Metro Bank closes its Tottenham Court Road branch

Metro Bank closed its Tottenham Court Road branch on Friday 27 September citing a lack of use by walk-in customers.

“The percentage of customers exclusively using Tottenham Court Road has not significantly changed in the last five years, and has been consistently low since before the pandemic,” says an impact assessment statement by Metro Bank to customers ahead of the closure.

“Over the past few years Tottenham Court Road customers have increasingly sought alternative ways to bank with us in addition to using this store.”

Metro also said it had an excess of branches within a short distance of each other.

“There are four stores within a two-mile radius, serving our Central London-based customers, and the catchment areas of these stores overlap a great deal. Our busy Holborn store is located within a mile of Tottenham Court Road, and is within walking distance or easily accessible by public transport,” said the bank.

The Holborn “store”, as Metro calls its branches, was the first to open in 2010, shortly followed by other London stores including the Tottenham Court Road site in 2011. Metro promised longer opening hours than other high street banks and a “a return to some traditional banking practices” reported the Guardian in 2010.

In May this year Barclays closed one of its Tottenham Court Road branches and intends to close its other branch in November leaving it the only bank of the “big four” without a presence on the shopping street. However, Barclays has now postponed the November closure until further notice.

This article was updated on 3 October 2024 to report that Barclays has postponed the closing of 15-17 Tottenham Court Road.