please empty your brain below
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I certainly remember Williams & Glyn’s - you had to trek to find one of those when I first came down to London.
kerspatula | 07.06.21 - 7:08 a.m. | #
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Ms avec-serif seems to have got in first and made all required comments on this post.
Malcolm of Kent | 07.06.21 - 7:11 a.m. | #
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I remember when this bank used to be the Abbey National Building Society, head office in Baker Street London, it had a member of staff to answer letters sent to 221b Baker Street, addressed to a Mr Sherlock Holmes .
Robert | 07.06.21 - 7:23 a.m. | #
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A blog post complete with all likely comments. This is unfair to the reader; I intend to raise this issue with the appropriate ombudsperson.
Frank F | 07.06.21 - 7:29 a.m. | #
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Such is the corporate face of banking these days that I was momentarily taken aback when you colour-coded the map in the red/black corporate/branding colours of Société Générale.
MartinG | 07.06.21 - 7:34 a.m. | #
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This has reminded me of one of my favourite exchanges from the film of Porridge:
"Where's the nearest town?"
"Oh, there isn't one"
Ned | 07.06.21 - 7:45 a.m. | #
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It's in rural areas that the bank branch cuts have been most severe and, given remote rural internet provision quality, most telling.
My nearest bank, since the Hawes Barclays closed, is an impassible-in-winter 20 mile round trip to Barclays Kirkby Stephen. Or a 35 mile rounder to Leyburn or Richmond for anything other than Barclays.
For a so called Nationwide it's a 50 miler to Darlington and back.
Putters | 07.06.21 - 7:51 a.m. | #
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A few months ago Barclays stopped my account over suspicious transactions. They had, like Natwest and Santander previously, closed their local branch and when two phone calls and a previous visit failed to resolve the matter I made a trip into Richmond.
Sprout Eater | 07.06.21 - 7:54 a.m. | #
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Bank branches are very useful when your bank card gets bent or broken and you have to get money while you wait for them to send you a new one.
And Santander’s cards don’t seem to last more than a couple of years or so. Maybe they’re just made of cheap, flimsy plastic or something!
Paul Ingerson | 07.06.21 - 8:21 a.m. | #
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This was on the local East Anglia news a few weeks ago - banks (including Santander) are trialing sharing a location on different days in Rochford (Essex) and Cambuslang (near Glasgow).
Hopefully it works and get put into place elsewhere, although like many others, I haven't been into a bank for ages - from memory it was to pay in a cheque, and I think the Barclays smartphone app now allows you to scan the cheque in with your smartphone.
Jay | 07.06.21 - 8:23 a.m. | #
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That brought back some memories. My first full time job was in the branches of Abbey National in 1989, long before it was bought by Santander.
I initially started in the City of London area, and at that time I recall there were 9 or 10 branches in the area:
Fenchurch Street; Houndsditch; Moorgate (Chief City Office); Cheapside St Pauls; Cheapside Queen Street; Chancery Lane (replaced by High Holborn 1989/90); Barbican; Ludgate Circus; Leather Lane. I think there was one more, but cannot recall where.
In 1990 I then moved to the East London area, which covered the inner-London boroughs of Tower Hamlets, Hackney and Newham. 13 branches in 1990:
Shadwell; Bethnal Green; Old Ford; Poplar; South Quay Plaza; Hackney Mare St; Dalston; Stoke Newington; Stratford; East Ham; Upton Park; Forest Gate; Canning Town
Al | 07.06.21 - 8:23 a.m. | #
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It is not a new phenomenon, although the cuts are getting close to the bone. As an example, there was a small subbranch of the Bank of Liverpool in Dent from 1898, later a branch of Martins Bank and then Barclays. It closed in 1972. The parent branch in Sedbergh closed in 2015. The NatWest went at the same time, leaving no high street bank, just the Post Office. Again, Kirkby Lonsdale. Or Kendal.
Andrew | 07.06.21 - 8:24 a.m. | #
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I work for a share dealing company that still sends out cheques to customers for their payments
Lucy | 07.06.21 - 8:32 a.m. | #
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A local junction near where I live is called "Four Banks". With news of this Santandar closure, it will down to Two Banks. HSBC goes in September and then it will just be One Bank - NatWest.
Josh | 07.06.21 - 8:34 a.m. | #
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You might assume branches with the new sans serif logo would be more likely to be safe but I can’t remember seeing any.
Sprout Eater | 07.06.21 - 8:43 a.m. | #
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Meanwhile, Haringey, with a population smaller than many of the one-branchers listed, is keeping all three. What's the difference?
