The Woolwich

The first branch of the Woolwich was opened in Cheapside, London in 1923. Following the development boom of the '30s, the Woolwich was able to expand rapidly and by 1933 was the third largest building society in the country with assets of £38m.

By 1935, the Woolwich had opened its new headquarters, Equitable House, in General Gordon Square in Woolwich. This was temporarily moved to Pilgrim House in Westerham in Kent at the outbreak of World War Two.

Growth continued during the 1940s and '50s with the now common employment of female staff as well as male. The first office in Scotland opened in Edinburgh in 1941 and by 1954, assets reached £100m.

The 1960's saw the transformation of the Woolwich into a modern financial services institution, with the opening of a new administration centre in Bexleyheath, Kent to house its first mainframe computer, an IBM 360/30.

By 1970, half of all UK families owned their own homes and the strong demand for mortgages enabled the Woolwich to establish itself as a with high street branches throughout the UK.

In 1983, the Woolwich became one of the first societies to raise money in the London Money Market by issuing Certificates of Deposit. Between 1984 and 1986, the Woolwich had acquired four smaller building societies before merging with the Gateway Building Society in 1988, boosting assets to £13,000m.

Deregulation in the mid-1980s enabled building societies to compete in many new areas that had previously been the traditional preserve of the banks and insurance companies. The Woolwich took a lead in this through diversification into new areas, and developed several subsidiary companies including Woolwich Independent Financial Advisory Services.

In 1989, the Woolwich Headquarters moved from Equitable House in Woolwich to a new Corporate Headquarters in Watling Street, Bexleyheath, Kent.

Barclays acquired the Woolwich in October 2000. According to the website, "the acquisition has given the group the opportunity to provide extensive services to our customers, for example Openplan which was pioneered by the Woolwich has now been rolled out across the Barclays Group. This has provided numerous benefits to our customers such as paying off mortgages early through our market leading Offset product."