King's Lynn

King’s Lynn – Former Lynn Savings Bank Building

This is the former Lynn Savings Bank building which was completed in 1858 and the gothic design was meant to give a feeling of reassurance, after some traumatic decades for banks. The bank had been trading since October 1817 from their previous premises at 118 High Street in the town, which were open to the public from 12.00 until 13.00 on Mondays. There are banks 200 years on with similar opening times…. The bank, I think, was later subsumed into the Trustee Savings Bank, now better known as TSB.

The town’s pelican symbol, which is on the King’s Lynn Coat of Arms, is on the central corbel of the building, all designed to give it that official feel. The building was later used by the Royal Antediluvian Order of Buffaloes as their community building, who have recently moved their meetings to the Workers Club on Church Street.

The building has now been converted into “four imposing apartments” according to the developers, plus another apartment in the former cellar which I’m imagining isn’t quite as imposing.