Barclays banking is now available in Margate town once a week thanks to a collaboration with Silvers café, bar and event space in the High Street.
The bank will have a staff member at Silvers every Wednesday from 9am to 4pm.
The Barclays branch, at 66 High Street, closed its doors in May 2020 but the Barclays Local initiative means “every day banking needs” can now be dealt with at the ‘pop-up.’ Services include financial advice and money management and help using the Barclays app. There is not a cash or counter service.
Margate resident Jack Packman, who is married to Silvers business owner Charlotte, said: “I have been working on trying to bring banking back to Margate High Street for some time.
“We have seen several banks vanish from our high streets and we know that those with no digital access or digital skills are the ones who are going to be worse off.
“So we are working with Barclays to bring banking back to Margate high street as there a high number of Barclays customers who live within the area. This will be every Wednesday between 9am and 4pm.”
Silvers was opened by 24-year-old entrepreneur Charlotte Silver in 2020 and the site also is the base for her Silver Slipper dance school.
Charlotte, who lives in Margate with Jack and chihuahua Jasmine, is also due to open another venture – Charlotte’s Café.
She said the Barclay’s pop-up at Silvers is “exciting.”
Silvers is based at 59 High Street, Margate.
Not sure I’d want to do my banking in a Margate cafe…
Really useful initiative – like the old advert where your bank manager lived in our cupboard. There are still thousands of people who don’t or can’t use emails and digital communications. These folk desperately want to talk to a human being. Hopefully this service can be opened in a few other places.
It’s a pity the owners of this business didn’t think of it when they were based in Westgate, a place that hasn’t had a bank in years!
Hi Peter
There is the exact same thing now in Westgate. It operates out of the Town. Council on a Friday.
Jack
That’s good to know Jack! Hopefully something similar will happen in Birchington.
Barclays in Margate was open when this business was in westgate! Also the pop up wasn’t available at that time, so totally pointless comment!
How about this positive instead did being a troll 😂
And you don’t have to use it, complaining it’s in a cafe aswell. Have you nothing better to do 😂
This isn’t a banking service, the article should be rewritten or made clearer. The most they can do is show you how to use your mobile app, there’s absolutely no banking services available at this pop-up branch. Google ‘Barclays Local pop-up’.
Fair point, I’ve added a line.
No good for me then (I don’t have and refuse to get a smartphone!).
I suspect that there will NOT be a facility where you can pay money in or draw money out – but I stand to be corrected.
I believe we still have branches of Halifax, Nationwide, Nat West and Lloyds in Margate town.
Surely a ‘pop-up’ bank one day a week in towns where no other bank branches exist would be far more useful to those residents ? How does Barclays think its customers have survived without them in Margate for the past two years – and do they really think they will draw custom from other banks that open five days a week ?
They were trialling a thing in Rochford, which is near Southend in Essex, where a shop unit (don’t know who owns it) is fitted out like a bank, but it is shared by the different banks. So on a Monday its a Barclays, on a Tuesday its a NatWest, on a Wednesday its Lloyds and so on…
Think it has full paying in facilities in addition to staff to talk to from that bank.
Worth mentioning that you can pay money into accounts and withdraw money from Post Offices. Not sure if every account or every bank allows this, but I know Barclays deficiently do. Worth reiterating if anyone doesn’t use online banking or apps but needs to pay things in or take money out.
Silvers – still a good idea if some people simply want reassurance from a real human being from their bank I suppose.
‘There is not a cash or counter service.’ So not bringing banking back at all.
As a teenager I and friends used to frequent the Silver Slipper coffee bar (affectionately referred to as the Rusty Boot) at the then top of the High St. Various advice and transactions took place which had nothing to do with coffee.
This type of mangled service is very strange…advice on how to use a Barclays bank if you can find one open.
This bank will have lost customers from Margate and rightly so.
What next…a vets where you and the pet can get a haircut.
A Pub offering podiatry and in the corner birth control advice.
The lollipop person triaging medical issues.
No end of permutations…
The world is an oyster, clam, winkle and whatever else can be attached to work with it.
Live league football matches on the beach and international sea swimming would be a funny old game too.