please empty your brain below
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Also, Barclays at Westcombe Park.
Regards
dg writes: added, thanks
zin92 | 15.07.21 - 8:17 a.m. | #
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It’s I don't think I had realised the sheer exodus of banking until I read your post, and saw the list of all remaining branches in London for the various banks.
Only 5 NatWest? And only 3 Halifax - they used to be everywhere!!
Surbiton, where I lived/worked for many years, used to have virtually everything, now it is just Santander (that was Abbey National wasn't it?).
How times change.
Steve
Steve Conway | 15.07.21 - 8:51 a.m. | #
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My elderly parents' local bank branch shuts next month (followed by an announcement from 1 of the remaining 2 that it too is on a closure list).
In their case, the nearest branch is the next town, 8 or 9 miles away, with an hourly bus service to one, though more frequent to the other.
However, most of the banking services they need can be dealt with in the local post office, which they'd managed to miss on reading the letter from the bank.
Man of Kent | 15.07.21 - 8:52 a.m. | #
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Barclays Deptford also closed this year.
dg writes: added, thanks
H SE18 | 15.07.21 - 8:55 a.m. | #
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Steve, DG's list is of those branches that closed, not left open!
I am old fashioned enough to bung change into a jar and every so often I pay it into an account. I now have to travel miles to do so. This is ridiculous, I live in London!
Chris | 15.07.21 - 9:14 a.m. | #
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This is something I have been particularly aware of recently and it is really concerning.
Not only has the pace of closures accelerated but, for a lot of branches, opening hours have been greatly reduced. It seems that HSBC branches are only open between the hours of 10.00 a.m. and 2 p.m.
My local branch at Coulsdon closed a few years ago (after Purley and Waddon) even though it was always busy. So it was good that we still had Banstead but that is now closed.
What banks and building societies don't seem to take into account is that a lot of functions need personal service and cannot (yet) easily be done any other way. If they need sight of a document and they want the original and you are very reluctant to post it then you need to go into a branch.
Critically, closed branches often means one must send certified copies of documents such as driving licences and passports to head office yet the easiest way to actually get a certified copy used to be to pop in to your local branch.
For traders that are forced to deal in cash otherwise they would lose business, banking at branches is essential.
Pedantic of Purley | 15.07.21 - 9:19 a.m. | #
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Oops - thanks to Chris for pointing out that I completely misread DG's list.
My previous comment is null and void :-)
Steve
Steve Conway | 15.07.21 - 9:23 a.m. | #
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Just falling outside of your 2021 list were two more Barclays branches local to me in SW London: Southfields and Earlsfield closed in November 2020. I wonder how many there were in total over the last 12 months?
gooneruk | Homepage | 15.07.21 - 9:31 a.m. | #
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HSBC Dunstable closes tomorrow, 16th July.
Chris K | 15.07.21 - 9:52 a.m. | #
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The dearth of bank branches in Brixton and Camberwell entails time-consuming journeys on public transport to places not in the natural purview of local residents.
cau1khead | 15.07.21 - 9:53 a.m. | #
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In Teddington, when we moved in in 2012, there were all four main banks. Now there are none. And most building societies have gone from Twickenham, though the banks remain.
Near where I work, at the junction of Vauxhall Bridge Road and Rochester Road, there were three banks. All now closed.
David | 15.07.21 - 10:35 a.m. | #
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When my son was born in 2010 I opened a savings account for him with Northern Rock. It’s the old-fashioned kind that just comes with a passbook, no cash machine card or anything like that. So you have to go to a branch to pay in, for example, a cheque that comes inside a birthday card.
When I opened the account, branches were within fairly easy reach of both my home and my office. Now - rebranded Virgin Money - the nearest one is in Haymarket (we live in Hackney).
This wasn’t terribly convenient during lockdown...
CJS | 15.07.21 - 10:46 a.m. | #
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According to the posters in the West Ealing ex-Nationwide, it has not closed. It has moved...into another branch.
Not so clever marketing there. I assumed it was to get around Nationwide's promise to keep all branches open.
There are no banks in West Ealing now as the Barclays has also closed. Odd considering the number of flats they are building.
