Barclays Bank, 20 The Town, Enfield

Summary

Bank. Built in 1897 to designs by William Gilbee Scott for the London and Provincial Bank. Single-storey rear extension added in mid-C20. Interior much altered over the years.

Reasons for Designation

Barclays Bank at 20 The Street, Enfield of 1897 to designs by William Gilbee Scott for the London and Provincial Bank, is listed at Grade II for the following principal reasons:

Architectural interest:

* as a well-proportioned composition and eye-catching historicist design that achieves a strong street presence;

* for its assured architectural detailing and use of high-quality materials worked to a high standard of craftsmanship;

* for its largely unaltered exterior.

Historic interest:

* as the site of the world’s first operational automated teller machine (ATM), inaugurated on 27 June 1967.

Group value:

* with the adjacent Old Vestry Office and its forecourt railings, both listed at Grade II.

History

In 1894, the London and Provincial Bank, who had been the first bank to open a branch in Enfield Town in 1875, purchased the site of the Greyhound Inn and a row of three-storey terraced houses that formed the eastern side of the market square. In 1896 an architectural competition for the design of a new branch on the site was commissioned. The winner was a design by the London architect, William Gilbee Scott of 25 Bedford Row, and was exhibited at the Royal Academy and illustrated, along with plans, in ‘The Builder’ in January 1897. The original design included a block of twenty commercial offices, in a similar but simpler architectural style, to the rear (north) of the bank to maximise the use of the site but these were never built. The bank included a double-height banking hall and a flat for the bank manager on the first and mezzanine floors. The bank was built by Alan Fairhead and Son of Cecil Road, Enfield and opened in December 1897.

In December 1917 the London and Provincial Bank merged with the London and South Western to form the London, Provincial and South Western Bank which then merged with Barclays in 1918. In 1919 the architect Alfred Foster was commissioned to redesign the Enfield branch (presumably principally the interior) at a cost of £4,055. The interior of the bank has been further altered and modernised over the years with the double-height banking hall being lost in the process. At some point between 1935 and 1967 a single-storey extension was added to the rear of the building.

On 27 June 1967, the world’s first operational automated teller machine (ATM) was inaugurated at the Enfield branch by the comedian Reg Varney. The machine had been developed jointly by De La Rue Instruments and Barclays Management Services Department under John Shepherd-Barron, the managing director of De La Rue. The machine issued a £10 note on receipt of a special paper voucher inserted by the customer that was punched with dots corresponding to the customer’s four-digit PIN. Enfield was chosen because of its representative banking clientele, its good pavement access, high windows and its proximity to Barclays head office.

William Gilbee Scott (1857-1930) was born in Hackney and had a practice at 25 Bedford Row, London. He designed the Gower Street Memorial Chapel in Soho in 1887-88. He was, for a time, the architect for the Salvation Army and built a number of Salvation Army Citadels including those in Islington (Ronalds Road, 1891 - locally listed), Sunderland (1891 - Listed at Grade II - NHLE 1279897) and Sheffield (1892 - Listed at Grade II - NHLE 1247367), all in a castellated Gothic style.

Details

Bank. Built in 1897 to designs by William Gilbee Scott for the London and Provincial Bank. Single-storey rear extension* added in mid-C20. Interior much altered.

MATERIALS: red brick laid in Flemish bond with stone dressings and ground floor facing. Slate roofs.

PLAN: rectangular, three storey plus attic and basement, principal range fronting onto The Town with a lower two and three storey range and C20 single-storey extension to the rear. Internally the ground floor of the principal range contains a modernised open plan service space with offices and a stair to the basement to the west and cashiers to the north. The upper floors contain offices and other ancillary rooms around a passage off the main stair in the rear range.

