The former London headquarters of Midland Bank, a Grade I-listed property designed by Edwin Lutyens and John Alfred Gotch and built in 1925, is soon to be turned into a boutique hotel. The imposing building, in the heart of the Square Mile, was vacated six years ago by HSBC, which bought Midland in 1992. It has since operated as a branch of NatWest and as a filming location for Channel 4’s game show The Bank Job. Its vaults also appeared in the 1964 James Bond film Goldfinger. The sequence in which it appeared sees the Bond villain Oddjob meet his demise. The new hotel will be part of the Soho House group, which owns a string of private members' clubs (some with accommodation), restaurants and stand-alone boutique hotels. The large building will feature 255 rooms, as well as restaurants, bars, spa and gym facilities and a swimming pool.
A few of us were scoping this place out for a while since Pinkman & Vixxie mentioned it, the only access point visible involved some mission impossible style abseiling and although I wasn't keen on it looked like the only way forward. Anyway, as luck would have it I spotted two security guys stood outside the front door smoking last week and I decided to take a more direct approach. I went over and asked them a bit about the building and who could I ask for permission to take a look inside. They told me they weren't allowed to divulge any information about their employer other than he is a Russian billionaire turning the place into a luxury hotel with work starting in just 2 weeks. I looked past them through the open door and asked if there was any chance I could take a quick peek and miraculously one of them said "yeah go on then". I followed him in and asked if I could take a few pics and again he said "yeah go on then". He gave me a quick walk through the main hall which was at one time the largest bank hall in Europe, and when I asked if I could see the vault he said "yeah go on then, you're lucky I'm in a good mood today" and took me downstairs to the amazing vault which was used in Goldfinger. I couldn't believe my luck! I tried a cheeky revisit this afternoon hoping a grab bag of maltesers (half price in Tesco at the moment by the way) might persuade them to let me in and see some other bits such as the spiral staircase but I got a firm NO from the other dude that was present last time, who in all honesty wasn't keen on me coming in that time either. He told me it will become a construction site starting in 2 days time so perhaps I had the last chance to see it in this state, but perhaps not, I guess it depends whether or not construction happens as planned. Hope you enjoy the pics, they were all taken handheld in the space of about 5 minutes but came out pretty well considering. The vault door was one of the best things I have ever seen
Thanks for looking
A few of us were scoping this place out for a while since Pinkman & Vixxie mentioned it, the only access point visible involved some mission impossible style abseiling and although I wasn't keen on it looked like the only way forward. Anyway, as luck would have it I spotted two security guys stood outside the front door smoking last week and I decided to take a more direct approach. I went over and asked them a bit about the building and who could I ask for permission to take a look inside. They told me they weren't allowed to divulge any information about their employer other than he is a Russian billionaire turning the place into a luxury hotel with work starting in just 2 weeks. I looked past them through the open door and asked if there was any chance I could take a quick peek and miraculously one of them said "yeah go on then". I followed him in and asked if I could take a few pics and again he said "yeah go on then". He gave me a quick walk through the main hall which was at one time the largest bank hall in Europe, and when I asked if I could see the vault he said "yeah go on then, you're lucky I'm in a good mood today" and took me downstairs to the amazing vault which was used in Goldfinger. I couldn't believe my luck! I tried a cheeky revisit this afternoon hoping a grab bag of maltesers (half price in Tesco at the moment by the way) might persuade them to let me in and see some other bits such as the spiral staircase but I got a firm NO from the other dude that was present last time, who in all honesty wasn't keen on me coming in that time either. He told me it will become a construction site starting in 2 days time so perhaps I had the last chance to see it in this state, but perhaps not, I guess it depends whether or not construction happens as planned. Hope you enjoy the pics, they were all taken handheld in the space of about 5 minutes but came out pretty well considering. The vault door was one of the best things I have ever seen
Thanks for looking
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