Patrick Comerford
Bank House at No 9 Ladybank is a striking Victorian, Tudor Gothic-revival building in the centre of Tamworth, facing the Castle Hotel and almost opposite the Holloway Lodge entrance to Tamworth Castle.
It is one of the few buildings – if not the only building – in Tamworth to boast a blue plaque.
This Tudor Gothic style Grade II listed building was formerly the Tamworth Savings Bank. It bears the date AD 1845, and was built in 1845-1846 to house the bank founded by Sir Robert Peel in 1823.
The former bank, now in offices, has a buff brick façade with ashlar dressings, a tile roof with ashlar end stacks. It was built in an L-plan in the domestic Tudor style. It is a two-storey building, with a three-window range, an ashlar base, a top cornice and a parapet.
The Tudor-headed entrance has a label mould and cusped spandrels, and a four-panel door. There are two-storey canted oriels at the forward breaks under the gables, moulded bases and ribs to 1:2:1-light windows, with panels between the floors, and brattished cornices. There is a narrow central window on the first floor above the door.
The gables have relief display of the former coat-of-arms with a fleur-de-lys on a shield supported by a pair of mermaids.
The neighbouring houses that continue the terrace along Ladybank are splendid examples of Victorian domestic architecture with their own pathway and railings that separate them from Holloway which runs below from the end of Silver Street to Lady Bridge.
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