Beginning of the end for Bootle’s former Girobank building

Recent images show that the razing of the old Santander headquarters off Bridle Road has begun, two years after plans to redevelop the site were scrapped.

Known locally as the Giro, the Bootle landmark has almost completely lost its operations block with the dismantling well underway.

Sefton Council received a demolition notice in August for the vacant site, which was sold to E Taylor Consulting 2023 in March for £3.2m, according to Land Registry.

The Giro was opened by the old state-owned Girobank in 1968 as its national headquarters until operations were passed onto Alliance & Leicester in 1990, and then Santander in 2008.

Santander was granted planning permission in 2021 to redevelop the Bootle base. The redevelopment would have seen the existing building demolished and rebuilt to create a 220,000 sq ft campus.

The bank later scrapped these plans in order to introduce more flexible working, making the decision to consolidate its offices into six main locations across the UK. The company’s headquarters is now in Milton Keynes, with bases in Belfast, Bradford, Glasgow, London, and Sheffield.

Demolition is well underway at the site. Credit: Chris Scott

A spokesperson from Santander said: “We sold the former Girobank campus to developers on 20th March 2023 and have not been involved in the recent redevelopment of the site.

“We continue to have a presence in Bootle, in Alaska House on Dunningsbridge Road.”