Nico | 07.06.21 - 9:00 a.m. | #
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Brent will have the most Santanders, with four. It’s all about location and distance, not borough boundaries.
diamond geezer | Homepage | 07.06.21 - 9:15 a.m. | #
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I remember reading somewhere that current account holders are not really a profitable element of Santander's business - if that is indeed the case I can see the rationale here in refocusing the branch network to commericial interests. In any case they are competing with online only banks that have no branches at all.
The distance limit must be a new criteria as in 2019 they closed the Dorchester branch leaving the next closest one in Weymouth, much more than three miles away.
James | 07.06.21 - 9:18 a.m. | #
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The Barclays Mobile Phone app does, indeed allow cheques to be paid in by scanning the cheque and submitting the result to them. I have used this twice in the past week
Dave from Charlton | 07.06.21 - 9:27 a.m. | #
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Anyway, the month when my cheques got written using last year's date was February. In January the change-of-year was still salient, but long-term memory used to kick back in in February.
Malcolm of Kent | 07.06.21 - 9:31 a.m. | #
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My bank's app doesn't work on my phone - it's not a recent enough android.
Even when it used to, it wouldn't work on larger cheques. I assume the answer to that would be a return to postal banking.
In France plenty of people still pay for their supermarket shopping with cheques.
ap | 07.06.21 - 9:53 a.m. | #
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As always it's going to hit the elderly and poor the most. My mum in her 80s had to queue outside her branch for 2 hours last December. Cold & raining, not even a plastic chair offered to sit on. She said her legs would barely move when she was finally able to go inside.
I received an overpayment cheque just before Christmas from an energy company I left years ago. I almost didn't get a chance to deposit it due to lockdown, a too-old phone and not being able to deposit it as an outdoor ATM!
Thankfully the nice lady coming down the queue at the branch was able to direct me straight in to deposit it at the inside ATM (I know, I know!) so I was able to jump the queue.
Cornish Cockney | 07.06.21 - 10:31 a.m. | #
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You're missing:
Bitcoin is going to make banks completely obsolete anyway so I don't know why anyone should care about this.
Nick | 07.06.21 - 10:45 a.m. | #
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A quick internet search suggests that there are almost six times as many branches of Santander in Spain than in the UK. If true, it would be interesting to know why the global HQ considers such an extensive branch network more vital in one country than another (though I doubt they'd give a straight answer if asked!)
James | 07.06.21 - 10:49 a.m. | #
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The role of branchless 'direct banking' shouldn't be forgotten, although most were owned by traditional banks, First Direct is regarded as the first of these in 1989, then there was a rush of operators in the late 1990s, and they proved to be internet friendly.
Back in the days of interest rates, the extra income that they were able to pay on deposits was respectable too.
Still Anon | 07.06.21 - 11:11 a.m. | #
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I saw at the weekend that my big suburban branch of HSBC has closed - and this is just a surge in a long-ongoing trend. High streets are going to look very different in ten years' time to how they looked a decade ago.
Sarah | Homepage | 07.06.21 - 11:31 a.m. | #
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I can't remember the last time I had to go into a branch of my bank, I have no idea where my cheque book is either, and even when I have got a cheque, I pay it in at our local village post office (or now using the app). Indeed, I rarely use cash now and sometimes I don't even use my card as paying for things on a mobile (or even using a smartwatch) is just more convenient. I'm even sceptical at the view that 'old' people find this hard - my mum is in her 70's and loves online banking as it means she doesn't have to go into a branch. It didn't work on her phone but now she uses our old hand-me-down iPhones and shes sorted.
I can see why closing branched is an issue but if they are under used I'm not sure they should be kept open just for the sake of it. Sorry if that goes against the general views here!
I'm Alright Jack | 07.06.21 - 11:41 a.m. | #
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"I don't use banks any more so I don't see what the problem is."
diamond geezer | Homepage | 07.06.21 - 12:03 p.m. | #
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I went into a reopened Barclays branch for the first time in 3 years to get my sigbature certified. This is convenient.
Intreader | 07.06.21 - 12:40 p.m. | #
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They could become Wendys.
kev | 07.06.21 - 12:41 p.m. | #
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It's surprising how often I've needed to go to my local bank in the city when problems crop up (app can't cope with my cheque, bank payments go astray etc). My branch experience of staff motivated to sort the problem out has been much better than when you try to sort problems over the phone and get passed round the houses. I still really value branches but I'm under no illusions about their future.
My parents are in their 80s and live in an areas where the branches of their bank were removed from their town. The bank in the nearby town they were redirected to frequently suffers long queues out the door. In the end they switched their banking to a building society not quite so far down the digital pathway. They really struggle with online anything and don't want to pursue this route for fear of being scammed.
Jon | 07.06.21 - 12:51 p.m. | #
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Crikey, sounds like good news for Wetherspoons!
