Just had a letter from Barclays to say that the Forest Hill branch will close on the 29th June

There has been a rumour for a long time that Barclays are going to close and now the only two remaining banks closing within a day of each other and leaving a town with no operating banks and the nearest in Sydenham or Catford, it not if Forest Hill is a village or a small town in the middle of nowhere

I am a customer of Santander and was looking at moving my account to Barclays, as I don't trust the internet banking system, now that is cancelled. I remember when I moved into the area over 30 years ago we had three building societies Woolwich, Abbey National (Santandar) and Peckham and two banks Midland next to old post office and Barclays.

The proposed closure will also affect local traders, was no prior notice given that Barclay's are to close?

Copy of the letter is attached.

This post was last modified: 16-03-2018 04:41 PM by hillview.

So much for Barclays promise 20years or so ago to keep this Branch open, after a massive local petition and involvement of the local MP at the time, as a service to the local area seeing as it was the only Bank for miles around.

The letter is the identical form letter sent out to the one announcing the closure of many other branches recently.

Crofton Park branch also to close on same date. Sad but inevitable when internet banking is so easy and convenient for most. I think 3 months is sufficient notice to all - not really any need to give more than that.

So we will now have tow large units vacant - Santander and Barclays - plus Wetherspoons. I wonder what if anything we might get in them? I suspect they will lie empty for a long time.

If it helps any Barclays customers who need to pay in cheques I would like to advise that it is possible to pay-in cheques at a Post Office.

Phone Barclays and ask them to send you a pile of Post Office deposit envelopes. Just fill in the paying-in slip as normal and pop it into the envelope together with your cheque(s). Hand in the sealed envelope over the PO counter - job done.

It's true, you could use the Post Office for some basic banking, but it isn't the same as having a bank branch in Forest Hill. It's a bit rubbish that Santander and Barclay'ss are going in quick succession. I wasn't in the area when the earlier campaign to retain Barclay's happened, though I suspect the bank would now argue that things have changed, more business being done online, less in branches etc.

Depending on where in SE23 you live and what your transport links are (and bearing in mind the closure of Crofton Park branch as well), that could leave you with the most accessible banks being in East Dulwich, Sydenham, Catford, Lewisham or possibly Peckham. None of them especially convenient. And I wouldn't hold out much hope for some of those branches being around in a couple of years' time.

It's tough on people who don't have access to internet banking or for whom it is stressful in a way that personal banking is not. And when you do go to a branch in person, the waiting times are longer and the experience more miserable than in the past. I never went to the bank to be cheered up but neither did I expect the experience to be made purposefully dismal. But even dismal would be better than non-existent. It makes me begrudge all the tax-payer funded bailouts and excess profits and dividends even more.

To be fair, Bt, that promise was made almost a generation ago, back in the days when using your phone to pay someone was pure science fiction.

It is, however, sad that Forest Hill is losing a big brand name and a bank. The ones who will probably suffer most are the small businesses that take in cash and need to (a) deposit it and (b) have lots of small change. Sweetshops, for example.