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A gentler, wealthier
age…
Aah…
The erstwhile grandeur of Lord Street, where well to do ladies can still
enjoy the personal attentions of a milliner and a ladies tailor, and pay for
it all with a visit to Martins Bank!
In major cities the Bank has whole networks of Branches, but even in some
of the more modestly sized towns you can still come across several
outlets. At Southport, this has come
about through the acquisition of the Branches and sub-Branches of many
different banks who once had a foothold in the town: The Bank of Liverpool,
The Mercantile Bank of Lancashire, The Adelphi Bank and The Lancashire and
Yorkshire Bank. In the 1960s Martins Bank’s main Branch is this imposing
building at 365 Lord Street, and sub-Branches can be found at Eastbank
Street, St Lukes, Ainsdale Birkdale and Hillside.
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In service: 1901 – 21 July 1978
Image © Barclays Ref 0030-2730
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Southport
has managed to retain a dignified appearance and also maintains an
old-world charm. All this despite
the onslaught of the swinging 60s! The interior of 365 Lord Street does not
disappoint, the marbled walls of the banking hall being redolent of the
Bank’s Head Office Building at Water street in Liverpool. Banking is certainly an occasion here,
and from the moment you twirl your way into the Branch through the
revolving doors, you have the feeling that you are stepping back in time… There
is another central Southport Branch – at 415
LORD STREET – but this
is closed in 1934, only a few years after it is inherited from the
Lancashire and Yorkshire Bank. At
the time of Martins Bank’s merger with Barclays, all of the remaining
Southport area Branches make the change, but sadly not all of them will
survive into the twenty-first century…
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Image ©
Martins Bank Archive Collections - Stephen Walker
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Images © Barclays Ref
0030-2730
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The
mists (and the mysteries) of time…
Obscured, and not least upstaged
by S B Craven Outfitter’s shop next door, the Bank of Liverpool at Lord
Street is seen here in the 1910s, before the merger of the Bank of
Liverpool with Martin’s Private Bank. This postcard image has been
coloured-in by hand, so we cannot vouch for the shade used to colourise the
bank! More mystifying is the numbering of the property next door –
187. The bank does look like it is
the same building as that shown in our main image at the top of this page,
but that is supposed to be Number 365 Lord Street – not 185 or 189. Were the buildings renumbered sometime
between the 1920s and 1960s? If you
can shed ANY light on this matter, please
do contact us at the usual address: martinsbankarchive@btinternet.com.
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Image ©
Martins Bank Archive Collections
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