“I ALWAYS walk past the Nationwide building on Bondgate in Darlington, and wonder what its original use was,” says Barry Raper. “Is there anything in your archives to tell?”

Above the bland banking ground floor, it is a quite remarkable building. The architectural historian Nikolaus Pevsner notes that it is “an interesting Arts and Crafts design of the early 20th Century, with gentle curving bays”.

The Nationwide building in Bondgate, DarlingtonArcing across its first floor are 19 vertical windows above which there is a bendy balcony with curved turrets on either side, and it is topped off by a line of attic windows crammed into its roof.

If you look very closely, the building itself betrays its beginnings. Above the “Nationwide” logo, there are a couple of bald spots in the rendering where once its original name was fixed. You can definitely see its first letter, L, and then, perhaps with a little imagination, you can make out an A and a V…

This rather maverick building was therefore the home of the Laverick brothers.

Lavericks, the nailbar and then the entrance to Royal Oak YardIt was built in the first decade of the 20th Century, and on the ground floor was the Lavericks’ confectionary shop. Many of their sweets and condiments were made in their factory at the rear of the property in Royal Oak Yard – readers with fantastic memories may recall before the Second World War returning jam jars to the factory and getting back the halfpenny deposit.

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Then on the upper floors Lavericks had a café, which was designed with a mock Tudor feel. There were exposed beams and leaded windows – like the 19 facing the street – and there was dark oak panelling on the walls and large leather benches.

Inside the balcony room of Lavericks with its feature fireplace. What is it like up there today?On the balcony floor, the focal point was a large fireplace which had the legend above it: “Let none bear beyond this threshold hence, Words spoken here in friendly confidence.”

What goes on in Lavericks stays in Lavericks…

Looking down on Bondgate from Lavericks' balcony in December 1961. There was once a village green in the middle of Bondgate where the buses are parked upThis room was particularly popular during the First World War with soldiers, briefly back on leave, who would meet their sweethearts up here.

The same view along Bondgate from Lavericks' balcony in February 1988 We think Lavericks stopped trading after the Second World War when their curious building became the Co-operative Permanent Building Society, and it has remained a financial institution ever since.

Motorists seem confused by the new road layout in Bondgate on June 25, 1974. Lavericks is on the rightAlthough the buildings address is today 5-6 Bondgate, it is not strictly in Bondgate. On its west side is 7-8 Bondgate – a funny low building from the 1920s or 1930s with three arched windows which is currently a nail bar – and it too is not technically in Bondgate.

Charles Harris' butchers shop in 1891 with Royal Oak Yard on the right. It has been replaced by the 1930s nailbar. Picture courtesy of the Darlington Centre for Local StudiesREAD MORE: CHARLES HARRIS' BROTHER WAS THE BIG SHOT OF BARNEY - THE FISHMONGER WHO GOT MIXED UP IN A VERY FISHY TALE

Next is the passageway known as Royal Oak Yard which today is a cut-through to the Bells Place car park and Andy’s phone shop. The Royal Oak was an ancient pub that fronted onto High Row with its yard running behind it and then taking a 90 degree turn out onto Bondgate.

The Royal Oak closed as long ago as 1843 but, amazingly, its name lives on.

This is probably because in olden times the entrance to Royal Oak Yard marked the boundary between the borough of Darlington and the vill of Bondgate.

The full width of Bondgate on a late 1890s picture before Lavericks' cafe has been built. Picture courtesy of Darlington Centre for Local StudiesDarlington and Bondgate were two very different settlements. Darlington was focused on its market, its church and its bishop’s palace down by the river, whereas Bondgate had two streets – north and south – which faced onto its wide, central village green. The inner ring-road roundabout today occupies much of the green.

Bondgate was inhabited by bondsmen who owed their allegiance to the bishop, and his steward lived in a manor house which was on the village green. It was here that the halmote court, which the bondsmen were bound to attend, was held two or three times a year, and it was here that they paid all the rents and tithes that were due to the bishop.

In the middle of the 19th Century, the prosperous industrialists of Darlington asserted themselves over the bishop and set up their own democratic council to run the town and replace his old, authoritarian ways. Bondgate came under their control and it was subsumed into Darlington.

The old cottages at the centre of Bondgate that were demolished in 1853. They were the last remains of the bishop's steward's house that once stood in the middle of the village green. The archway on the right still remains on the north side of BondgateWhat were probably the last remains of the steward’s house in the middle of Bondgate were demolished in 1853 and the street gained its wide, open feel – although now there is only tarmac in the middle and no village green.

So the western wall of Royal Oak Yard was the old boundary between these two distinct places which means that Lavericks, for all its address is Nos 5-6 Bondgate, it lies just outside Bondgate.

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An early 1970s aerial view of Bondgate, showing its wide central shape where the green and the manor house were once