Leadenhall St Midland Bank
The Midland Bank branch on Leadenhall Street (1929–31), planned by Whinney, Son & Austen Hall with elevations by Lutyens, is a tightly composed stone façade with arched ground and mezzanine windows, narrow upper lights, a recessed attic between broken‑pediment aedicules, and twin square open turrets rising above the roofline.
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Description
The Midland Bank’s Leadenhall Street office, commissioned in 1928, was built on a relatively narrow site with only a single extension. Lutyens used the maximum height then permitted by the London Buildings Acts but he also added two tall towers (not subject to the Acts) above the six-floor building. Designed in collaboration with Whinney Son and Austen Hall, who were responsible for general planning and supervision, the project was completed in 1931. (Amery et al, 1981, Cat no.198)
The MIDLAND BANK (Nos. 139-144), 1929-31, has an elevation by Lutyens on a building by Whinney, Son & Austen Hall. An in- geniously calculated drawing-board design, treated with much self- possession, despite the unspectacular size and position. Typical of Lutyens the ground-floor windows tucked under big arches. Arched mezzanine windows, with sills coming down segmentally. Narrow windows in the upper storeys. Attic recessed between broken-pedimented aedicules, above which rise matching square open turrets, visible at a distance. Saucer domes in the ground floor loggia, but no Lutyens alchemy within. (Bradley & Pevnser, 1997, pp.530-1)
Bibliography
Amery, C., Richardson, M. and Stamp, G., (1981) Lutyens, the Work of the English Architect Sir Edwin Lutyens (1869-1944): Hayward Gallery London, 18 November 1981 – 31 January 1982. London: Arts Council of Great Britain.
Bradley S & Pevnser N (1997) LONDON 1: THE CITY. The Buildings of England. New Haven: Yale University Press.
, Bradley, S. and Pevsner, N. (1997) London I: The City of London:The Buildings of England London: Penguin.
Butler, A., 1950. The architecture of Sir Edwin Lutyens: the Lutyens memorial series. Vol III: Town and Public Buildings: Memorials: The Metropolitan Cathedral, Liverpool, Country Life: London and Scribners: New York.
