Researching the history of banks
While Continental Europe had some major banking houses in medieval times, banking as a primary occupation was scarcely known in Britain before the end of the 17th century. Before the existence of banks, people might deposit money for safe keeping with a goldsmith, who of necessity had better-than-average security. Goldsmiths were gradually drawn into arrangement for credit too. The story of Coutts Bank illustrates how a goldsmith-banking business could develop into a banking house. The first British bankers worked from their own houses: the manager lived above the business quarters. Even purpose-built private banks tended to look little different from houses.
However the
Bank
of England was a public institution and
looked the part. The first purpose-built bank in Great Britain. went
up on its Threadneedle Street site in 1734 to
designs by George Sampson. He was succeeded by Sir Robert
Taylor, who added wings and a rotunda. From 1788
to 1834 Sir
John Soane was the architect to the Bank of England and
rebuilt it in stages, adding more halls and
courtyards, noted for their drama of light and shade.
The echoing grandeur of the halls aimed at sheer prestige. More
practically counters separated aisles from a central 'nave'.
Meanwhile the first purpose-built bank in Scotland was that built for the chartered Royal Bank of Scotland in 1750-4, to plans by William Adam. However most Edinburgh banks of the time used existing buildings, and the Royal Bank itself moved to a mansion in St Andrew Square in 1828. However its Glasgow branch built in 1827 was a a stunning building in the Greek Revival style. The Royal Bank was a joint-stock bank. After an Act of Parliament in 1826 permitted joint-stock banking in England and Wales, such monumental façades began to appear on banks south of the border. An impressive building provided convincing proof of prosperity.
The London and Westminster
Bank in Lothbury, London (1838) was designed by C. R. Cockerell
and William Tite with a domed hall that soon became standard
for British banks. The Italianate style was popular for banks
from the
late 1830s; what is now the Corn Street, Bristol, branch of Lloyds
(right) provides the most flamboyant example. It was modelled on
Sansovino's
Library of St Mark in Venice.
The Victorian penchant for historicism produced banks in a variety of styles: Neo-Classical, Gothic, Tudor. The 1920s and 30s saw the building of massive head offices for several banks, including that designed by Sir Edward Lutyens for the Midland Bank in Poultry, London. Lutyens also designed the tall Midland Bank in Manchester.
Studies and guides
- The Bankers' Almanac, Register of bank name changes and liquidations (1992) lists bank amalgamations and liquidations since 1750.
- Booker, J., Temples of Mammon: The architecture of banking (Edinburgh University Press, 1990).
- Cave, C.H., A History of Banking in Bristol from 1750 to 1899 (1899).
- Orbell, J. and Turton, A., British Banking: a guide to historical records (2001).
- Parissien, Steven (ed.), Banking on Change: A current account of Britain's historic banks (1992).
- Pevsner, N., A History of Building Types (1976), chap.12: Exchanges and banks.
- Royal Bank of Scotland, A History of British Banking.
- Savings Banks Museum, Savings Banks History.
Primary Sources
- A collection
of the merchants living in and about the city of London
(Printed
for Sam. Lee 1677) lists the goldsmiths that
kept running cashes
. Online transcript. Reprinted as: - The London directory of 1677: The oldest printed list of the merchants and bankers of London: reprinted from the exceedingly rare original, with an introduction pointing out some of the most eminent merchants of the period (1878).
- See starting points for other directories and general sources.
Each of the major banks has its own archives, which may incorporate archives of older banks taken over:
- Bank of England Archive : some items from the collection are displayed in the Bank of England Musem.
- Royal Bank of Scotland Archives
- Lloyds TSB Group Archives, 71 Lombard Street, London EC3P 3BS. Tel.: 02071 929 2901.