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'. The Bank of Ireland acquired equally prestigious
premises by buying the former Houses of Parliament in Dublin in 1803. This bank
was established by royal charter in 1783, becoming the first bank in Ireland.
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 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 facades 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.
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 : contains over 80,000 ledgers, files and individual records relating to all aspects of the history of the Bank and its work, dating from its foundation in 1694 to the present.
- Royal Bank of Scotland Archives : holds resources relating to the history of The Royal Bank of Scotland Group, including the historically important customer account ledgers of the London goldsmith-banker Edward Backwell, 1663-72. This is the oldest systematic set of banking records in the UK.
- Lloyds TSB Group Archives, 71 Lombard Street, London EC3P 3BS.
- Savings Bank Museum, Ruthwell, Dumfries DG1 4NN, Scotland UK holds records and ledgers of the Ruthwell Parish Bank and other early savings banks.