Other

Bankers Clearing House - 7

Site: Bankers Clearing House (7 memorials)

EC4, Lombard Street, Post Office Court

At the north end of Post Office Court, attached to the west wall adjoining St Mary Woolnoth, are six salvaged carved panels. We have numbered these left to right and top down. They can all be seen in our photo, all but number 7, a fruity capital, which is behind the camera, down on the ground and predictably, damaged.

The Bankers Clearing House was on this site 1833 - 2001. Many of these sculptures reference the various banks that were members of the clearing bank system and our identification task was greatly eased by Martin’s Bank.

Geograph have a photo and quote the City of London: "These sculptures elements were installed here in 2003/4. They were decorative elements of the building previously on the site at 10-15 Lombard Street/ 83-36 King William Street and it was a condition of the planning permission to demolish the building and build a new one that this stonework was salvaged and reinstated as part of the development. The stone panels were previously over doors and entrances to passageways across the site. The previous building on the site was a Portland stone clad building constructed in 1938/40, which was designed by Whinney Son and Austin Hall." Surely Whinney, Son and Austen Hall is meant.

It would be good to know which banks were in the Bankers Clearing House at the start of WW2, since, presumably, they would all have been represented in the architectural sculpture on the building erected at that time. We cannot find a list of that date but Martin's Bank have the list as at 1962. It has eleven names: Barclays; Coutts; District; Glyn, Mills & Co; Lloyds; Martins; Midland; National; National Provincial; Westminster; Williams Deacon's. Three of these are not represented by their symbols in the sculptures: Lloyds (horse); Martin's (grasshopper + liver bird); Westminster (river, flowers, portcullis). All three were members of the Clearing House much earlier than 1940 so it seems very likely that they would have been represented on the walls of this building, and there may have been other clearing banks at that time who were also represented. It's not surprising that some sculptural elements are probably lost.

At the south end of this Court is a piece of architectural sculpture relating to the GPO buildings that were also on this site.

Spitalfields Life has a 1956 photo of St Mary Woolnuth showing a steel framed building being constructed behind. Perhaps this is the building from which this sculpture came.

Comments are provided by Facebook, please ensure you are signed in here to see them

This section lists the subjects commemorated on the memorial on this page:
Bankers Clearing House - 7

Subjects commemorated i

Bankers Clearing House

Cheque & Credit Clearing Company (or, in the form of a booklet) is very h...

Read More

This section lists the other memorials at the same location as the memorial on this page:
Bankers Clearing House - 7

Also at this site i

Bankers Clearing House - 1

Bankers Clearing House - 1

{3 shields, from the top down: - Bishopsgate arch (National Provincial) - dot...

Read More

Bankers Clearing House - 2

Bankers Clearing House - 2

The VR monogram must refer to the monarch at the time the Bankers Clearing Ho...

Read More

Bankers Clearing House - 3

Bankers Clearing House - 3

The monogram is TC followed by CT written backwards, part of Coutts's symbol,...

Read More

Bankers Clearing House - 4

Bankers Clearing House - 4

This panel refers to no bank. It references Peace, a common wish, but since t...

Read More

Bankers Clearing House - 5

Bankers Clearing House - 5

{Dragon/griffin with lightening bolts, stomping on a stag}

Read More

Nearby Memorials

Karl Marx grave

Karl Marx grave

N6, Swain's Lane, Highgate Cemetery - East

Bronze head on granite plinth with gold leaf inscriptions.

5 subjects commemorated, 2 creators
King Edward III manor house

King Edward III manor house

SE16, Bermondsey Wall East

Our 'inscription' comes from the modern information panel just outside our photo to the right, as does the artist's impression of the bui...

2 subjects commemorated, 3 creators
Lloyds TSB War Memorial

Lloyds TSB War Memorial

EC2, Aldermanbury

This is a small, simple monument, placed at pavement level, not raised on a plinth. Despite this, it has a dignity and gravitas that many...

1 subject commemorated, 2 creators
South Bank mosaic - Wollstonecraft

South Bank mosaic - Wollstonecraft

SE1, South Bank Centre, Queen Elizabeth Hall / Purcell Room

Mary's mosaic is the most elaborate of the 10 here but by bad luck it has been placed in direct line of some rusty, sludgy drips from the...

1 subject commemorated, 1 creator
School grounds and building

School grounds and building

N1, Bletchley Street

A strange memorial. The little roof and pillars make this look as if it could originally have been the entrance to the building. But with...

2 subjects commemorated