A fishy footprint: The Bank of England and Yorkshire

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Anushua Biswas, Risk Manager, Bank of England (Prudential Regulation Authority), based at the Leeds Office.

Before joining the Bank in 2023, I had long associated the institution with its London home on Threadneedle Street – the ‘Old Lady’. When I learnt of the opening of a new Bank office in Leeds – where I am based – I assumed that this was the first time the Bank had expanded regionally. In actuality, the history of the Bank’s regional branches stretches much further back. As a Yorkshire resident myself, I was curious to learn more about this regional history and write about my findings.

With the Bank’s operations being mostly confined to London for the majority of its history, the decision was made to expand its regional footprint in the 1800s. This came from the desire to take more control over the circulation of Banknotes, with the stock market crash of 1825 being a great catalyst for this change. 

When the Bank first considered opening branches across the country, they looked to Yorkshire to expand. Shortlisted towns for expansion included Leeds, Huddersfield, and Wakefield. Eventually, it was decided that Leeds and Kingston upon Hull would take on the first of the Bank’s ‘branches’.

In the years after the Industrial Revolution, the textile trade had made Leeds extremely wealthy. New premises for banking and insurance were being built along Park Lane at breakneck speed. The opening of the Leeds-Selby train line in 1834 reduced travel time to London to only (!) six and half hours, so that by 1869, Leeds was ready for and elevated to city status. Hull, roughly 60 miles to the east of Leeds, had been the biggest whaling port in the country in the 1700s and a major fishing centre by the late 1800s. By 1897, Hull too was granted full city status. 

So, the Bank had established a network of nationwide branches, each managed by an Agent – a term still used by the Bank’s regional representatives today. These cities, with their strong links to growing industries, were ideal places for the Bank to establish its branches. However, it wasn’t the most promising of starts. Despite being the first named branch, legal delays meant that by the time the Leeds branch opened, six others were already up and running, in Gloucester, Manchester, Swansea, Birmingham, Liverpool and Bristol.

Thomas Bischoff was named as the first Leeds Agent with Edward Smyth as his Sub-Agent. As was usual practice, Bischoff lived above the branch. Threadneedle Street dispatched five boxes and one case containing £115,700 in blank Bills of Exchange in different denominations, and the new branch was born.

Train travel now made it possible for London architects to supervise projects across the country. In 1861, the Bank commissioned Philip C Hardwick (architect of London Euston station) to design the Leeds branch, at the corner of Park Row and South Parade. Hardwick used fine-grained Halifax sandstone on a base of massive millstone grit blocks and was the first to include Peterhead granite in a Leeds building.

Named Sovereign House, Hardwick’s design for the branch combined a classical Greek influence with national symbols. The building featured a balustrade and parapet, under which sat sculpted lion heads, referencing the Threadneedle Street building. The building’s side entrance featured heavy entablature with symbolic images of the ancient deities Ceres (representing agriculture), Mercury (trade and commerce) and Pomona (harvest), all joined by oak branches. Hardwick’s use of antique imagery came with measured restraint, and he was careful to insert English undertones.

Hardwick’s attention to detail can also be seen with the classical urns and spiked mace heads he placed atop his wrought iron railings. His architectural language is clear: this building may not as be grand as its neighbours, but it was founded on a profoundly deep cultural tradition, epitomising the Bank of England’s stability, security and strength.

The second Yorkshire branch opened in Hull in 1829, on Salthouse Lane, to vigorous local opposition. A letter signed jointly by the mayor and the ‘Principal Merchants and Tradesmen’ was delivered, stating: ‘it may be understood by the directors that the Branch Bank about to be opened, is not established at their request or for their accommodation.’ 

The Bank purchased the premises from Trustees of the Mechanic’s Institute for the princely sum of £2000 in May 1828, and appointed George Schonswar as its first Agent with Benjamin Stocks as Sub-Agent.

By 1850, the building was no longer fit for purpose, so Hardwick was again commissioned to design a new purpose-built building in Whitefriargate in1856. One distinctive feature of the new building was that the treasury was located on the ground floor, because cellars in the city were prone to flooding. The Agent reported fish swimming in the cellars as recently as 1930s.

By 1937, it became apparent that the Leeds branch was adequate to fulfil the Bank’s obligations across Yorkshire, so the Bank took the decision to close its Hull Branch. This time, the response from Hull, while strong, was regretful; Hull Corporation feared the city’s reputation would suffer and emphasised “the drift of industry to the south.”

Sovereign House in Leeds served as the Bank’s sole Yorkshire branch, but the site itself was eventually closed. By 1997, the Bank’s new Agency network was created, with Leeds remaining as the home of the Yorkshire Agency. The Bank’s cash centre remained in Leeds until 2023. Today, the Bank is actively pushing for expansion into Leeds at its new office based in the city. The branch is expected to grow to 500 staff by 2027, and I am proud to have been part of its first intake. The legacy of Sovereign House shows that the branch had achieved its original purpose and delivered on its promise of expanding northwards across the country.