Bank of British North America

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The Bank of British North America, constructed in 1903-04, is a three-storey steel frame, brick and sandstone structure with a one-storey 1914 addition located in Winnipeg's historic downtown Exchange District.

The Bank of British North America is one of the oldest monumental financial buildings on Bankers' Row, now an important part of the Exchange District National Historic Site of Canada and once the centre from which much of the capital for prairie development flowed. To outshine the bank's nearby competitors, architect A.T. Taylor of Montreal gave the building a grand Neo-Palladian sandstone front, complete with an Ionic colonnade and, for Winnipeg, a rare vermiculated base. Marble, fine woods and other rich materials and finishes were used to craft an equally exquisite interior and the whole was strongly supported by structural steel in an early local application of the construction type. The impressive, highly visible edifice, long occupied by the Royal Trust Co., then by lawyers Newman, MacLean and Associates, retains considerable exterior design integrity while continuing in contemporary commercial use. In recent years it has housed nightclubs.