GORSEINON: Banking hub to open at former High Street vintage shop in September

The temporary hub at 20 High Street, the old Kirstie's Vintage Emporium opposite Home Bargains, will open weeks before the town's last bank branch shuts for good in October, with a different bank's community banker on site each weekday.

Swansea Bay News
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The former Kirstie's Vintage Emporium shopfront on Gorseinon High Street between the Yellow Cabs taxi office and Noah's Ark daycare
20 High Street, the former Kirstie's Vintage Emporium, will be the temporary home of Gorseinon's banking hub (Image: Astley's Estate Agents)

Gorseinon’s new banking hub will open in September at 20 High Street, the former Kirstie’s Vintage Emporium, weeks before the town’s last bank branch closes.

Gorseinon Town Council announced the location this week, describing the unit between the taxi rank and Noah’s Ark daycare, opposite Home Bargains, as a temporary home while a permanent base is confirmed.

The hub will open 9am to 5pm on weekdays, with a counter run by Post Office staff where customers of any bank can withdraw and deposit cash, pay bills and carry out everyday transactions.

A community banker from a different bank will be on site each day, according to the rota shared in the announcements: Barclays on Mondays, NatWest on Tuesdays, Lloyds on Wednesdays, Halifax on Thursdays and HSBC on Fridays. The town council notes the rota is subject to change.

Mike Hedges MS (Welsh Labour, Gŵyr Abertawe) shared the same details, with the exact opening date still to be confirmed.

The timing matters. Lloyds closes its branch at 113 High Street on 12 October, one of 49 closures across the UK announced last September, meaning the hub is due to arrive about a month before the counter shuts.

That closure will leave Principality Building Society as the only remaining provider in the town.

Confirmed last September, open before the last counter shuts

The hub was confirmed for Gorseinon last September, when LINK, the UK’s cash access network, recommended the town as one of 11 communities to get one.

Chris Ashton, LINK’s chief commercial officer, said at the time that while more people were switching to digital banking, “we know that many people still rely on and choose to use cash”.

Gorseinon has been losing its banks for years. Barclays shut its branch in February 2022, saying only 83 customers used it exclusively, and HSBC closed its Alexandra Road branch in June 2021.

The hub, delivered by Cash Access UK, will be the second in Swansea, joining Morriston, while Mumbles opened its own hub in May at Castleton Walk Arcade.

Alongside the Post Office counter, the hub will have private space where customers can meet the community banker from their own bank to deal with more complex matters, from payments and transfers to help using online banking.

The search for a permanent Gorseinon base continues, with the town council saying the High Street unit is the hub’s home while that is worked out.

An exact go-live date has yet to be announced.

Related stories from Swansea Bay News

New banking hub confirmed for Gorseinon after branch closure announcements
LINK recommended Gorseinon as one of 11 communities to get a hub last September.

Lloyds Bank to close Ammanford and Gorseinon branches in 2026
The Gorseinon branch closes on 12 October, leaving Principality as the town’s last provider.

Mumbles Banking Hub opens, and Pembroke Dock confirmed for June
The Castleton Walk Arcade hub opened in May as the network spreads across south-west Wales.

Halifax: Llanelli’s Cowell Street branch to close in November as bank brand is wound down
The Cowell Street branch shuts on 3 November as the Halifax name disappears from high streets.

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Swansea Bay News

Reporting from the Swansea Bay News newsroom.


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