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 Martins Bank’s Branch at 32
Lowndes Street opens in 1930 and enjoys just ten years in service before
being destroyed by enemy action in 1940. Temporary premises are found nearby
at No 48 Sloane Street, which doubles as (and is actually KNOWN as) Lowndes Street Branch for many years.
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In Service: 16 June 1930 until destroyed by enemy action in
September 1940
Extracts from Martins Bank Lmited Annual Report and
Accounts 1930 © Barclays
Extract from Martins Bank Lmited Annual Report and Accounts
1939 © Barclays
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You
can read more about this on our 48 SLOANE STREET
page. We are sorry that no images can
currently be found of the original branch at 32 Lowndes Street, but thanks to
Martins colleague Geoff Taylor, you can at least see its incarnation at 48
Sloane Street, which later becomes an office in its own right, before
downgrading to a sub branch to 153 Sloane Street. Someone who served at all three of these
branches is Manager Mr K R Wright, whose story is told below in his
retirement write-up in Martins Bank Magazine…
From 32 Lowndes Street to
48 Sloane Street …
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 At
the end of 1958 Mr K R Wright retires after over forty-six years’ service,
for 28½ of which he has been Manager at Sloane Street. To mark the occasion he gives a cocktail
party at 153 Sloane Street on December 30 which is attended by around one
hundred of his past and present colleagues.
Some of them have travelled from as frar away as Cheshire and
Yorkshire to say goodbye to Mr Wright.
Having joined the service in 1912 at Lombard Street, he serves his
country in World War I with the Northumberland Hussars and Middlesex
Yeomanry, sustaining injury in France in 1918. Returning to the bank after the war, his
association with London SW1 begins in 1930 when he is appointed as the first
Manager of 32 Lowndes Street.
Following the destruction of the building by a bomb in 1940, and the
business being conducted for a time in
temporary premises, Mr Wright became the Manager of Sloane Street – first at
No 48, and from 1948 at No 153.
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Image © Martins Bank Archive Collections - G R Taylor
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