Ealing | 15.07.21 - 10:52 a.m. | #
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It’s always a shame to see closures of high street banks because they always look so busy, especially when you need to go in for certain things that you can’t do online or over the phone.
By the way - the Hounslow Santander is in Bath Road (not London Road).
dg writes: updated, thanks.
Rob Healy | Homepage | 15.07.21 - 11:03 a.m. | #
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Nationwide branch at Moorgate closed because the building was redeveloped. A new branch , large and modern was opened on Eldon street.
dg writes: removed, thanks
coffin dodger | 15.07.21 - 11:09 a.m. | #
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Nationwide: they used to have a facility of one desk in a local Estate Agents. This Nationwide girl used to do considerable cash-based business all day long.
Nationwide withdrew the facility recently and now you never see anyone in the Estate Agents at all.
Pierre | 15.07.21 - 11:19 a.m. | #
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The more 'progress' we make, the more we seem to regress.
Another nail in the coffin of local High Streets, and more jobs lost.
Cornish Cockney | 15.07.21 - 11:59 a.m. | #
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Tower Hamlets population 300,000; Peterborough 200,000; not sure how 17 banks in TH equates to 1 in Peterborough.
dg writes: appalling maths removed, thanks
ML | 15.07.21 - 12:46 p.m. | #
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The Barclays Rotherhithe Surrey Docks branch closed on 6 January this year.
dg writes: added, thanks
By the way, the problem isn't just banks and building societies closing entirely - in a lot of cases, their opening hours have been slashed (for example, the Halifax at Surrey Quays opens only on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday now. By 1.15pm on Wednesday the branch doesn't open again until Monday morning!
Rotherhithe | 15.07.21 - 1:06 p.m. | #
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At one time Nationwide was run for the benefit of their members, but it seems that the CEOs wages are the main driver these days. You only need to look at TrustPilot to see what real customers think against those adverts of fake happy people. They have shut many branches and also removed cash machines, which i know many other banks have done, but they boast of serving the community. Covid has forced us more towards a cashless society and this is cheaper for banks to run so they say.
david s | 15.07.21 - 1:16 p.m. | #
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When I moved to the town I live in five years ago we had a NatWest, an RBS, a Barclays, a Nationwide and a branch of a local building society (the Vernon). There'd once been a Halifax too.
NatWest went first, who pointed people to the RBS, which promptly closed about a year later. Barclays hung on but they recently announced they're going too. If you want to do business banking, you're basically out of luck.
The Nationwide and the Vernon are hanging on in there, but for how long? Sadly I think the future is bleak for bank branches unless they're in large towns.
Andrew Bowden | Homepage | 15.07.21 - 1:30 p.m. | #
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Worse still, the shoe box under my bed has announced it's closing next month.
Arlu | 15.07.21 - 2:20 p.m. | #
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I admit I am clueless millenial - but with that out of the way what are the reasons people have to go to bank branches? I think I last went to one about 9 years ago to pay in a cheque from my gran. My current bank doesn't have any branches at all and is only online.
clueless millenial | 15.07.21 - 2:29 p.m. | #
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The last reasons I went into a branch:
- to pay in coppers and silvers (of which I still have many)
- to prove the identity of my children when opening accounts for them
- to try and sort out the fact that my replacement debit card hadn't arrived. So I'd ordered another. And that hadn't arrived. Frankly it was a mess and it was far easier to have a face to face conversation about it (and the team in the branch sorted it out really well.)
But admittedly I haven't been in my local branch for quite some time.
Andrew Bowden | Homepage | 15.07.21 - 2:33 p.m. | #
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I hate it when people say they've not used a bank branch in years so hard luck on the rest of you that are relying on having a bank branch near you. I just hope when their online account is hacked they won't go crying to their bank. Silly me I forgot they never use a branch and the closest one has closed anyway.
All you need to know is that a person is just an economic unit to the government or bank or building society.
Tones | 15.07.21 - 5:02 p.m. | #
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I’m always astonished by the long queues round the block for Barclays in Whitechapel. I imagine it will be the last bank branch standing in Tower Hamlets, holding on even when the various ‘shop front’ branches under Canary Wharf offices close.
huxley | 15.07.21 - 7:25 p.m. | #
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My branch in South Harrow is to close this month, almost 38 years to the day I paid my first wages into my Abbey Current Account (big boys account, no more junior saver for me) Quite sad really, not the bank's closure but the passage of time.
