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 Opened in 1967 at Alsop Building, Brownlow Hill,
these purpose-built premises will cater much better for Martins Bank’s
Liverpool University customers than the previous ones. Brownlow hill is redeveloped between 1965
and 1968, and the Bank has to leave the original University Branch at 164 BROWNLOW HILL, and open a temporary branch at 45 BEDFORD STREET NORTH. Martins Bank’s presence at university campuses all
over England has proved a successful move for the Bank, tapping in to a
student banking market that is set to become a huge fighting ground for
competition amongst the major banks throughout the 1970s, 80s and 90s.
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In service: 1967 until 29 January 2021
Image © Martins Bank
Archive Collections
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Whilst many University
Branches offer only limited banking hours, Liverpool University is a full
Branch, open for the full banking week across six days, and is open to all
customers of the Bank, students or not.
This is evidenced by this interior photo (right) from 1968, which
seems to show customers of mixed ages being served at a busy counter.
Martins Bank publishes
leaflets for students at just about every university in England, directing
them either to an on-campus branch of the Bank, or one situated nearby.
Students are reminded that Martins is an especially friendly bank, and that
is why so many students bank there. The leaflets also contain useful
information about banking with Martins, and often a map of the relevant
university campus, so that no-one gets lost finding the Bank!
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Images ©
Martins Bank Archive Collections
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Liverpool is one of the
longest serving of the Bank’s university branches, opening in its original
premises in 1958, and closing at the end of January 2021 – a total of
sixty-three years. Barclays have
kindly provided us with the following: an exterior shot from 1981, and an
interior from 1985, and a little further down the page, we journey back to
1968, when our short feature throws the spotlight on Liverpool University
Branch Manager, Bill Morris, who in October of that year appears to have
changed profession altogether…
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Images ©
Barclays Ref 0030-1688
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“ee’s
gettin’ married in the mornin’…”
Mr W G Morris, Manager of Liverpool University
Branch, outside his newly-built office.
Pardon?
Yes, it really is Bill Morris and his
outfit had nothing to do with the recent strike of the Liverpool
dustmen. This is how he appeared on
stage at Liverpool’s Royal Court Theatre as Alfred Doolittle in ‘My Fair
Lady’ which the Birkenhead Amateur Operatic Society staged for a fortnight
in October.
And if that dustbin looks heavy – it
was. Said Bill: “We had a session taking
pictures and I picked up this dustbin full of clinkers. The expression of anguish is not
altogether staged”…
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The piece above, from Martins Bank Magazine’s Autumn 1968
issue, assumes that readers already know of the glittering singing career
of Liverpool University Manager William Morris. For those not quite so clued
up, we turn to the assistance of Harold Brough, who wrote the following
article in the Liverpool Echo, on 10 October 1968…
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Image © Reach PLC and Find my Past
created courtesy of THE BRITISH LIBRARY BOARD.
Text and image Reproduced with kind
permission of The
British Newspaper Archive
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{NOW
WHAT'S an immaculate sort of gentleman like a Liverpool bank manager doing staggering
under the weight of dustbin? And in those clothes? And, what's more,
letting his hair grow “I’ll need an anaesthetist next time,”’ said Bill Morris.
“It's going to be quite a haircut.” As he says, he hopes that his customers
at Martins Bank, Liverpool University branch, would never recognise him
like this. It's all due to Birkenhead
Amateur Operatic Society's second production this year, “ My Fair Lady,”
which opens at Liverpool's Royal Court on Monday. Forty-two-years-old Bill,
of 22 Chatsworth Road, Ainsdale, plays the part of Doolittle, the dustman
father of Eliza, and he is now amusing the rest of the cast with his
cockney accent far removed, of course, from the voice his customers usually
hear. “ It comes easy,” he said. “I don't have to practise and actually I feel
I can do a Cockney accent better than I could, say, a Scottish one.” The
dustbin? “It was a very heavy dustbin,” said Bill. I picked up the wrong one. “We had a
session taking pictures at Bidston and I picked up this dustbin full of
clinker. The expression of anguish is not altogether staged.”
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His musical career started when he was 13-years-old
and at 16 he was second bass in the Liverpool Philharmonic choir. He was
only 19 when he sang solo at the Royal Albert Hall and he has appeared with
the B.B.C. Northern Singers and on radio and television many times. He
Joined the Birkenhead Society in 1963 and gave a magnificent performance as
Joe (Old Man River) in “Showboat” his favourite part and show—and he followed
this with Dr. Engel in “The Student Prince” and the Earl of Essex in “Merrie
England”. He is the founder-conductor of the William Morris Singers,
founded four and a half years ago and now with more than 60 oratorio
performances to their credit. Ambition? To play Porgy in “Porgy and Bess”
and Mephistopheles in “Faust.” By
the way, he tells me that for “My Fair Lady,” he won’t be carrying any bins,
“just a pint of ale or something like that.” Which must be a relief.}
As we have discivered, having featured many old newpaper
articles in our online Archive, it was quite normal in the late 1960s to
have your home address printed in the newspaper! Sadly, it seems letting
would-be bank robbers know where the bank manager lived was not the best
idea, and perhaps this is why from around 1967 onwards, more and more
security features are added to branch banks, including the screens that
separate customers from cashiers…
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