A Victorian bank turned pub, built on Roman foundations.
 
This watercolour captures The Counting House at 50 Cornhill, a Grade II listed former banking hall designed by Henry Cowell Boyes in 1891–92 for Prescott, Dimsdale, Cave, Tugwell and Co., bankers. Built by William Cubitt in polished Aberdeen granite, Portland stone, and English-bond brick, the building's grand facade gives clues to an interior of soaring proportions. A single large oval bar beneath a stained-glass dome, with an upstairs gallery overlooking the main hall (I had my Christmas party there!).
 
The pub takes its name from the traditional term for a bank's counting room, where clerks once tallied coins and ledgers. Fuller's converted the ground floor into a pub in 1997, winning a City Heritage Award for the sensitive refurbishment, and the upper floors have since been converted into 21 boutique hotel rooms.
 
Interesting facts...
 
The building's foundations partly rest on a wall of a Roman basilica dating back nearly 2,000 years once the largest of its kind north of the Alps, incorporated directly into the walls of the bank's strong room!
 
A war memorial inside the pub commemorates bank staff who died in the Great War, thought to be the only such memorial in a British public house.
 
The pub is a twin of the Old Bank of England on Fleet Street, sharing the same high ceilings, ornate decoration, island bar, and mezzanine level. I have also painted this one.
 
The former manager's offices to the rear are now used as function rooms, including the Partners Room, which seats eight or holds ten standing. The building was occupied by several different banks over the years, with NatWest being the last before Fuller's purchased it in 1997. Love pubs in old banks.
 
 
Location: 50 Cornhill, City of London, EC3V 3PD