I went to deposit a cheque in Rickmansworth Santander this week to discover it too had closed forever. I think it may have been the last bank in Ricky high street.
Johnny C | 15.07.21 - 8:12 p.m. | #
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Of the banks which are closing branches, it's interesting to see them chucking money at plush ones elsewhere. Nationwide in Stratford is quite spacious, and I passed a couple in central London which had clearly spent quite a bit on interior design. They pale into significance beside Halifax's flagship on Tottenham Court Road, which is spread over two floors and must cost a small fortune to run. (It's quite handy if you want to spend a penny though as its cafe has some loos).
martin | 15.07.21 - 9:44 p.m. | #
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It used to be as one branch closed another pub opened but not so sure that will now happen
Brian | 15.07.21 - 10:45 p.m. | #
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Don't forget that cheques can be paid in at your local post office, i found this out the hard way after going to Hornchuch to use my nearest Santander branch, only to find that it had closed at 2pm.
KenF | 15.07.21 - 11:17 p.m. | #
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No banks in Acton now. Our next nearest HSBC is still open but no longer has 'counter service' so you can't pay in cash, or cheques other than by using a machine, or withdraw cash other than how the machine gives it to you. When I asked them to change the wad of £10 notes from the machine into fewer, bigger denomination notes and one note into pound coins they couldn't do it as 'the staff have no access to any cash.' Hm!! So most of the people I see in that branch now seem to be arguing with the staff about what the branch no longer does and asking what's the point of it.
ActonMan | 16.07.21 - 8:10 a.m. | #
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At least in Brixton, the other NatWest across the road will remain open. I'm amazed there were two branches for so long.
NickW | 16.07.21 - 8:27 a.m. | #
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Even where there is still a counter service, it can be limited. Some months ago I received an email from HSBC inviting me to close an inactive savings account or to make a payment into the account to re-activate it. With an interest rate of 0.01% I wasn't going to do the latter. We dutifully queued outside the branch for ages waiting to be allowed in, followed by a further wait inside until we were called to the counter, only to be told by the sole person behind the counter that she was not able to close an account! If her demeanor and that of other staff in the branch was anything to go by, morale is not high in the bank.
JohnC | 16.07.21 - 11:55 a.m. | #
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Cheques can be paid in at post offices, but they take anything from 1-5 days to 'clear. Paid into a bank they clear the same night now.
Good to see that Tones is understanding how the world now works and is quoting me ;)
Blue Witch | Homepage | 16.07.21 - 12:17 p.m. | #
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Free in credit banking is a massive loss maker for banks and unless and until people are willing to pay for banking services branches will continue to close
kerspatula | 16.07.21 - 10:10 p.m. | #
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It doesn't seem that long since banks were falling over themselves to attract new customers, but that was when interest rates were high and banks made money from our deposits. Now the average customer is of no value to them. Will the wheel turn and money become a valuable commodity again? If it does you can be sure the banks will be popping up again.
RogerB | Homepage | 16.07.21 - 10:21 p.m. | #
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Further TSB closures announced... Bermondsey, Bromley, Ealing, Greenwich, Harlesden, Morden, Romford, Sutton, Uxbridge
And Barclays... Balham, Bayswater, Clapham, Hendon, Mitcham, Rainham, Wembley Park, West Hounslow
And Lloyds... Balham, Berkeley Square, Gants Hill, Hendon, Kentish Town, King's Cross, New Malden, Northwood, Regent Street, South Kensington, Sydenham
And Nat West... Crouch End, Docklands South Quay, Shepherds Bush, St Paul's, Westminster
diamond geezer | Homepage | 30.11.21 - 1:59 p.m. | #
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Further Nat West closures... Brixton, Chelsea, Crouch End, Croydon Centrale, Docklands South Quay, Knightsbridge, Lambeth North, New Bond Street, Portman Square, Ruislip, South Woodford, St Paul's, Tavistock Square, Twickenham, Westminster
diamond geezer | Homepage | 15.02.22 - 1:41 p.m. | #
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