Former NatWest Bank, Market Square, Corwen

Old photo of Corwen bank buildingLooking at this building you may think it’s centuries old, which is what the designer intended in the 1920s. The architect responsible was probably FCR Palmer, the National Provincial Bank of England’s architect. He produced designs for grand city buildings but the Corwen branch is a pastiche of the timber-framed buildings which had survived since medieval or Tudor times in many Welsh country towns.

The National Provincial Bank opened its Corwen branch in April 1913, after managers at its Bala and Machynlleth branches told head office that many of their customers would be better served by a branch in Corwen. TD Morgans was the first manager of the bank on Market Square. Soon the First World War put pressures on staffing. One of the bank's employees died on active service.

Old photo of Corwen square with bank building at far endAfter the war, trade flourished and the Corwen branch needed larger premises. In 1924 the bank bought part of the adjacent Harp Inn site, and the rebuilt and enlarged building was finished in 1927. The National Provincial Bank merged with Westminster Bank in 1970 to form National Westminster Bank, with 3,600 branches.

The Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historic Monument of Wales describes the bank’s Corwen building as an “excellent exercise in the vernacular revival styles developed in the inter-war period, and which were a particular hall-mark of the National Provincial Bank in North Wales”.

The building is visible in the old postcard photos. The lower photo shows the building’s prominence at the western end of the square.

The bank was one of many NatWest branches in North Wales to close in 2015, in response to reducing numbers of transactions in them.

Postcode: LL21 0DE    View Location Map