Britain had no cash machine until 27 June 1967, when Barclays switched one on outside its branch in Enfield, North London. Before that, the banks shut at three in the afternoon and did not open again until Monday. This is the story of how the UK built the most convenient cash network in Europe, and then quietly took it apart.

The film covers the Payment of Wages Act of 1960 and the end of the brown pay packet, the first machine at Enfield in 1967, the founding of the LINK network in 1985, the branch closure announcements that began in 2000, and the interchange cuts of 2018 that thinned the network out. It looks at what the Post Office has been doing to hold the whole thing together, and at what the 2023 access to cash rules admit about who was responsible all along.

What did your household keep money in before there was a machine in the wall?

Before Britain — everything you think has always been here has a start date. New documentary every week.

#BritishHistory #UKHistory #SocialHistory