11-130 Bristol City Office

A ten year gap?

The South Western expansion of Martins Bank begins on 4 January 1937 with the opening of new branches in Bristol and Bath. In Bristol, however, it will be some time before permanent offices are made ready at 47 CORN STREET, so the branch is situated temporarily in the Refuge Assurance Building in nearby Baldwin Street.

Image © Northcliffe Media Limited Image created courtesy of THE BRITISH LIBRARY BOARD

Image reproduced with kind permission

of The British Newspaper Archive

In Service: Monday 4 January 1937 until Monday 14 March 1938

Image (above) © Martins Bank Archive Collections – remastered from original advertising copy 12/08/2017

Although Martins opens for business in Bristol on 4 January 1937, it is not until 1960 that the South Western District is fully formed, with its own District Board, offices, and network of local branches. However, the chance to have a foothold in the area has actually existed since the 1927 amalgamation of the Equitable Bank and the Bank of Liverpool and Martins - The Equitable Bank opened a branch at Bristol’s Corn Exchange just a year earlier but for whatever reason, this branch is closed in 1927 and there follows a ten-year gap without any coverage of Bristol by Martins Bank or any of its constituents. By 1969 Martins Bank will have eight Branches and sub-Branches in the City. The move to Corn Street takes place in March 1938, but not before the building is gutted and then turned into the kind of premises and facilities fit for a bank’s district office and major city branch. The announcement of the opening of the temporary office is made in the Western Daily Press, of Friday 8 January 1937.