Description: Pelham Street is on the left. The National Westminster Bank, originally built as the Nottingham and Notts. Bank by Watson Fothergill between 1877-1882. The bank's head offices were designed to give its customers a feeling of security and permanence. The building is dominated by a central tower and has many wonderful carvings of animals, beasts and foliage. High up are three panels in Portland stone, depicting the principal industries of the region - mining, textiles & agriculture. The names of the towns where the bank had other branches are carved in stone along its frontage. On the first floor of the bank was a large apartment for the manager and his family. It had its own entrance from the street, and the oriel window on the first floor was the window to the manager's library. Fothergill Watson (he later changed his name to Watson Fothergill) was one of the leading local architects practising in the Nottingham area from about 1870 to 1906. During these thirty or so years he designed over a hundred buildings including houses, banks, churches, shops and warehouses, many of which still survive today. He worked in the Gothic revival and Old English vernacular styles, very popular in the Victorian times. These styles were loosely based on medieval churches and castles, and 16th & 17th century tudor buildings.