. Web. 12 November 2024.
Created 12 November 2024