AWARD-winning Liverpool based architects Austin-Smith:Lord are offering culture enthusiasts the chance to step inside one of the city's most famous and iconic buildings and view some of the region's finest art and architecture.

MONUMENTS by Terry Duffy at Martins Bank Building is a unique installation created for this important location which has been closed awaiting re-invention and a vision for its future use.

MONUMENTS is a powerful fusion of monumental architecture, fine art, history and humanity. It questions, challenges and informs architectural and spacial democracy, contemporary aesthetics and cultural legacy.

Through the appropriation of the building the MONUMENTS installation injects new life into this space and draws attention to the significance of its history, its once global maritime links and the context for its reinvention.

Dominic Wilkinson, from Austin:Smith-Lord, said: "This building really is a masterpiece in the world of architecture. We want to raise awareness of the extremely high quality of internal spaces which exist in Liverpool."

The building is claimed to be the "grandest surviving banking hall in the country" more like a palatial palace rather than a banking hall.

"It is a building of incredible opulence and we are sponsoring a private viewing for guests to have the opportunity to see this magnificent building and artwork," Mr Wilkinson added.

The banking hall retains many of its original 1930 features including all the original light fittings and a vast glass ceiling, which illuminates the central space. The original banking screens also remain intact together with the writing desks and paper holders.

Mr Wilkinson said: "This building is more intact than most banking halls. It is a fantastic design and a magnificent piece of architecture which still survives and stands today."

The building has been described as "among the very best inter-war classical buildings in the country."

ASL is inviting around 150 guests to the private viewing on November 27.