Winslow’s Victorian bank is up for sale. The chimney at rear right has been capped off and had its pots removed; you might just be able to see the vents inserted near the top. At top right of the photo, No. 21’s roof extends out from its rebuilt wall, and you can see the edge of the date plaque.
There’s been a bank here in Winslow’s Market Square for 180 years, but now the building, the last remaining bank in Winslow, is closed and up for sale. Here’s its timeline.
1841
The Bartlett, Parrott and Co. bank opens at 19 Market Square. This was in the old, probably 17th Century building that stood on part of the site where the Victorian bank is now.
Winslow is a good place to put a bank; it’s a market town, on a turnpike that’s part of a direct route between London and the West Midlands and Wales, bringing passing trade.
The post office is next door, another link with the rest of the country; communication was as important then as it is now.
Usefully, the new bank can be seen across the square from the front door of the Bell, the coaching inn we know today as the Bell Hotel. Some say the bank opened in 1844 not 1841, but it’s 1841 that is carved into the front of the bank.
The Market Hall on the square which might have blocked that view had been knocked down the year before.