Site Event/Activity record ECH7270 - Former Royal Bank of Scotland, 15 Foregate Street, Chester, CH1 1HD: Heritage, Design & Access Statement

Desk-based assessment produced in 2023 to support the repair and upgrading of the Former Royal Bank of Scotland, 15 Foregate Street, Chester, CH1 1HD, including internal alterations and external stone cleaning. The building is Grade II-listed and located in the Foregate Street Character Area of the Chester City Centre Conservation Area. The former Royal Bank of Scotland building is formed of two distinct phases of development. It was constructed as a bank in 1921 for the company later known as theDistrict Bank, to designs by Francis Jones, modelled (broadly) on a Cheshire Tudor mansion. The use of the Vernacular Revival was a well-established approach to bank architecture and, more broadly, had flourished in commercial architecture in Chester for decades earlier. The building was then extended in 1964 along the Frodsham Street frontage, to designs by Saxon Smith & Partners, replicating Jones’ earlier black and white façade. As a whole, its significance is principally derived through its richly decorated facades which have a visual cohesiveness across the entire frontages despite the phased development. (1)