Fargate, Sheffield

In the 1880s, the directors of the Yorkshire Penny Savings Bank bought the land to erect a new bank. Leeds-based architects Henry Perkin and George Bertram Bulmer took on the task. The corner stones were laid on 18 January 1888 by builders Armitage and Hodgson of Leeds and the building was officially opened by Lord Lascelles, the president of the bank on 25 July 1889. The building is late-Gothic design, with five-storeys and a long curved Holmfirth stone front.

The Yorkshire Penny Savings Bank occupied two floors – at ground level was the large banking hall, fitted out in polished wainscot oak with a mosaic-tiled floor, the basement contained the strong-room. The remainder of the building was used as a restaurant and first-class hotel. It was leased by Sheffield Café Company, formed in 1877 as part of a growing movement of temperance houses throughout the country.

The Albany Hotel opened in September 1889 with electric light throughout, a restaurant, billiard room, coffee and smoking rooms, private dining rooms and, on the upper floors, 40 bedrooms. By the 1920s, the Sheffield Café Company was struggling financially, ceasing trading in 1922. Their assets were bought by Sheffield Refreshment Houses, which operated the hotel until closure in 1958.

The Yorkshire Penny Savings Bank became Yorkshire Bank in 1959 and the old hotel was subsequently converted into offices: Yorkshire Bank Chambers. The bank closed in August 2020. The external appearance remains relatively unchanged, with carved winged lions, medieval figures, shields and gargoyles on the outside of the building. Gabled dormers, lofty chimneys and a crenelated parapet were sacrificed during the 1960s.