Private Banking in London's West End, 1750–1830

Abstract

London private bankers trace their origins back to the communities of scriveners and goldsmiths active in the capital in the mid-seventeenth century. However, it was not until the early eighteenth century that private bankers began to emerge as a clearly defined group within London's financial community. By the later eighteenth century a clear differentiation in the focus and direction of their business had been established: on one hand were the West End banks who provided personal deposit banking services to the aristocracy and gentry resident in the capital on a seasonal or permanent basis; on the other were the City bankers, whose business was increasingly commercial in character, focusing on trade finance, bill discounting and the provision of inter-bank remittance facilities at home and abroad. This paper focuses on the development of the West End bankers in London between c.1750 and 1830, a group previously relatively little studied despite the fact they contained some of the most famous names in English banking, including Child & Co., Hoare & Co. and Drummond & Co. The paper pays particular attention to the character and status of the London private bankers, their geographical distribution in the capital, the nature of their business and relationships with customers. Finally, it provides a detailed discussion of the design and building of some key West End banking houses in the later-eighteenth and early-nineteenth centuries, linking the social and cultural characteristics of the bankers and their business with the changing financial landscape of the metropolis in the Georgian period.