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 Our image shows the drab and rather uninspiring interior of Martins Bank’s
Gloucester Branch at 9a Southgate Street, which has served the Bank well
between 1956 and 1968. Using part of
an existing hotel building (perhaps a rush job in order to gain foothold in
the City), this, the Bank’s first branch in Gloucester, is distinctly lacklustre, and a report from the Bank’s inspectors recommends a rebuild or at
least a relocation. Fortunately,
premises are available over the road at numbers 8 to 10.
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In Service: 1956 to 1968
Image:
Barclays Ref 0030/1064
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If we wind the clock back to 1957, when 9a
Southgate Street is still new, Martins Bank Magazine pays a visit and, as
usual in its coverage of a new branch, heaps encouraging praise upon it…
 Gloucester
Cathedral, the Tailor of Gloucester, the Duke of Gloucester, the Gloster
Javelin — it is quite
surprising within what small compass one's knowledge of a place prior to
visiting it for the first time can be enfolded. The City of Gloucester itself
decided to impress us with a modern note and as we stepped from the London
train a delta-winged aircraft, product of the nearby aircraft factory,
thundered over the town. The railway approach, however, had already convinced
us that this was no sleepy county town and the railway carriage building and
repair works and the numerous tracks of the Western Region and the N.W.
Region running side by side showed beyond all doubt that we were approaching
a place of some importance. Mr. J. Harbit, who opened our new branch
a few months ago, was at the station to greet us and first of all we went out
to his home to call for Mrs. Harbit who was waiting to join us for lunch. She
had to wait a bit for her lunch, however, for we so far forgot ourselves as
to ask to be allowed to inspect her house and garden in some detail, so
interesting did we find it. There’s nothing of the stick-in-the-mud about the
Harbits and if you want to see contemporary domestic décor this is the place
to see its possibilities. One room has four different coloured wallpapers – others have two.
Two small rooms have been knocked into one big room downstairs and
everywhere one receives the impression of space. The garden is
of a size which only two real garden lovers would tackle and in a couple of
years, when it is once more restored to good heart, it could be a showpiece.
 Unfortunately,
since going to Gloucester Mrs. Harbit has suffered a very serious illness
and is, in fact, quite lucky to be recovering from it, so that for some time
to come she will have to take life easily. We were very pleased indeed that
she was well enough to join us for lunch and to accompany us round the town
afterwards. They are both North-Easterners and Mr.
Harbit entered the Bank in 1934 at Wingrove, subsequently serving at Forest
Hall, Chopwell, Annfield Plain, Gallowgate and Prudhoe before service with H.M. Forces, 1940 to 1945. At
the beginning of 1946 he returned and was posted to Hexham, and later that
year to Newcastle City Office. His first appointment, as Clerk-in-Charge at
Norton Road, Middlesbrough, came in 1949 and in 1952 he was attached to the
District General Manager’s Staff for special training. Later that year he
became Assistant Manager at Hanley, a post he held until the opening of our
new branch in Gloucester.
We thought the new London branches were attractive, but
Gloucester has beaten them to it in at least one respect. So far as we know
it is the only branch in the service with a private entrance from the rear of
the office into the bar of a nearby hotel, in this case the Bell Hotel next
door! The branch has been made out of a portion of this hotel and H seems an
altogether excellent idea so to have sited it. The branch is lit by concealed lighting which shines
through the sunshine coloured glass of the ceiling, giving the same sunny
effect as in the Sunshine Room at Head Office. The counter, counter screen
and furniture of ash and light walnut combine with the lighting to give a
cosy, friendly and cheerful impression to all who enter. Accommodation is
spacious and there is plenty of room for expansion. Second-in-command is Mr. D. J. B. Corbett whose career
has been a bit out of the ordinary. He started his business career in Lloyds
Bank, returning to them after service in the Forces during the Second World
War. He then married a Norwegian girl and applied for and obtained a post
with the National Bank of India in East Africa. He became Accountant at their
Mombasa branch and during the Mau Mau troubles was slightly wounded while
serving with anti-terrorist forces. Because of the strain on his wife’s
health they returned to England and he joined our bank in 1955, serving on
Midland District Office Relief Staff and then at Markets branch, Birmingham,
before his present transfer. We were very
happy to meet Mr. C. J. T. Dash, whose father, Manager of our Cheltenham
branch, is a very old friend.
He entered the Bank last year and served at Hoylake and
Liverpool Overseas, then at Cheltenham, going to Gloucester in December. The morale of the staff is kept up by Miss M. S. Hughes,
a native of Cardiff who has settled very happily into the Gloucester scene.
It was not to be expected that we would visit
Gloucester without seeing the cathedral, the early Norman gem which contains
the tomb of Edward II. Its east window, one of the chief glories of the
building, commemorates the death of local barons and knights at the Battle of
Crecy and at the Siege of Calais. It is the largest window in England. The
earliest parts of the building date back to 1089. Gloucester has a new cattle
market and also an old one. The old one, tree-lined between the pens, is the
most attractive of the many we have seen. They are usually bare expanses of
concrete, wood and iron. Our visit was a
short one but was pleasant in the extreme and it was most heartening to learn
of the excellent progress which the new branch is making.
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