THIS 1921-22 photograph is anonymous but shows the re-building of what was the Capital and Counties bank at 22 High Street for Lloyd’s who had moved across the street from what is now Barclay’s building.

Viewed today, both of these banks have a similar look about them – not surprising as they were designed by the same man within a few years of each other.

Lloyd’s was founded in Birmingham in 1765 by John Taylor and Sampson Lloyd.

Each were already successful businessmen, the former as a manufacturer of gentlemen’s artefacts such as snuff boxes, buttons and chains, the latter a Quaker and ironmaster.

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The new bank was privately-run and remained so until the mid-19th century when it became a joint stock company with a board of directors.

It opened new branches up and down the country, and in 1918 acquired the Capital and Counties Bank which had over 400 branches.

In Andover, Lloyd’s had already opened at No 5 High Street several years before the national takeover of the Capital and Counties Bank, so that, from 1918 there were two Lloyd’s banks in the High Street.

The architect Horace Field had designed a new building for Lloyd’s in 1915, which was erected on the western side of the High Street during that year.

By 1920 his services were required again to improve the look of the new bank on the opposite side of the road.

To that effect, the staff at No 22 were all moved out into the 1915 premises opposite and a wooden hut was put up to house the clerks who now had the work of two branches.

During the course of the next 18 months the building above was remodelled and enlarged.

As was so often the practice, much of the older building behind the new façade was saved, rather than the whole structure being knocked down completely and starting again.

Only the ground floor was renewed with the walls above being largely retained in the new building.

Today’s health and safety legislation might argue with the street below being unprotected from falling masonry and other hazards, while we might smile at the conglomeration of old doors, beer barrels and panelling being used to barricade and protect the site.

Note also the lone bicycle propped up against the hoarding; does this belong to one of the workers or has somebody left it there to go shopping?

At the end of May 1922, everything was ready and Lloyd’s staff returned to the new ‘business centre’ and the old premises opposite was sold to Barclay’s who remain there today.

One wonders whether Lloyd’s board had some misgivings about selling to a rival but maybe Barclay’s was the only potential buyer; it was, after all, purpose-designed and built as a modern bank.

The architect Horace Field (1861-1948), who designed both buildings, was born in London but trained in Glasgow before moving back to the capital.

He was able to secure a number of important commissions, including becoming the architect of choice for Lloyd’s, who used him to design a number of its buildings over a period of 40 years, some of which are now on the listed buildings register.

His style is popularly described as ‘Wrenaissance’ because of its look of Christopher Wren, who famously designed St Paul’s cathedral.

However, Field drew on a number of different earlier styles and his two Andover buildings are characterised a little dismissively in the modern edition of Pevsner as ‘Neo-Early Georgian essays of Gibbsian-Palladian descent’ James Gibbs was a Georgian Scottish architect who trained in Rome.

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He too was influenced by Wren and is responsible for St Martin in the Fields in Trafalgar Square.

Revivalist styles are often a combination of earlier periods and in short, can be a bit of this and a bit of that.

Broadly, these two Andover banks, whatever their precise architectural elements, have a ‘Georgian look’ about them, and are not wholly dissimilar to the Guildhall that looks down from the head of the street.

The building work for the new bank was carried out by Messrs Marden, Ball & Co of Fareham who also built the earlier Field design.

Even the foreman, Mr T Upshall, was the same man - a rather good surname for a builder in charge.

The ground floor had all its interior walls removed to leave an expansive open space that extended across the whole building.

The floor was of black and white marble, laid on a concrete base, while the floors above were supported by steel columns and girders, covered in white plasterwork.

The ground floor ceiling was decorated with a 12-inch-wide cornice and all the fittings were in the then-fashionable fumed oak.

One hundred years later, Lloyd’s is still there; many will hope it remains so.