EXTERIOR: designed in a Flemish Renaissance style, the principal (south) elevation is of four bays with the two central bays topped by a shaped gable. This has stone dressings and a segmental pediment and acroteria in the form of a pinnacle and urns. Behind the gable, the pitched roof is topped by an elaborate cupola with leaded dome and spire. Fenestration to the upper floors is of timber casement windows. In the outer bays these are set behind stone mullion and transoms within square-headed, rubbed brick surrounds. The second-floor windows have scrolled segmental pediments. The narrower windows in the central bays (and including the gable) just have the transom. The lintels and sills are formed by the continuous moulded cornices that run around three sides of the building interspersed with stone banding. Above the ground floor the bays are separated by half-octagonal engaged brick piers terminating in engaged pendants. The double-height ground floor is faced in ashlar and has an arched opening in each of the four bays, below a frieze and dentil cornice. The arched openings have volute keystones, plain patera in the spandrels and fluted imposts. Three of the openings contain timber-framed windows with fanlights with the entrance in the third bay. This has a segmental hood with elaborate consoles and decorative panels, supported on columns with composite capitals and carved base to the plain shafts. The moulded door surround is interrupted by banding and over the surround the word ’BANK’ is carved in relief interspersed with foliage. A round blue metal plaque below one of the windows commemorates the installation of the world’s first cash machine in 1967.

The east and west elevations feature prominent shaped gables, incorporating chimneys with stone dressings, with triangular pediments, ball finials and panels inscribed ’BANK’. Fenestration, of the two window bays, matches that on the front elevation as does the banding and cornices. On the east elevation the ashlar facing extends for only one bay and has an arched window matching the front elevation. The ground floor of the west elevation, onto the town square, has an arched window to each bay, that to the southern bay being larger and the opening modified at its foot to incorporate the pair of cash machines, one of which is painted gold to commemorate the original installed in 1967. The northern window lacks the patera in the spandrels. Between the two windows is an elaborate datestone with foliate decoration in relief and the date 1897. The northern part of the elevation is slightly set back and steps down from three storeys to two. The higher southern part has a brick cornice and hipped roof with a flat-roofed, three-window dormer. The lower, northern, section has a flat-roof with a stone cornice. There is a tall chimney with stone dressings. On the ground floor, the entrance, which original served the manager’s flat, is set within an ashlar section with a cornice and frieze and topped by a segmental pediment. The four-panel door has a three-light transom in a moulded surround and is flanked by a pair of narrow replacement windows with stone sills. To the south is a replacement metal-framed window with a rubbed brick surround and stone mullion and sill. On the first floor over the entrance are a pair of nine-light timber casements in rubbed brick surrounds and stone segmental pediments and sills. The window to the north of these has a pair of six-over-one timber sashes separated by a stone mullion with a rubbed brick surround and apron and stone sill. The second floor has a pair of three-over six timber sashes in brick surrounds with stone sills. The northern elevation of the northern range has a nine-light timber window to the upper floor.

The C20, single-storey rear extension* is of brick with a continuous concrete band over the mainly blocked windows and a brick parapet. This is not of special interest and is excluded from the listing.

INTERIOR: the ground floor has been modernised several times. It has no visible historic features and the original layout has been lost. The banking hall has a lower modern suspended ceiling but it is possible that the original survives above this. In the rear range, the original open-well, closed-string, stair survives. This has an oak handrail, newel posts with finials and pendants and turned balusters. On the upper floors some original joinery and cornices survive but most have been replaced or lost. The strong room door in the basement of the rear range is possibly original.

* Pursuant to s1 (5A) of the Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) Act 1990 (‘the Act’) it is declared that the C20 single-storey rear extension is not of special architectural or historic interest, however any works which have the potential to affect the character of the listed building as a building of special architectural or historic interest may still require LBC and this is a matter for the LPA to determine.

Sources

Books and journals
Cherry, B, Pevsner, N, The Buildings of England: London 4, North (1998 revised 2001), 445
London and Provincial Bank, Enfield in The Builder, ,Vol. , (9 January 1897), 39
Enfield Town 1870-1914 (The Town) in Enfield Society Newsletter, ,Vol. 215, (Autumn 2019), .

Websites
Londonist - Why was the World's First Cash Machine in Enfield? , accessed 21 December 2022 from https://londonist.com/2016/01/why-was-london-s-first-cash-machine-in-enfield-1

End of official list entry