View of interior of Banking Hall at the British Linen Bank, St Andrews Square, Edinburgh.

Description View of interior of Banking Hall at the British Linen Bank, St Andrews Square, Edinburgh.

Date c. 1890

Collection Records of Bedford Lemere and Company, photographers, London, England

Catalogue Number BL 14433

Category Photographs and Off-line Digital Images

Copies SC 700912, B 64365

Scope and Content Telling Hall, British Linen Company Bank, Nos 38-9 St Andrew Square, Edinburgh (now the Bank of Scotland) The head office of the British Linen Company Bank was designed in 1846 in the grandest possible style and on a colossal scale by the architect, David Bryce. The photographer, Harry Bedford Lemere, was commissioned to photograph the interior in 1896 on the 150th anniversary of the founding of the bank. This magnificent cross-shaped telling (banking) hall, 22.7m in length, is lined with polished Peterhead granite Corinthian columns and pilasters, with capitals in bronzed zinc. The ceiling has a central dome of engraved glass rising to 15.2m, and the floor is laid in geometric patterns of Minton tiles. The British Linen Company, founded in 1746 to promote the Scottish linen industry, quickly developed banking services (including issuing its own bank notes) which it offered to customers at its offices in many parts of Scotland. It was established in 1774 as the British Linen Company Bank. Source: RCAHMS contribution to SCRAN.

Medium Glass

External Reference Box 29

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/collection/329779