Midland Bank, Poultry

The Birmingham and Midland Bank was founded by Charles Geach in Birmingham in 1836. In under a century, through a long series of amalgamations, and the establishment of a successful overseas business, it had become the largest bank in the world. Renamed the Midland Bank in 1923, in 1924 it commissioned a new headquarters building on Poultry in the City of London.^[1] The architect was Edwin Lutyens. The first building was completed by 1929, but Lutyens returned to undertake a major expansion between 1935 and 1937.^[2] Following the Midland's financial decline in the late 20th century, it was absorbed into HSBC in 1992^[1] and the Poultry headquarters was vacated and subsequently sold.^[2] The building was repurposed, and opened as a hotel, named "The Ned" in Lutyens' honour, in 2017.^[3] The building's restoration, a partnership between Soho House and the Sydell Hotels Group, has drawn praise from both architectural critics and travel writers.^[4][5][6]

Lutyens' connection to the Midland Bank came through Reginald McKenna, a senior politician who became the bank's chairman in 1919. McKenna was married to a niece of Gertrude Jekyll, Lutyens' long-time collaborator, and Lutyens had been commissioned to design the McKenna's London townhouse, Mulberry House, in Smith Square in 1912.^[a][8] On McKenna's accession to the chairmanship of the Midland, he engaged Lutyens to design the bank's new headquarters.^[b][9]

The building is listed at Grade I by Historic England, which considers it one of Lutyens' "finest urban buildings".^[10]