London & South Western Bank

This bank was founded in 1862, and began operations on 1 July 1863; head office was at 12 Regent Street. The bank’s original strategy was to link London with modest account holders in the main towns of the South West. But it later decided to turn its attention to the profitable and rapidly expanding London suburbs, which had hitherto been largely ignored by the other banks. At the end of 1917, partly because of difficult wartime conditions, the London and South Western amalgamated with the London and Provincial Bank, to form the London, Provincial and South Western. By this time the London and South Western had over 200 branches and deposits of £38m. The resulting combined company only had a short life, however, as it was in turn acquired by Barclays Bank Ltd on 2 October 1918.