A tiled corridor, Lloyds Bank
Alfred Waterhouse (1830-1905)
1889-91 (mock-Tudor extension, 1935)
Stone with red brick bandings
Sidney Street, Cambridge
Other Views and Related Material
Photograph, caption, and commentary by Jacqueline Banerjee
The original founders of this bank were the brothers Richard and Ebenezer Foster, who intended it to cater for their mill employees. "Banks proliferated after various enactments of the 1820s and '30s," writes James Stevens Curl, pointing out that "the buildings were often in a Classical style, either firmly Roman or Italianate, based on club architecture" (291; how fitting, therefore, that Smirke and Basevi's old Conservative Club should now have been turned into a bank!). The Foster brothers were at the height of their prestige in the 1830s, when first Ebenezer and then Richard had a turn of being Mayor of Cambridge (see "Cambridge Mayors 1835-1840"), so this building would have been designed for a later generation of the family. Although it is in the more currently-fashionable Dutch Renaissance style, with typical late-Victorian brick banding, it still has that kind of lavish Italianate interior (see "Lloyds Bank") — a curious mix.
The original founders of this bank were the brothers Richard and Ebenezer Foster, who intended it to cater for their mill employees. "Banks proliferated after various enactments of the 1820s and '30s," writes James Stevens Curl, pointing out that "the buildings were often in a Classical style, either firmly Roman or Italianate, based on club architecture" (291; how fitting, therefore, that Smirke and Basevi's old Conservative Club should now have been turned into a bank!). The Foster brothers were at the height of their prestige in the 1830s, when first Ebenezer and then Richard had a turn of being Mayor of Cambridge (see "Cambridge Mayors 1835-1840"), so this building would have been designed for a later generation of the family. Although it is in the more currently-fashionable Dutch Renaissance style, with typical late-Victorian brick banding, it still has that kind of lavish Italianate interior (see "Lloyds Bank") — a curious mix.
The Fosters were a wealthy local family. They evidently had a particular interest in architecture: cf. the earlier, much smaller but also highly decorated Ruskinian cottage designed for Charles Foster on the family estate, Anstey Hall in nearby Trumpington.
References
Cambridge Mayors 1835-1840" (Cambridge City Council site). Viewed 16 September 2009.
Curl, James Stevens. Victorian Architecture. Newton Abbot: David & Charles, 1990.
"Lloyds Bank, 51- Sydney Street, Cambridge, Cambridgeshire" (National Monuments Record site). Viewed 15 September 2009.
Last modified 5 September 2009