Former bank Buildings on High Street and Cathedral Yard, Exeter, Now The Ivy restaurant.
"No s 65 and 67 (National Westminster Bank). 2 separate buildings, one on the High Street, one on Cathedral yard, later joined. High Street Early C20. Ashlar. Classical style. 3 storeys with an extra height ground floor. The ground floor is rusticated, and has round-headed arcading with quarter Tuscan columns inset. Above this are giant order Corinthian pilasters. There are 5 windows to both the High Street and Broadgate, some with pedimented heads. The entrance is on the corner and is crowned with a cupola. Deep modillion eaves cornice. Cathedral Yard Mid C19 Italianate. Formerly the City Bank. Ashlar, rusticated on the ground floor and the pilasters above. 5 bays, with central entrance with paired columns and the city arms over the door. Round-headed sash windows. Deep cornice, hipped slated roof. Balustraded wall along the bank frontage. Nos 65 and 67 and Nos 70 to 72 (consec) form a group and also part of the Cathedral Close Group."
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"As it stands today Nos. 65 & 67 is one of the most impressive examples of neo-Classical architecture in the city. Like Nos. 70 & 71 on the High Street, Nos. 65 & 67 partly owes its current appearance to the major redevelopment which took place between 1903 and 1905 in the vicinity of St Petrock's church.
The history of the adjacent church is both long and interesting but by at least the beginning of the 19th century it was almost totally enveloped by houses. Jenkins, in 1806, wrote that
"scarce any part of it can be seen except the tower" and the Rev. George Oliver recorded in 1828 that the church was
"buried in the midst of houses". The church was only accessible from the High Street via a passageway which led underneath one of the houses. At the beginning of the 20th century it was decided to sweep all of the surrounding buildings away, both widening the High Street and revealing the north face of the church for the first time in centuries. (Hooker's map of Exeter suggests that the church was already surrounded with houses by the late-1500s.)
Nos. 65 & 67 is the result of a merger in 1901 between two of Exeter's oldest banks: the Exeter Bank, founded in 1768 and the City Bank, founded in 1786. These two banks then merged in 1902 with a London bank, Prescott, Dimsdale & Co, followed by yet another merger in 1903 with the Union of London & Smiths bank. (This bank was later to become part of National Provincial whose name partly lives on as the National Westminster bank.) The mergers from 1901 to 1903 were commemorated in a large plaque which still exists on the High Street facade of Nos. 65 & 67. The City Bank already owned premises in Cathedral Yard but it was decided to erect another building adjacent to it for the Exeter Bank, and this is the building which now sits on the corner of the High Street with Broadgate.
The construction of the new building in 1905 coincided with the plans to demolish the properties surrounding St Petrock's church. Instead of building on the exact footprint of the property which previously occupied the site, the line of the High Street frontage was moved back towards the Cathedral Yard. A photograph in the Westcountry Studies Library dated 1905 shows the bank under construction at the same time as Nos. 70 & 71, on the other side of the church, were being demolished. Clearly there was some synchronisation between the clearance of old properties around the church and the construction of the new bank.
Unfortunately little is known about the buildings that the Exeter Bank replaced. One small but fascinating piece of information has survived though concerning what was No. 65. It seems that this building had groin vaulted undercrofts, the only such example that has ever been recorded in one of Exeter's domestic houses. Jenkins mentions the undercrofts in his 1806 history of the city:
"Near the Church, under the house now occupied by Mr George Cox, is a cellar; which, from its arched stone groins, has occasioned conjectures, that it was originally the crypt of an ancient chapel." These undercrofts were destroyed during the construction of the bank and the reason behind their existence will forever remain a mystery.
The bank that arose on the site was constructed of beautiful Bath stone. It is three storeys high with a rusticated ground floor. The High Street facade is five bays wide, each bay separated at first and second floor level by pilasters topped with Corinthian capitals. The Broadgate facade is two bays wide, divided again with pilasters. A chamfered corner from the High Street into Broadgate contains the main entrance.
The corner facade is just one bay wide , the windows framed with more pilasters and Corinthian capitals. All of the first floor windows have pointed pediments and balustrading and a deep modillion cornice runs under the eaves. The ground floor windows have round arches inset into which are quarter Tuscan columns. Above the main entrance is a stone parapet supported by enormous corbels decorated with stylised acanthus leaves and within the arch over the entrance is a decorative panel inscribed with the words 'Exeter Bank'. Crowning the corner of the building is a large buttressed cupola with a copper roof.
