There is concern about the future of the Old Town Hall in Devizes after the Cheltenham and Gloucester Building Society closes its branch there in November with the loss of five jobs.

The upstairs is already empty after the Wine Street Gallery closed earlier this year, a victim of the recession.

A statement from the Lloyds Group, which owns C&G, said that all 164 branches will close in November, with the loss of 833 full-time jobs In Wiltshire a total of 15 jobs are under threat at branches in Salisbury, Swindon, Chippenham and Devizes.

Lloyds said they would prefer to use natural turnover and redeployment of staff to Lloyds TSB branches. Compulsory redundancy would be a last resort.

The Devizes branch at the corner of Wine Street and St John’s Street employs five full-time staff. The branch is managed by Michelle Sharp.

Cheltenham and Gloucester bought the building in 1970 and has been operating out of it for nearly 40 years. A spokesman for the Lloyds Group said it had not been decided whether to put it on the market or rent it out.

Jeff Ody, chairman of the Trust for Devizes, said the future of the 1745 building was a matter of serious concern to them.

He said: “It is a landmark building in the town and it would be logical that Lloyds would want to close one of its buildings here. The great fear is that it could become a charity shop, or worse still, another bar.”

But town centre manager Mitch Roberts said he was confident that such a prominent and attractive building would soon find a new occupant.

He said: “It would make a very nice restaurant, although some might say we have enough of those already.

“But the town is crying out for good retail player, especially young people’s fashions.”