Bank of Friendship, Highbury

Built by 1881 of London brick, it appears to have received an inter-war refit and new frontage of stone on the ground floor, half-timbering on the first floor, and crittal windows.

There are three exterior doors so it looks like the layout was two bars with an off sales accessed from the middle door. It looks like the partition separating the off sales has been removed and amalgamated into the left hand bar as indicated by the change to the trough around the base of the bar counter.

The carpeted right-hand bar has an interwar tapered fielded panelled bar counter curved at each end. The bar back has an illuminated top section ‘Courage Bank of Friendship Courage’ which looks very 1950s. The top part of the bar back has leaded glass mirrors which look more post-war than interwar; lower shelving lost to fridges. At the front right-hand side of the room is a wood surround fireplace with a glazed stone interior that looks interwar.

The bare wood floor left-hand bar has a vestibule, another interwar tapered fielded panelled bar counter curved at each end with a trough around the base. The top part of the bar back has leaded glass mirrors which look more post-war than interwar; lower shelving lost to fridges. The pot shelf is modern. There is a wood surround fireplace with a glazed stone interior that looks interwar but the hearth looks changed. There was reportedly a short partition in the rear part of this bar.