For most of its history, National Provincial Bank was headquartered in London on Bishopsgate, at junction with Threadneedle Street.

The Country Bankers Act 1826 permitted the establishment of joint stock banks but note issue was only allowed outside a radius of 65 miles of London.

[4] When Thomas Joplin discovered that the laws preventing the establishment of joint stock banks in Ireland had been repealed in 1824, he promoted the Irish Provincial Banking Company, to be based in London but with branches in all the principal towns in Ireland outside Dublin; this was to be a forerunner of Joplin’s English version.

[6] The first branch to be opened, at the beginning of 1834, was in Gloucester followed by Brecon, Walsall, Birmingham, Wotton-under-Edge, Boston and Wisbech.

Considerable dissension soon arose relating to the structure of the branch system and Joplin, who favoured a network of local semi-autonomous banks, left.

[6] Many of the branches that were "opened" during the 19th century came from the acquisition of local banks, sometimes as a going concern, sometimes merely taking over the premises after a failure.

The bank ceased its provincial note issue and was appointed to the London Bankers' Clearing House.

On that site the bank erected a prominent new head office building, designed by Philip Charles Hardwick and completed in 1865, remodeled in 1887.

[15] However, its more substantive overseas move came in 1924 with the acquisition of Grindlays Bank, a London-based institution with offices in India and specialising in serving the Indian army.

Grindlays was allowed to operate independently and was sold to the London-based National Bank of India in 1948.

Following the merger, the National Provincial Bank continued to exist as a dormant non-trading company until 2016, when it was voluntarily struck off the register and dissolved.

It is surmounted by two squirrels (suggested by the College of Arms as denoting thrift and foresight) supporting an urn; this alludes to The Flower Pot Inn which originally stood on the site of the entrance to the city office.

In England and those common law jurisdictions whose approach follows that of English law in treating the duty of confidentiality as resting in contract, the classic authority is the Court of Appeal decision in Tournier v National Provincial and Union Bank of England.