Plaque

Bankers Clearing House - 2

Inscription

{Pheonix keystone}
VR

The VR monogram must refer to the monarch at the time the Bankers Clearing House was first on this site in 1833, Victoria.

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 - 2

Subjects commemorated i

Bankers Clearing House

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

Read More

Barclays Bank

The bank's origins go back to the goldsmith bankers John Freame and Thomas Go...

Read More

This section lists the other memorials at the same location as the memorial on this page:
Bankers Clearing House - 2

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 - 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

Bankers Clearing House - 6

Bankers Clearing House - 6

{3 shields, from the top down: - anchor (Glyn, Mills & Co) - blank - 2 ba...

Read More

Nearby Memorials

Cotton family grave

Cotton family grave

E11, St John the Baptist, graveyard

Collecting gravestones is not part of our mission, but we have transcribed the gravestone as best we can - there may be mis-readings.

3 subjects commemorated
Hugh Myddelton - N21

Hugh Myddelton - N21

N21, Bush Hill Road

This plaque is placed at the junction with Cunard Crescent in a new housing estate, this entrance being Halliwick Gate. Bush Hill House...

3 subjects commemorated, 1 creator
Smiths - war-damaged plaque

Smiths - war-damaged plaque

WC2, Portugal Street

OK, this is not actually a memorial but it's too good to exclude on the basis of house rules.

1 subject commemorated, 1 creator
Orwell - Kentish Town

Orwell - Kentish Town

NW5, Lawford Road, 50

Orwell lodged here for a short time, during which he had a punch-up with another lodger who came home drunk. It is possible that Orwell ...

1 subject commemorated, 1 creator
London Troops - Fulham - WW1

London Troops - Fulham - WW1

SW6, Putney Bridge Approach, Vicarage Gardens

See the Fulham monument for more info on this garden. On this wall are attached 3 memorials: two large stone panels (one for each world ...

1 subject commemorated

Previously viewed

Royal Socity of Chemistry

Royal Socity of Chemistry

Formed as a merger of the Chemical Society, the Royal Institute of Chemistry, the Faraday Society and the Society for Analytical Chemistry. It carries out research, publishes journals, books and da...

Group, Science

6 memorials
Percy Bysshe Shelley

Percy Bysshe Shelley

Poet. Born at Field Place, near Horsham in Sussex. Had a habit of eloping with and then marrying 16 or 17 year olds: first Harriet Westbrook. When she, pregnant, drowned herself in the Serpentine P...

Person, Poetry, Seriously Famous, Italy

6 memorials
David Bowie

David Bowie

Musician and actor. Born David Robert Jones 40 Stansfield Road, Brixton. The family left here when David was 6 and moved to Plaistow Grove, Bromley. David changed his surname to avoid confusion wi...

Person, Cinema, Music / songs, Seriously Famous, Theatre, USA

7 memorials
Bishop Piers Calverley Claughton

Bishop Piers Calverley Claughton

Archdeacon of London and Assistant Bishop of London.

Person, Religion

2 memorials
Paula Haughney

Paula Haughney

Sculptor.  Her website, our picture source, says that she "lives and works in the east end with a studio in the Bromley by Bow community centre."

Person, Sculpture

1 memorial