The Lloyds Bank () is an historic building situated at 53 & 55

Corn Street Corn Street, together with Broad Street, Wine Street and High Street, is one of the four cross streets which met at the Bristol High Cross, the heart of Bristol, England when it was a walled medieval town. From this crossroads Corn Street an ...

Bristol Bristol () is a city, ceremonial county and unitary authority in England. Situated on the River Avon, it is bordered by the ceremonial counties of Gloucestershire to the north and Somerset to the south. Bristol is the most populous city in ...

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

. Originally the West of England and South Wales Bank built by Bristol architects

William Bruce Gingell William Bruce Gingell (1819–1899) was an architect practising in Bristol. He was in partnership with John Henry Hirst for a time and was influential in the Bristol Byzantine architectural style. Significant buildings * Gardiners warehou ...

(1819–1899) and T.R. Lysaght in 1854. Gingell was one of the most progressive Bristol architects of the latter part of the nineteenth century. He went on to design the General Hospital. Gingell is said to have used St Mark's library in Venice as a starting point for this building. The sumptuous friezes by are by John Thomas (1813–1862). John Thomas had been responsible for overseeing the carving on Charles Barry's new Houses of Parliament. On the ground floor the crests of Newport, Bath, Bristol, Exeter, and Cardiff are shown – the main towns from where the bank operated. On the first floor the ‘elements and sources of wealth’ are symbolised by life-size figures. They include: justice and integrity; education and charity; peace and plenty; art and science; commerce, navigation and commerce. And above this chubby cherubs depict the activities of the bank: receiving, paying, storing, coining money, engraving and printing, and trading with Africa and America. The adornment was intended to emphasize the wealth, and therefore financial stability, of the bank. It didn't stop the bank going bust, however, twenty years later in 1878. The opulent interior features

Corinthian Corinthian or Corinthians may refer to: *Several Pauline epistles, books of the New Testament of the Bible: **First Epistle to the Corinthians **Second Epistle to the Corinthians **Third Epistle to the Corinthians (Orthodox) *A demonym relating to ...

columns. It is a grade II*

listed building In the United Kingdom, a listed building or listed structure is one that has been placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Historic Environment Scotland in Scotland, in Wales, and the Northern Irel ...

and formerly housed a branch of the

Lloyds Bank Lloyds Bank plc is a British retail and commercial bank with branches across England and Wales. It has traditionally been considered one of the " Big Four" clearing banks. Lloyds Bank is the largest retail bank in Britain, and has an exte ...

. It is now a 42-room boutique hotel & luxury spa.

References

* Lloyds Bank in Bristol - script by John Sansom, Redcliffe Press. Undated - probably 1980s Grade II* listed buildings in Bristol Commercial buildings completed in 1858 Lloyds Banking Group Grade II* listed banks {{Bristol-struct-stub