London & Westminster Bank Ltd

This joint stock bank, the first in London, opened in 1834 with a head office at 38 Throgmorton Street and a branch at 9 Waterloo Place. It had originally been promoted the previous year under the name Royal Bank of London & Westminster.

By 1838 the head office had moved to 41 Lothbury and the West End office to 1 St James's Square. Branches were opened in Holborn, Whitechapel, Southwark and Marylebone in 1836. A further branch opened at Temple Bar in 1855.

In 1861 the bank acquired Commercial Bank of London, followed by London & Middlesex Bank in 1863 and the private bank Jones, Loyd & Co in 1864. In 1881 the bank had 8 branches, but thereafter the network expanded rapidly, with branches opened at Brompton Square (1881), Westminster (1884), Westbourne Grove (1886), Islington (1886), Holborn Circus (1887), Tottenham Court Road (1887), Hampstead (1890), Oxford Street (1890) and High Street, Kensington (1891). By 1905 the bank had 35 branches, mostly in central London. The bank also operated as London agent to various country and overseas banks.

Paid-up capital grew from £597,000 in 1836 to £2.8 million in 1881 and the balance sheet total from £366,000 in 1834 to £32 million in 1904. The bank assumed limited liability in 1880, thereby becoming London & Westminster Bank Ltd.

In 1909 the bank amalgamated with London & County Banking Co to form London County & Westminster Bank Ltd.

Branches: In 1909 37 branches were operating.

Published histories

• TE Gregory, The Westminster Bank Through a Century (London: Oxford University Press, 1936)

Our archive holdings

A summary list of our archival records of London & Westminster Bank Ltd can be found on the Archives Hub website.