Most of the comments so far have been about the 'domestic' side of banking, and how it might affect individuals, but perhaps it's worth sparing a thought for, say, retailers and other traders who still receive a sizeable part of their takings in cash and/or cheques, and seem likely to have a fair old trek ahead of them to get them paid in.
RogerW | 07.06.21 - 2:12 p.m. | #
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"I don't use banks any more so I don't see what the problem is."
Point taken, and I didn't mean it to sound like that, but to give an example, my village lost it's last bank, which happened to be bank I use, recently. I was upset, it seemed like a local asset that should be preserved but then I realised in 14 years of living some 10 minutes walk away I'd been in there a handful of times to pay cheques in. I can do this in the post office next door. It's a pain their cashpoint has gone, but there are 2 others nearby, one just across the road. It's not that I don't use banks but that mine, and I assume a lot of others, habits have changed. I bought some fruit and veg from a stall in our local market a few weeks ago. I paid for it on contactless.
I'm Alright Jack | 07.06.21 - 3:22 p.m. | #
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I wonder how many of your readers who have no need of banks because they do it all on the internet now are quietly being fleeced of their savings by some high tec criminal.
Tones | 07.06.21 - 3:34 p.m. | #
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This post set me thinking, I have not been in a bricks and mortar bank in 10 years. The last time I used a ATM was in 2018.
Internet banking has really caught on, so has contact free payments. Also give the fact that banks do not make a big profit out of private customers, has been known since the end of the banking crisis. That they are cutting back on expensive personal comes as no surprise.
Michael | 07.06.21 - 3:38 p.m. | #
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Just out of interest, seeing as the majority of people want banks to retain branches, how ofter do people use them for things (paying in cheques, cash machinets etc) that _can't_ be done elsewhere. Once a week? Once a month? Once every few years?
Still very much alright Jack | 07.06.21 - 3:44 p.m. | #
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The bank I used since I was a child closed about 15 years ago, and the branch it moved to is now closed too! Who knows how long the 'new' branch will last!
R2 | 07.06.21 - 5:44 p.m. | #
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I worked at a social club that would need £4k of small change and £5/10 notes for a match day. Other type of businesses will also suffer. Germany has a surprisingly low use of cards for purchases.
scrumpy | 07.06.21 - 6:16 p.m. | #
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I had to visit my local Santander yesterday to pay a cheque in (issued by DVLA for road tax refund). Sadly both my local branches are closing (Rickmansworth and Ruislip)
Johnny C | 07.06.21 - 6:21 p.m. | #
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Closed 2019: Acton, Cheam, Clapham, Cockfosters, East Sheen, Eastcote, Feltham, Gracechurch Street, Leather Lane, Ludgate Circus, Morden, Northwood, Portobello Road, Purley, Rayners Lane, Selsdon, Stanmore, Swiss Cottage, Upminster, Wandsworth, Wealdstone, West Ealing, Worcester Park.
Closed 2021: Balham, Barking, Beckenham, Bethnal Green, Bishopsgate, Camberwell, Catford, Chelsea, Chingford, Chiswick, Coulsdon, Dagenham, Dalston, Enfield Wash, Finchley, Fulham, Hanover Square, Harold Hill, Hayes, High Holborn, Hounslow Bath Road, Leytonstone, Mill Hill, Moorgate, New Malden, Norbury, Petts Wood, Pinner, Putney, Shepherds Bush, South Harrow, Southgate, Strand, Surbiton, Twickenham, Upper Edmonton, Welling, Wembley Preston Road, West Wickham.
Remaining open: 60 branches
diamond geezer | Homepage | 07.06.21 - 7:36 p.m. | #
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I'm a santander customer... we now only have two or three branches in Edinburgh as the one near me closed I have to take a bus to get to them. And I STILL use cheques so there!!
Mary Gordon | Homepage | 07.06.21 - 11:39 p.m. | #
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Had to use a real bank twice recently. Once to pay in a foreign cheque and once to open an account for the estate of my late aunt. It's these infrequent things that haven't been automated, and my bank (Halifax) says can only be done in person - not online or by post.
Peter | 08.06.21 - 12:17 a.m. | #
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Re comment by James above: Santander are a Spanish bank - the clue is in the name - which might have something to do with it. And I can confirm that the standard of customer service in their Spanish branches is well down to the level of indifference I experienced when I banked with them in London.
Suse | 08.06.21 - 9:07 a.m. | #
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When the Barclays at Bakers Arms in Leyton closed recently, the Nationwide across the road had a poster in their window reading "is your local Barclays closing? We're here for you."
I think they went straight from that poster to one announcing their own closure, directing customers to Walthamstow or Stratford.
martin | 04.07.21 - 7:20 a.m. | #
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