Natwest Bank, 93 High Street, Wimbledon Common

One of my favourite buildings in South West London is this impressive bank in Wimbledon Village. Originally the London and Counties Bank (the LCB logo is present on the cylindrical turret on the first floor exterior) it is now a Natwest.

I found this wonderful old print of the building online on the archiseek website. How wonderful that drawings of this quality were the standard practice of the day, in stark contrast to the often vulgar and misleading renders we have today.

The architects were Cheston and Perkin. Horace Cheston and his former assistant Joseph Craddock Perkin practised in partnership in London from 1892 to 1913. The facade is in soft red bricks, with sandstone features, which I must say, looks astonishingly like Bath stone. I could find very little of their architectural practice, and I was very surprised to see the building is not listed.

Below, images of the building in 2016.

Below, the LCB logo.

Gothic meets classical – note the egg and dart and dentil features in the background, contrasted with the stiff-leaf carving in the foreground. Yet it all works seamlessly. It wouldn’t look out of place in Oxford.

More of the Classical/Gothic juxtaposition: egg and dart, sausage and pea and dentils, then a Green Man hiding in the cavetto of the the string-course. Wonderful stuff.

This is architecture heaven: modillions are the corbel like projections with acanthus-like carvings, initially designed to echo or imitate the wooden struts used for the roof. An encyclopaedia of architectural features.

I love the relief-carving on the fascia. I can see a dragon’s head on the left and I think what is a cockatrice (dragon’s body with the head of a cockerel – all those years playing Dungeons and Dragons has paid off!).

Yet it’s not just the embellishment that is of the highest order. The architectural stonemasonry itself is first class, and worthy of any palace or cathedral. Just look how the bow-tell mouldings of the arches just disappear into the wall. masonry perfection.

I truly believe this should be at least grade 2 listed. Bank architecture of this late Victorian period is exemplary and this is amongst the best of the lot.

The entrance:

Closer up on the image: these little niches are beautifully carved. Again, egg and dart, sausage and pea and a shell design for the hood. The caps are little classical-esque volutes with  stiff leaf centres.

All in all, architecture and building of the highest order. Functional and formal yet beautiful. It represents the institution proudly while fitting in to its surroundings. It’s my opinion that the quality of stonemasonry was never any better than in this period.