When I opened one of these I didn’t have to go to a branch (I think I was asked for a special UCAS code which I was able to use to prove student status).
The banks which have required a branch visit, for me, have been Barclays (a while ago), Co-operative Bank and all of the Lloyds group (when I was a student opening non-student accounts, there was something in their system that always required an ID check) plus TSB (as they initially used the same processes as Lloyds).
I never needed to attend a Natiowide after opening my account online but they may have already “known about” me as I once had a child savings account there, which I had only closed a few years before applying for a current account. At the time, all my details (address, etc) would have been the same so it may have been matched to an existing file.
I’ve also had an HSBC account for a long time which I originally opened in branch as a child.