Yes, we're veering off topic. It can be done, very cheaply even in the UK.
Citibank UK EURO Current Account (Monthly fee about £8 or free if you push £1800 per month through it)
Transferwise (referral link)
http://transferwise.com/u/6de1 to convert GBP into EUR (pretty much at the wholesale spot rate plus a couple of quid)
SEPA transfer from Citi EURO account to wherever (e.g. Bitstamp) - FREE.
The downside is it takes about 5 days to get GBP into BTC, especially if I've not got a float in the EUR account.
Thanks tigerbit, that's useful to know. Back to the topic in hand now (sorry for the bank rant, it's just one of those things that gets on my nerves!)