Former Midland Bank, 1-3 High Street

Summary

A former bank in the neoclassical style, built in 1921 for London Joint City and Midland Bank.

Reasons for Designation

1-3 High Street, Ramsgate (former Midland Bank), 1921, is listed at Grade II for the following principal reasons:

Architectural interest:

* for its symmetrical composition and well-executed neo-classical design, which achieves a strong street presence on a prominent corner site;
* for the quality of its exterior detailing, materials and high standard of craftsmanship.

Historic interest:

* as one of several banks built in the centre of Ramsgate in the decades either side of 1900, the building helps to convey the history of both the town’s expansion and the proliferation of bank buildings in this period.

Group value:

* with a number of other historic buildings ranging from the late C17 to the early C20 around the crossroads formed by High Street, Queen Street, King Street and Harbour Street.

History

Ramsgate is situated on the east coast of the Isle of Thanet, facing France and the Low Countries. Originating as a fishing village within the medieval parish of St Laurence, Ramsgate’s development from the C16 was driven by the strategic importance of its coastal port. Ramsgate became associated with the Cinque Ports as a limb of Sandwich from the C14. Late C17 trade with Russia and the Baltic resulted in a wave of investment and rebuilding in the town. In 1749 the construction of a harbour of refuge from storms in the North Sea and Channel was approved, and a cross wall and inner basin were completed in 1779 to the design of John Smeaton. Later improvements included a lighthouse of 1794-1795 by Samuel Wyatt and a clock house of 1817 by Wyatt and George Louch. From the mid-C18 Ramsgate became increasingly popular as a seaside resort, its expansion being accelerated by road improvements and faster sea passage offered by hoys, packets and steamers. During the Napoleonic Wars Ramsgate became a busy garrison town and a major port of embarkation. The arrival of the South Eastern Railway’s branch line in 1846 opened up Ramsgate to mass tourism and popular culture, bringing a range of inexpensive, lively resort facilities. New schools, hospitals and services were also built. The thriving town attracted diverse faith communities; Moses Montefiore founded a synagogue and a religious college at East Cliff Lodge, while AWN Pugin St Augustine’s Church and the Grange as part of an intended Catholic community on the West Cliff. Ramsgate remained a popular holiday destination until the advent of cheap foreign travel in the post-war decades. Falling visitor numbers were exacerbated by the decline of the town’s small trades and industries, fishing and boat-building. However, a ferry and hovercraft port and the large marina created in the inner harbour in the 1970s have continued to bring life to the area.

In England, banking was the preserve of goldsmiths up until the late C17. Sir Richard Hoare (1648- 1719) is considered to be the ‘father of the banking profession’ and the Bank of England was established in 1694. During the C18 banks (like warehouses) were private houses with business rooms on the ground floor. Banks were built in great numbers to fuel the economy in the C19. Image and appearance mattered, with outward impressiveness being pursued as the embodiment of reliability, confidence and security. After the financial reforms of the 1840s, banks began to assume a more standard guise: as with exchanges, the common formula for larger banks is a grand entrance leading into a banking hall with offices off to the side. Italianate or Renaissance designs became the favoured idiom, with effort being concentrated on front elevations and public areas, above all the banking hall. Rear areas tend to be much more utilitarian, with increasingly sophisticated strong rooms; employees often lived above banks for security reasons. C20 banks retained their prominence on the high street, embodying solidity and respectability. Classical designs gave way to more contextual styles, with neo-Georgian a particular favourite by the 1920s.

Midland Bank was founded in Birmingham in 1836 by Charles Geach. After a period of expansion and acquisitions in the Midlands, it merged with the Central Bank of London in 1891 and acquired the City Bank in 1898 to become the London Joint City and Midland Bank, which gave it access to a wider national market. More than 20 bank amalgamations followed to 1918, by which time it ranked as the largest bank in the world with deposits of £335 million. Following the First World War, the bank opened new branches across Britain, including the Ramsgate branch, which was built in 1921 on the site of the 1789 London Hotel. Midland Bank was acquired by HSBC in 1992, who vacated the Ramsgate branch in 2022.

At some point a first floor was inserted into the building, which would originally have had a double-height banking hall. At some time in the late C20 a niche was cut into part of the High Street elevation to incorporate an ATM.

Details

A former bank in the neoclassical style, built in 1921 for London Joint City and Midland Bank.

MATERIALS: external walls of ashlar and stucco.

PLAN: the building forms an irregular rectangle on plan, with a curved corner between the High Street and King Street elevations. The other two elevations are not visible as they abut neighbouring buildings and a small rear courtyard.

EXTERIOR: the building occupies a corner plot with a bull-nose entrance flanked by a three-bay elevation to High Street and four bays to King Street. The external walls are of stucco or ashlar with banded rustication to the upper walls resting on a plain ashlar plinth, that to King Street dropped slightly lower to incorporate taller windows. Each elevation has one double-height window per bay; these are deeply recessed and have round-headed arches and rusticated voussoirs. The windows are divided by giant Doric columns supporting a moulded entablature with dentil and modillion cornice. Above this the parapet has vase balustrades. The entrance is to the curved corner between the two elevations and has modern double doors set within an elaborate doorcase with fluted edges and bay-leaf and floral mouldings below the projecting cornice. Above this the entablature and parapet from the side elevations are continued across the curve but with the addition of triglyphs to the frieze.

INTERIOR: the ground floor comprises a long banking hall with a two-position counter towards the eastern end, plus a small, separate office room against the west wall. There is also a back office spanning the width of the building. These spaces all have suspended ceilings and modern treatment. The principal staircase rises from next to the entrance, while the secondary staircase is positioned at the opposite end beyond the service counter and has turned balusters of timber. The principal, open-plan office in the centre of the first floor has a coffered ceiling with dentil cornices. This was presumably the ceiling of the original banking hall, which would have been a double-height space, with the inserted first floor now cutting across the tops of the arched windows facing King Street. There are three smaller offices to the west side at the top of the principal staircase plus a kitchenette to the east side. It is understood that the property has an extensive basement.

Sources

Books and journals
Booker, J, Temples of Mammon: The Architecture of Banking (1990),
Parissien, S, Barson, S, Burton, N, Holder, R, Saunders, M, Banking on Change: A Current Account of Britain's Historic Banks (1992), 16

Websites
The HSBC Group in Europe, accessed 30 March 2023 from https://web.archive.org/web/20110927061407/http:/www.hsbc.com/1/PA_1_1_S5/content/assets/about_hsbc/history_europe.pdf

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