Henley's banking hub will open first at the library in Ravenscroft Road, Cash Access UK confirms. Expected October; no opening date or banks named yet.

Update, 28 September 2026: a temporary home has been confirmed. Cash Access UK’s hub tracker now gives Henley’s status as “Temporary location confirmed”. The address it lists is:

  • Henley Upon Thames Library, Ravenscroft Road, Henley-on-Thames RG9 2DH

The expected opening is still given as 10/2026, October. The page names no opening date, no opening hours and no banks for the community banker room yet. “Temporary” means a permanent site is still to be found; Cash Access UK has not published a date for that. The report below was first published on 31 August, when no building had been found.

Henley-on-Thames is getting a banking hub. The cash network LINK recommended one for the town on 15 July 2026, and its own published standard gives the industry twelve weeks to open a new service. That deadline falls on 7 October.

Cash Access UK sets up and runs the UK’s banking hubs. Its own hub tracker has a page for Henley on Thames. On 31 August it gave the status as “Property search underway”, announced 07/2026, expected 10/2026. By 28 September that had moved to “Temporary location confirmed”, at the library.

LINK assesses whether a community has enough access to cash, and it publishes every decision. The Henley decision sits in its access to cash assessments dataset, published on 28 August. The entry records:

  • local area: Henley On Thames, postcode RG9 1UR
  • type of assessment: Community Request, not a branch closure
  • published: 15 July 2026
  • minimum expected facility: a banking hub

LINK found all five categories of service were needed in the town: cash withdrawals for personal customers, deposits for personal customers, withdrawals for businesses, deposits for businesses, and someone to help with transactions face to face.

That is the maximum finding LINK makes. It is also a reversal. The same postcode was assessed after an earlier community request, and that decision, published on 11 December 2024, was “no additional services”.

Why the town asked

Henley’s Market Place lost two banks six months apart, and LINK’s own records show it recommended almost nothing at the time.

Branch Closed What LINK recommended
NatWest, 18 Market Place 7 February 2023 No additional services
HSBC, 6 Market Place 8 August 2023 A deposit service

Both decisions were published in late 2022. The community request that followed in December 2024 was refused. The one decided this July was not.

What a banking hub is

Cash Access UK sets out the model on its own site. A hub opens Monday to Friday, 9am to 5pm, and has two parts.

A Post Office-operated counter, open whenever the hub is, and available whoever you bank with. It handles:

  • paying in cash and cheques
  • withdrawing notes and coin
  • balance checks
  • utility bill payments
  • gas and electricity top-ups
  • change-giving for registered businesses

Alongside it sits a private room with a community banker from one bank, with a different bank in on each day of the week. Fourteen banks support the network, including Barclays, HSBC, Lloyds, NatWest, Santander, TSB and Virgin Money.

Cash Access UK has not said which banks will staff the Henley room. Its page says only that it “will be able to tell you nearer the time”.

How long this has taken elsewhere

The district’s other hub is a useful check on the October date. Didcot, about 15 miles west of Henley, was recommended a hub on 11 February 2026, after Lloyds told LINK its Market Place branch would shut.

More than six months on, Cash Access UK still gives Didcot the status “Building identified”, with lease negotiations underway, and an expected opening of February 2027.

The Didcot premises are now in the planning system. South Oxfordshire District Council’s weekly list records application P26/S3362/FUL, made valid on 18 August 2026, to convert a charity shop at 156 Broadway, Didcot into a banking hub. The works applied for include replacing part of the shopfront and the entrance door, two louvres, an external condenser, two fascia signs and an illuminated projecting sign. The applicant’s address on the register, in Gloucester Street, London WC1N 3AX, shares a postcode with Cash Access UK’s registered office.

Lloyds’ own branch page says the Didcot branch closes permanently on 17 March 2027. It already opens four days a week, Wednesday to Saturday.

Henley’s timeline

Cash access decisions for Henley-on-Thames, 2023 to 2026 A timeline. NatWest at 18 Market Place closed on 7 February 2023 and LINK recommended no additional services. HSBC at 6 Market Place closed on 8 August 2023 and LINK recommended a deposit service. A community request decided on 11 December 2024 found no additional services were needed. A second community request decided on 15 July 2026 recommended a banking hub. LINK's twelve week standard puts the target opening at 7 October 2026. On 28 September Cash Access UK confirmed Henley Library as the temporary location. Henley asked twice. The second answer was a banking hub. LINK access to cash decisions affecting Henley-on-Thames, and the target that follows from them. 7 Feb 2023 8 Aug 2023 11 Dec 2024 15 Jul 2026 7 Oct 2026 NatWest closes18 Market PlaceNo extra services HSBC closes6 Market PlaceDeposit service Community requestrefusedNo extra services Banking hubrecommended Twelve weektarget All five services needed Temporary site: library Source: LINK access to cash assessments, 28 August 2026 release; Cash Access UK hub tracker. Graphic by The Henley Post. The 7 October date is LINK's published twelve week standard, not a confirmed opening date.

What it means for you

Nothing changes in Henley today. The hub is not open yet. Its temporary home is the library in Ravenscroft Road, but no opening date has been published. Until it opens, cash and counter services in the town are whatever they are now.

October is a target, not a promise. LINK’s wording is that new services “should open within 12 weeks of our recommendation if none exist already”. Didcot’s experience suggests finding and fitting a unit takes longer than that. Watch Cash Access UK’s status line: it moves from “property search underway” to “building identified” to a lease, and only then to a date.

If you run a Henley business, the deposit finding matters most. LINK recorded that both business withdrawals and business deposits are needed here. A hub counter takes trade deposits in notes and coin, which is the service independent shops lose first when a branch shuts.

A planning application will be the first hard signal. When a site is agreed, the shopfront works have to be applied for, as they have been in Didcot. Those appear on the council’s weekly list, and we track them on our Henley planning page.

Sources: LINK access to cash assessments (28 August 2026 release); Cash Access UK, Henley on Thames and Didcot; Lloyds Bank, Didcot branch; South Oxfordshire District Council planning register, weekly list for 24 to 30 August 2026.