Former Fosters' Bank. Sidney Street, Cambridge, Cambridgeshire, England, United Kingdom, Europe.
The architect was Alfred Waterhouse (1830-1905). The original founders of this bank were the brothers Richard and Ebenezer Foster, who intended it to cater for their mill employees. "Banks proliferated after various enactments of the 1820s and '30s," writes James Stevens Curl, pointing out that "the buildings were often in a Classical style, either firmly Roman or Italianate, based on club architecture" ; how fitting, therefore, that Smirke and Basevi's old Conservative Club should now have been turned into a bank! The Foster brothers were at the height of their prestige in the 1830s, when first Ebenezer and then Richard had a turn of being Mayor of Cambridge, so this building would have been designed for a later generation of the family. Although it is in the more currently-fashionable Dutch Renaissance style, with typical late-Victorian brick banding, it still has that kind of lavish Italianate interior. The bank is now operated by Lloyds TSB.
Size: 3274px × 5350px
Location: Former Fosters' Bank. Sidney Street, Cambridge, Cambridgeshire, England, United Kingdom, Europe.
Photo credit: © Stan Pritchard / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No
Keywords: bank, cambridge, clock, foster, lloyds, tsb
