Lloyds Bank has closed its doors for the last time on Putney High Street, the seventh bank to do so in recent years, leaving Putney residents with just two – NatWest and Metro.
The prominent location will now stand empty until a new tenant is found: something that may prove difficult given that real estate agent CBRE is advertising the property to rent for £127,500 a year.
At that price and with Putney’s high business rates, the 110-112 High Street location is likely to join the long list of other properties that remain boarded up on Putney High Street. Just two doors down, is another vacant property formerly run by Mi Vida.
Lloyds made the decision to close the branch – and 122 others across the UK – at the end of 2023 citing a fall in branch visits due to growing use of online banking. The nearest Lloyds location will now be in Fulham, at 417 North End Road: a 20-minute bus ride or 15-minute drive away.
Putney.news supports the ‘Save the High Street’ project and organisation.
Find out more here.
In a report that the bank was required to provide to banking regulator, the FCA, Lloyds said that the number of its customers that came into the bank had fallen dramatically between 2018 and 2023, with 42 per cent fewer personal customers – which make up 94 per cent of its overall customers – and 62 per cent fewer business users. Use of its cashpoint machines had also fallen by 50 per cent for personal customers and 17 per cent for business.
Not long ago, Putney has eight banks on the High Street but with Barclays closing down late last year – a property that remains empty and boarded up – and with HSBC, TSB, Santander, Halifax and Nationwide also all having left, just two remain.
What’s going on?
Without an effective plan to bring in new types of business and services that people want from a high street in the modern digital world, Putney High Street has become an uninspiring combination of shut-up shops, fast food restaurants, coffee bars and charity shops.
The excessive number of fast food joints are a result of the previous cap on this type of business being lifted by Wandsworth Council when the Class system was changed in September 2020.
The large number of charity shops are the result of the fact that charities get an 80 per cent business rate relief so can afford the inflated prices that High Street landlords continue to insist on.
View the brochure for 110-112 Putney High Street [pdf].
The Save the High Street project has created an interactive map of boarded-up properties on the high street that you can see below:
