70 banks are due to close across the UK this autumn
A dozen London banks are among 70 branches set to shut this autumn as research reveals the UK has lost around 6,500 branches in the last decade – check if any closures due this month will affect you.
Analysis of official data indicates that 21 banks will close across the UK in September, with another 24 due to shut in October, and 25 in November. This includes 12 London banks – three of which will close this month. The Lloyds Bank in Station Lane, Hornchurch, is scheduled to shut next Thursday (September 11). This will be followed by the closure of the Halifax in The Quadrant, Richmond, which is due to shut on the following Tuesday, September 16.
The Halifax at St John’s Hill, Battersea, will then shut a week later, on Tuesday, September 23. Another seven London banks will shut in October, and two in November.
More than half of the 70 closures across the UK this autumn affect Halifax branches, which are part of the Lloyds Banking Group. Seventeen Halifax branches will shut in September, 16 in October and four in November, for a total of 37 closures this autumn.
Some 29 closures affect Lloyds Bank branches, four of which are due to close this month, six in October, and 19 in November. The remaining banks scheduled to shut over the autumn are branches of the Bank of Scotland and one branch of Santander.
This follows the loss of 138 banks over summer, including 12 London branches. By the end of this year, 364 banks will have closed. Check if your local bank is affected using our interactive map.
According to data gathered by consumer magazine Which?, approximately 6,300 bank and building society branches have shut their doors since January 2015 in the UK. This represents a staggering 64 per cent of branches that were operational a decade ago.
Since February 2022, when major banking groups voluntarily agreed to assess the impact of each closure, 1,879 bank branches have either closed or announced plans to do so. This equates to an average of roughly 50 closures announced per month since February 2022, or 12 per week.
However, there may be a silver lining as the rate of closures appears to be slowing down. The annual number of closures has decreased from a recent high of 633 in 2023, to 399 last year and 364 scheduled to close by the end of 2025.
Autumn closures have consistently dropped from 223 between September and November in 2022, to 191 in 2023, 111 last year, and 70 this autumn. A recent report published by the House of Commons Library suggested that the provision of cash and banking services had declined partly due to “changing consumer behaviour” and the shift towards online banking and digital payments.
However, the report also highlighted that the reduction was being “driven by industry changes such as the reduction in the amount ATM operators earn when ATMs are used”. It added: “A reduction in cash and banking service availability falls hardest on some of the more vulnerable groups in society including the elderly, digitally excluded people and those with low incomes. Additionally, a reduction in banking services can make it harder for businesses to process cash, potentially leading some to stop taking cash as payment. This can in turn lead to further difficulty for people who rely on cash.”
The LINK initiative, agreed by all the major banks including Barclays, HSBC, NatWest, Lloyds, and Halifax, was established to ensure vulnerable customers and small businesses were not left behind in the switch to cashless payments and virtual banking.
When closures leave communities without any local bank, banking hubs or free ATMs are set up to fill the gap.
London banks due to close this autumn
September
- Lloyds Bank, 21-25 Station Lane, Hornchurch
- Halifax, 21 The Quadrant, Richmond
- Halifax, 6 St Johns Hill, Battersea
October
- Halifax, 9-13 Powis Street, Woolwich
- Halifax, 45/47 Station Road, Hayes
- Lloyds Bank, 12 Mitcham Road, Tooting
- Lloyds Bank, 25 The Broadway, Southall
- Lloyds Bank, 180 – 182 High Street, Walthamstow
- Halifax, 131 Broadway, Bexleyheath
- Halifax, 165/169 Eltham High Street, London
November
- Lloyds Bank, 40 The Centre, Feltham
- Santander, 53-55 Redriff Road, London
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