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The Kirkby area
of Liverpool has been in need of a permanent branch for use by personal
customers for many years when Martins Bank finally opens one in 1961. Since 1957
Kirkby and Croxteth shared a visiting Mobile Branch on alternate days of the
week. |
In Service: 31 July 1961 until 23 February 1987 Branch
Images © Barclays Ref 0030/1517 |
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After the war, large
parts of this area had to be rebuilt, and whilst row upon row of shiny new houses
appeared, it seemed that amenities including churches, shops and banks were
missing from the plans, or at the very least they were an afterthought.
Regular visits to Kirkby and Croxteth by Martins Mobile Branch helped partly
to address this problem, and this was of course also a way of building a new
and loyal base of wage-earning personal customers. Several banks maintained
sub-branches at the local trading estate, and Martins had operated its own
sub-Branch there since 1946. This catered for the various businesses on site,
and in the months leading up to the opening of the new permanent Kirkby
Branch at Cherryfield Drive, a Martins Mobile Branch was placed close to the
site of the new building in order to attract more business and to help
facilitate a good start for the Branch when it opened on 31 July 1961. Once building is complete,
Kirkby Branch has a distinct and modern look on the outside, and on the
inside we can see a counter area still free of the dreaded “bandit screens”
that through the increasing number of armed robberies, which from the
mid-sixties onwards will, sadly, begin to change the cashier/customer
relationship forever. As a self accounting sub branch to Liverpool Clubmoor,
Kirkby enjoys limited autonomy – a clerk in charge who can sign on behalf of
the bank and make simple lending decisions, and full bank
opening hours including Saturday. Kirkby survives the merger with Barclays,
and continues to trade until early 1987. |
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