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# Barclays returns to towns where it closed branches two years ago
- URL: https://www.benchmarkanalytics.com.au/barclays-returns-to-towns-where-it-closed-branches-two-years-ago/
- Published: 2026-09-24T07:10:11.000Z
- Updated: 2026-09-24T07:10:10.000Z
- Description: Barclays has cut its UK branch network dramatically over the past decade. Now it is opening branches again — but the new model reveals how the role of face-to-face banking is changing.
- Author: Nick Hossack
- Tags: Barclays, Bank Branches, UK, Australia, #banking

Barclays is preparing to open new UK bank branches for the first time in around a decade. The more revealing fact is where it is opening them.

The bank will establish branches in Bishop’s Stortford, Poole and Beverley this autumn, with a fourth location expected before year-end. Each is expected to employ about six staff and emphasise private, face-to-face conversations rather than routine counter transactions.

All three towns have seen Barclays leave before. Poole closed on 8 March 2024, Beverley on 21 March and Bishop’s Stortford on 12 April. Just over two years later, Barclays is returning.

That follows an extraordinary contraction. Barclays reported 2,080 UK branches in 2002 and 1,362 at the end of 2015\. The network fell to 963 in 2019, 666 in 2021, 481 in 2022, 306 in 2023 and 206 by the end of 2025 — an 85 per cent reduction since 2015\. It remained at 206 in June 2026.

Barclays did not simply withdraw from physical service. By 2023 it also operated 351 “Barclays Local” sites in community locations and 16 mobile service points, while participating in shared banking hubs.

The industry-wide retreat was similarly dramatic. Which? calculates that 6,871 UK bank and building-society branches have closed since January 2015, equivalent to 69 per cent of the network. It estimates Barclays alone closed 1,236, the largest reduction by an individual bank. Britain has meanwhile built 250 shared banking hubs, with 350 targeted by government.

The economics behind the closures are clear. Cash represented only 9 per cent of UK payments in 2024, while 26 per cent of banked adults had used a branch for face-to-face banking during the previous year.

But Barclays now appears to be separating transactions from relationships.

UK chief executive Vim Maru, who took over in 2024, paused the closure program and signalled in April that branches would expand again. The new format is aimed at customers seeking help with more complex and longer-term financial decisions.

This is not a return to the old branch model. It is evidence that digital banking may have changed what branches are for without eliminating the commercial value of staffed, face-to-face banking.

| Barclays: a decade of branch contraction                                                                                                                                                          |                                                                                                                                                                                                                       |
| ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| After years of closures, Barclays is opening new UK branches again.                                                                                                                               |                                                                                                                                                                                                                       |
| 2015                                                                                                                                                                                              | **1,362 UK branches**Barclays still operates a large nationwide physical network.                                                                                                                                     |
| 2019                                                                                                                                                                                              | **Last-in-town protection**Barclays temporarily freezes closures at 105 last-in-town and remote branches as concern about physical access grows.                                                                      |
| 2023                                                                                                                                                                                              | **177 branches close during the year**Barclays increasingly shifts face-to-face support towards alternatives including Barclays Local sites.                                                                          |
| 2025                                                                                                                                                                                              | **206 branches remain**Barclays extends opening hours across 86 branches, adding around 33,500 hours of annual in-branch availability.                                                                                |
| 2026                                                                                                                                                                                              | **New branches return**Bishop's Stortford, Poole and Beverley are announced, with a fourth expected before year-end. The new format emphasises staff, private meeting space and more complex financial conversations. |
| Context: 6,872 UK bank and building-society branches closed between January 2015 and June 2026 — around 69% of the network. Sources: Barclays, House of Commons Library, Which?, September 2026\. |                                                                                                                                                                                                                       |