{"id":33841,"date":"2025-06-10T15:09:16","date_gmt":"2025-06-10T14:09:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/abingdonblog.co.uk\/?p=33841"},"modified":"2025-06-10T15:09:16","modified_gmt":"2025-06-10T14:09:16","slug":"closures-of-natwest-and-pablo-lounge-on-abingdon-market-place","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.abingdonblog.co.uk\/?p=33841","title":{"rendered":"Closures of NatWest and Pablo Lounge on Abingdon Market Place"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.abingdonblog.co.uk\/imag25\/2025061002.jpg\" \/><br \/>\nIn the past week, it has been announced that the NatWest Bank will close, and staff at Pablo Lounge have told customers they also are to close.<br \/>\n<img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.abingdonblog.co.uk\/imag25\/2025061001.jpg\" \/><br \/>\nNatWest is the latest in a line of banks to shut their Abingdon branch \u2014 part of a wider national trend as customers increasingly move to digital banking. However, the closure will inconvenience local businesses that rely on bank services such as change, as well as customers who are not online. The Abingdon branch is set to close on 24th September.<br \/>\n<img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.abingdonblog.co.uk\/imag25\/2025061003.jpg\" \/><br \/>\nPablo Lounge&#8217;s staff were informed last week that it is closing at the end of this month. Since opening in 2018, Pablo Lounge has been a popular spot for coffee, snacks, or meals \u2014 staying open until 11 pm and known for its friendly staff. Its quirky interior, with paintings covering the walls, gave it a  charm that will be missed.<br \/>\n<img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.abingdonblog.co.uk\/imag25\/2025061004.jpg\" \/><br \/>\nAccording to the 1854 Billings Directory, the bank started as the London and County Bank in Abingdon in the Market Place. In 1909, the London and Westminster Bank merged with the London and County Bank. More Mergers and name changes followed until in 1968, the Westminster Bank merged with the National Provincial Bank to form the National Westminster Bank &#8211; now known simply as NatWest.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In the past week, it has been announced that the NatWest Bank will close, and staff at Pablo Lounge have told customers they also are to close. NatWest is the latest in a line of banks to shut their Abingdon branch \u2014 part of a wider national trend as customers increasingly move to digital banking. [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-33841","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-business"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.abingdonblog.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33841","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.abingdonblog.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.abingdonblog.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.abingdonblog.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.abingdonblog.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=33841"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.abingdonblog.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33841\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.abingdonblog.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=33841"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.abingdonblog.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=33841"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.abingdonblog.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=33841"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}