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Drive
on through…
 Things are not  always
as they seem. Martins’ gut reactions are sometimes very strong, and when on
30 January 1959 the Westminster bank openes a drive-in branch on Martins’
home patch – LIVERPOOL – the
gloves are off. The top Brass
decides that the Bank will be first in the UK with a Banking computer, and
follows this closely on 2 March 1959 with a beautifully appointed drive-in
Branch of its own in the Midlands! For
the opening of the Drive-In Bank at Leicester, (and to the dismay and
amazement of the staff of the Charles Street Branch itself), two girls are
brought down from Liverpool, given expensive makeovers and placed behind
the drive-in counter to add “glamour” to the many publicity shots that will
be taken on opening day!
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Images © Martins Bank
Archive Collections
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Six years
on, and once drive-in banking has become much less of an experiment - more
a way of life, Martins Bank Magazine asks Sylvia Butterworth and Maureen,
Lovett - the REAL drive-in girls
at Charles Street Leicester (pictured above) - to tell readers in their own
words about the ups and downs and everyday running of this unusual
Branch. Given that these are the
days where petrol has a high lead content, it makes you wonder if any of
the staff were damaged by being effectively trapped in a tunnel full of
noxious emissions!
Life at the Drive-In…
 our drive-in branch attracted considerable publicity when
it opened in 1959 and was certainly a most forward-looking development.
Those who designed and built it overlooked nothing and after six years it
does exactly what it was intended to do. We have, however, observed what
many people before us have discovered—that no inanimate object has yet been invented which can cope
with the unusua A drive-in bank is, in principle, the simplest way for a
driver to pay in or draw out without leaving his vehicle. At our branch,
vehicles drive into a one-way covered passage at the side of the branch. In
this passage is the cashier's window which has a two-way microphone and
beneath it is a retractable drawer on which is a bar, 'Teller Call'.
Pressure on this brings the cashier to the window but, in addition, a
photo-electric ray sounds a buzzer in the office when a car approaches the
window. When the transaction is completed the car moves away, turns right
along the back of the branch and out into a side street. In the course of a day we see many cars
of all sizes, shapes and ages but we lose sight of them once they leave the
window. Round the back they could be up to anything and, the parking
problem being what it is in any city, not surprisingly cars sometimes do
just what they shouldn't do despite the imploring 'NO PARKING' notices. It
is only for a few minutes of course, about ten usually, just while somebody
nips across to somewhere. It's not really
parking is it? Except to the next car which wants to get out, and
the ones behind that.
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Vehicles drive the length of the building to reach the cashier’s
window.
This allows for orderly queueing to take place, and provides the best
shelter for the motorist from adverse weather conditions.
When the transactions are complete the motorist can exit straight
back onto the road.
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Cars can be temperamental and involve their drivers in
embarrassing situations as on the day when, through the window, we saw a
lady and gentleman exchanging names and addresses, presumably of insurance
companies for both cars were slightly scratched, while a third car waited
patiently to use the banking facility just out of its driver's reach. The
cashier can extend or retract the drawer at will but if the drawer is left
out for more than a few moments it very wisely retracts automatically. Despite
encouragement by word and printed leaflet to prepare cheques and paying-in
slips before arrival, this
may not always be possible. One cannot do these things while halted at
traffic lights, for example, and thus the customer, hastily completing his
signature, may notice the drawer receding and decide on a last minute
effort to catch the post. So far we have, by careful manipulation, avoided
the additional presentation of a glove which from a cashiering viewpoint
would not be strictly negotiable.
The early days…
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The Minister of Transport
opens the Drive-In
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Punch Magazine sees the
lighter side of the idea
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Banking by scooter catches on
quickly at the Drive-In
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Business is brisk on opening day
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Two cashiers for the price of one
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Weather plays a considerable part in the operation of the
drive-in bank. Any covered passage-way will act as a wind tunnel and a
gusting Force 8 can, by a peculiar shift of power and direction, create
sufficient over-draught to absorb the biggest cheque. This happened once
when the drawer was retracting, the cheque being whisked into the main
street. For one horrible moment customer and cashier stared at each other
in consternation, then the cashier acted. Another member of the staff set
off in pursuit of the cheque while the cashier allayed the worst fears of
the customer. Between gusts the cheque was retrieved and re-presented. Rain
often presents a problem as people naturally wish to avoid getting wet. Our
drive-in—and probably our drive-out as well, though we cannot see it
—becomes a public shelter for pedestrians, mothers with perambulators, and
watchful policemen with deceptively docile dogs. All of them indulge in a
restless variation of 'family coach' on the arrival of each car. Humans are
not alone in seeking sanctuary with us. For more than a week a cat became
lodged in the roof of the drive-in, refusing to be enticed from its
new-found home by the persuasiveness of an R.S.P.C.A. inspector, or by a
tin of sardines generously provided by a member of the staff. Eventually,
at dead of night, it responded to the combined charms of the Manager, the
Messenger and its owner.
