Barclays Bank

 

Barclays Bank in Wivenhoe High Street which closed in the 1980s.

Wivenhoe Memories Collection

 

The 'new' Post Office in the High Street - 1996

Photograph by Sue Murray ARPS

 

The old Post Office with 'Laurel and Hardy' in their original positions in 1988.

Brendan Loughlin

High Street Trail index – click here

Barclays Bank is in the centre of the photo.

In 1917, the Kellys trade directory for Wivenhoe listed the following:

“Barclays Bank Limited (sub-branch) (open Fri.11a.m. to 1 p.m.) draw on head office, 54 Lombard Street, London E C”

Look at the post boxes in front of the current Wyvern Stores.  This was the building which was once Barclays Bank.

The ‘Laurel and Hardy’  Post Boxes

These red post boxes were christened by the locals as ‘Laurel & Hardy’, as one was fat and the other was thin, like the famous comedy double act.

This photograph (on the right) shows them in their previous location outside the old post office at 68 The High Street, on the corner of Queen’s Road.

These Elizabeth II boxes were located outside the current Wyvern Stores and Post Office, once Barclays Bank, in 1996.    In 2019 ‘Laurel’ was sadly removed by the Royal Mail, but ‘Hardy’ remains.

Read more about the post boxes.

The oldest post box in Wivenhoe is the Victorian one, on Black Buoy Hill.

High Street Trail index – click here