Acres's invaluable book (The Bank of England from Within 1694-1900, 1931, volume 2, p. 430) tells us that the Bank of England took over the building previously occuped by bankers Turner, Turner & Morris, opening for business on 19 July 1826. However, the Gloucester branch did not do well 'owing to the "attachment of country traders to local bankers' and it was closed down in 1849 and the premises sold the following year (Acres, op. cit., pp. 568, 573).

Northgate Street and St John's Lane lie south of the Cathedral and more or less parallel with each other. Northgate Street continues as the London Road and was the starting point of the route to London as well as a busy trading area and thus well suited as a location for a branch bank of the Bank of England. A survey plan (drawing 1) shows that the bank in Northgate Street owned six 'small tenements' in a close that bordered St John's Lane. These were demolished in 1832 (Acres, op. cit., p. 430). The bank was sited on the east side of Northgate Street (according to the compass on drawing 11). Acres noted that the building still stood (c.1931) and was numbered 13 and 15 Northgate Street (op. cit., p. 430). However, nothing in D. Verey and A. Brooks, Gloucestershire 2: the Vale and the Forest of Dean, 3rd ed. 2002, pp. 482-4, describes a five-bay 18th century building in Northgate Street.

Literature:
W. Marston Acres, The Bank of England from Within, 1694-1900, Vol. II, 1931, p. 430; D. Verey and A. Brooks, Gloucestershire 2: the Vale and the Forest of Dean, 3rd ed., 2002, pp. 482-4.

Jill Lever, January 2013

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