The row of four Brockley Road shops between Merritt Road and the cemetery were known by 1899 as Bank Parade. Despite this, there has never had a bank among those shops, and the name was dropped by 1910.
One possible reason is that there was already a bank at 373 Brockley Road a few doors along.
By 1901, 373 Brockley Road was a branch of the London & South Western Bank Limited. The London and South Western was very successful at establishing branches throughout the new London suburbs.
The Crofton Park branch was managed first by William John Way (1901-06), and then by Henry C Grundy. The 1911 census shows Henry Grundy living ‘over the shop’ at 373 with his wife Dora, five-year-old son Henry, and their servant, Beatrice Wollard.
The London and South Western suffered in the economic downturn of the First World War and so, in January 1918, it amalgamated with one of its main rivals to form the London, Provincial and South Western Bank. This new bank proved to be short-lived and in October 1918, it was taken over by Barclays, which is still there today.
Henry Grundy continued to be Crofton Park’s local bank manager through all the takeovers, and was still manager in 1921.
Barclays will be closing the branch at the beginning of July, just a few months short of the centenary of its arrival in Crofton Park.
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