Trail:

Nos. 11-13 Victoria Street

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Liverpool, Victoria St., Nos. 11-13

A former branch of Lloyd's Bank, this is a relatively late addition to Victoria Street, dating from 1927-8. It was designed by George Hastwell Grayson and Leonard Barnish. In contrast to its earlier neighbours, with their variegated skylines, rich decoration and multicoloured materials, it is sober and restrained. It is built of grey brick, with white stone used for the window surrounds and other details. The former banking hall on the ground floor is a large, uncluttered space with great IonicGlossary Term columns supporting the ceiling. The design is clearly modelled on Italian RenaissanceGlossary Term examples, but unlike most other buildings in the street which borrow details from RenaissanceGlossary Term architecture, it is notably free from quirks and eccentricities. In this it resembles early 20th-century American commercial architecture, which exerted a powerful influence in Liverpool, partly through the advocacy of Professor Charles Reilly of the Liverpool School of Architecture.

Glossary

Ionic

One of the orders of classical architecture, distinguished in particular by downward- and inward-curling spirals (called volutes) on the capital of the column.

Renaissance

The revival of classical architecture that began in 15th-century Italy and spread through Western Europe and the Americas in the following two centuries, finding distinctive forms and interpretations in different states and regions. From c. 1830 the Italian version was revived in Britain as a style in its own right (sometimes called Neo-Renaissance or Italianate), i.e. as distinguished from the native Georgian classical tradition.

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