How is Tellson's Bank described at the beginning of book two of Five Years Later?

Tellson’s Bank is described as “very small, very dark, very ugly, very incommodious.” It is an old-fashioned place, and the bank managers are proud of that fact. All this is testimony of its conservative (and therefore safe and reliable) way of doing business. It is not a product of the changing times. It is what it has always been and always will be. It is unchanging in a world that is in a state of flux. The American colonies are rebelling, and France is unsettled and will soon have a revolution. But Tellson’s Bank is always the same.

England at that time was a country firmly grounded in tradition. Not since the English Civil War over a hundred years previously has there been any question of things drastically changing in England itself. Tellson’s Bank thus serves as a symbol of the nation, unlike the situation in France. Mr. Lorry is very proud of his bank, and lives his life by the same principles as does Tellson’s. In this he serves as a bedrock, along with the bank, in the midst of the storms rocking Europe.