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A large number of publicity shots
are taken on the opening day…
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…so perhaps the Minister of Transport
has an incredible feeling of déjà vu?
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But cars provide our greatest interest, particularly the rare
ones which speed in from the exit in playful defiance of all the signs.
Others for some unfathomable reason find it possible to transfer or assign
their effect on our photo-electric beam, so that they arrive at our window
unheralded but cause an unsuspecting passer-by to produce an excruciating
noise on our buzzer. And, of course, there are the cars which, when
switched off while the customer transacts his business, later refuse to
start.
Through the cashier's window one can only smile encouragingly
or register sympathy. Anything one might say in such circumstances would be
wrong— things like 'Have you switched on ?' To the increasingly harassed
customer the smile must seem more like a leer, and the look of sympathy one
of disdain, but at the drive-in bank one quickly learns to be tactful. And
so far the point has never been reached where we had to go out and push or
telephone a garage for a tow. Taken all round our drive-in bank runs very smoothly
both for our customers, who like it, and for us, who find it so
interesting.
What became of the
Leicester Drive-In?
 
As drive-in banks don’t seem to be have been
around for the last few decades, we wondered about the fate of Martins’
pioneering efforts at Leicester. We
asked our friends at Barclays Group Archives what happened following the
merger with Barclays…
 {“The Leicester drive-in till at 81
Charles Street is last listed in 1988 – the branch closed in 1993 and the
premises were acquired by Derbyshire Building Society”}
This means that Drive-in Banking at Leicester
ran for 29 years, 1959-1988 – not bad for an experiment! In 1993, when the Barclays signs are
taken down in Leicester, Martins’ own signage is revealed intact and certainly
not looking out of place. We are
grateful to our friend Rob Hancock, a former Barclays Operations Manager,
who took this picture:
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Images © Martins Bank
Archive Collections - Rob Hancock
Rob
says: {“This picture was taken during the alterations to the branch to
ready it for re-opening as a branch of the Derbyshire Building Society.
Sadly, that era did not last very long and the place is now operating as
some ethnic food supermarket. The Drive-in section was already separated
into a lock-up with two parking spaces at the back and this continues”.}
Rob has also unearthed some more images of Charles
Street, this time from the mid to late 1980s. The first shows the branch once more
displaying its beautifully carved Martins Bank signage, during a
refurbishment under Barclays’ Customer Service Programme. The second shows the slight damage caused
to the rear entrance of the Drive-in bank, by a Mini crashing into it on a
Sunday morning!. Rob also recalls these events for us:
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Images © Martins Bank
Archive Collections - Rob Hancock
{This picture is
taken during some refurbishment work in the mid-80s as part of the “CSP”
(Customer Service Programme) cosmetic upgrades to certain branches. At this stage, the outside signage had
been removed ready for replacement with the then latest style, but
revealing MARTINS underneath! }
Image
© 1985 Rob Hancock
{This picture is
taken in the mid to late 80s and as Branch Operationss Manager, I received
a Sunday morning call-out from the local Police about an incident at my
branch. I arrived to find a Mini embedded in the rear folding doors to the
Drive-In, no passengers still about, or apparently harmed. I never got to
discover whether this was a crude attempt at a ram-raid or just careless
driving! Whatever, the car was
dragged away and after some shoving and kicking, these concertina doors
were pushed clear to one side. So they remained for the remainder of the branch`s
existence – the front portcullis grille to Charles Street was still useable
so we could close off the roadway out of hours but the area now provided an
accessible covered place for unsocial activities and modest vandalism –
what signage that was left in here soon disappeared. The Drive-In was
closed down not long afterwards, the space then remaining to provide
parking for Management based nearby.
Charles Street branch itself ceased to exist a couple of years after
that.}
 M
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