When you actually stop to look at it Nos. 65 & 67 is a magnificent building, although the cupola is [not] a particularly effective addition. To construct the same building today would cost a fortune. It was granted Grade II listed status in November 1971."
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The Exeter Bank - 1769The first bank to open in the city was the Exeter Bank on the 9th July 1769, in premises adjoining the Royal Clarence Hotel in Cathedral Yard. Partners in the bank were John Duntze, William Mackworth Praed, Joseph Sanders and Daniel Hamilton. The hotel and the bank buildings were designed and built by Praed, who also had banking interests in London. Sir John Duntze was already a wealthy wool merchant and was MP for Tiverton. Like John Baring he was a German migrant.
The earliest note issued by the Exeter Bank was in 1791. Most private banks issued notes in £5 and £10 denominations and, after 1828, they were prohibited from issuing one pound notes.
In July 1810, 500 prominent Exeter citizens gave a vote of confidence in the bank after a local bank collapsed.
A case of forgery in 1818, involved Exeter Bank notes. Samuel Holmyard was found guilty of printing forged notes in his workshop in Sun Lane, off South Street. He was hanged at the Exeter temporary gallows at Magdalen Road—fifty years later James Cossins wrote of the execution:
"Homeyard was taken to be hung at Magdalen temporary drop for forgery, Nov. 13th 1818, he being the first hanged by the city authorities for thirty-two years. A large crowd accompanied him. He was sitting in a cart, with a book in his hand, his coffin beside him, the clergyman walking by the side."The Exeter Bank was involved in another case of forgery in 1829, when a five pound note was received by the bank from Mr Medland's shop near the Half Moon Inn. The bank took the note to the Bank of England in Southernhay a few days later, where upon inspection it was found to be a forgery. An investigation took place which traced the note to a William Notley who had tried to purchase from Mr Medland's shop two pairs of stockings, worth five shillings and sixpence. Notley was found guilty of passing a forged note and was sentenced to hang.
In 1896 a second branch of the bank was opened in Exmouth, followed by a branch in Budleigh Salterton. By this time the bank was known as the Exeter Bank of Sanders and Co. In February 1901, the Exeter Bank and the City Bank which was situated on the corner of Broadgate, amalgamated. They were the last two private banks in the city. In October 1905, the old bank premises were put up for sale, and the staff moved to the City Bank. It was purchased by Deller's of Paignton, and became the first Deller's Cafe in the city. Through a series of mergers the Exeter Bank became part of the National Provincial Bank in 1918, which eventually became the National Westminster Bank."
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The City Bank - 1786Established in 1786 by Samuel Milford and Richard Hall Clark, the City Bank's first premises were on the corner of Bear Street, near the Deanery. Like Duntze, Milford was a successful serge and woollen merchant and like many of the new bankers in the city, was not from the Anglican Church, but he was a Unitarian. The partners who had contributed £15,000 each to the business, engaged "a steadyclerk of... undoubted character" with the aim of "transacting all business relative to money".
In 1793 the bank moved to a newly built banking hall opposite what is now Pizza Express on Broadgate. In January 1800, the bank suffered a serious robbery when banknotes, drafts and other items, to the value of £7,000 locked in an iron chest in an inner room were stolen without the use of keys. No force appeared to have been used in the break-in and a reward of £200 was offered for information that would lead to the recovery of the money. Samuel Milford died a week later at the age of 63, it was said, of the shock. Payment on the bank notes were suspended and two months later a new partnership of John Milford, John Hogg and William Nation was formed, and an advertisement was placed for holders of the previous banks depository notes and five guinea notes to apply to the new partnership, where they would be honoured.
In 1810, the bank had recovered enough for the public to give a vote of confidence after a local bank collapse. The last notes issued by the City Bank were in 1898. In 1901 the City Bank merged with the Exeter Bank and in 1905 the City Bank's building at Broadgate became the home of the amalgamated, and now named Exeter Bank. The High Street was widened in the same year between South Street and Broadgate and the shop on the corner of Broadgate and High Street, Cornish the outfitters moved to the corner of North Street. The High Street frontage was rebuilt in the same style as the City Bank premises inside Broadgate and the bank occupied the whole building. The National Provincial Bank took over the Exeter Bank in 1918, and is now part of NatWest as they like to be known."
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