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Martins Bank’s
Branch at Brook’s Bar has had an
amazing life: Since its establishment by the Palatine Bank in 1904, the
times, the people, and the surroundings may have changed beyond recognition,
but the building itself remains looking pretty much the same - albeit under
new ownership. We have various features from Martins Bank Magazine and Four
Centuries of Banking to illustrate our Page for Brooks’s Bar; one of Martins
Bank’s strengths is its establishment of regional boards of directors,
enabling the bank to take a local view, and increase or vary its business
accordingly... |
In Service: 1904 until 23 February 1979 Image:
© Barclays Ref 0030-1799-0002 top |
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This is influenced in no small part by some of the
banks, that have been subsumed by Martins as a condition of merging.
As the Palatine Bank had been established to try and break away from the idea
that all banks would be controlled from London, this ethos is continued both
through Martins regional boards, and of course the maintenance of a Head
Office in Liverpool. The Palatine amalgamates with The Bank of Liverpool and
Martins in 1919. Liverpool
and Manchester – The Palatine Bank As the youngest Manchester
bank, the Palatine bank had to face keen competition and to pioneer in order
to attract deposits. The Daily Dispatch of 16 November 1904 reported that it
had pioneered the collection of small savings. When it opened its Brooks’s
Bar branch on 1 November 1904, a circular was issued inviting the deposit of
small savings on which interest would be allowed… Right: The Knight Palatinate, symbol of the Palatine Bank TEXT AND IMAGE – FOUR CENTURIES OF BANKING VOLUME II
Dr George Chandler. © MARTINS BANK LIMITED 1968. From
bullet Holes to betting shop… |
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Image:
© Martins Bank Archive Collections |
Image:
© Barclays Ref 0030-1799 |
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Brooks’s Bar branch is a high, handsome
office, and the window pane with the two bullet holes (‘just some local
fracas’) will now have been replaced. Here, personal service and attention
have held and expanded a healthy business in an area which is not at all what
it used to be. The fine old houses of the former gentry have become clubs,
flats and crumbling dwellings for the mixed population stretching into a
sprawl of terraced streets which spreads to the east and south until halted
by Alexandra Park. |
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In the 1940s – the Bank was still
going to extremes to help ordinary people make the most of their small
savings. Nowadays there are only small savings, large bets, and a new life
for Brooks’s Bar Branch, as the local betting shop. |
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Image: © Martins Bank Archive Collections |
Image: © Google® Maps UK |
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At
the end of the year Mr. Edmund Brown retired after over 43 years' service which
commenced in the Lancashire and Yorkshire Bank and took him via
Chorlton-cum-Hardy, Manchester City Office and Altrincham, where he became
Pro Manager in 1935 to Plymouth branch, which he opened as Manager in 1939.
In 1941 he was appointed Acting Manager at Brooks's Bar and became Manager
there in 1945. On December 29TH a ceremony was held at his branch at which Mr. Harold Blundell,
Manager of Manchester City Office, made the presentation on behalf of
subscribers of a silver salver on which was inscribed:—
" From the members of his staff and his many friends in the
service." Mrs. Brown was, unfortunately, unable to attend, but on her
behalf Mr. Brown received a beautiful small French four-column clock. It had been Mr. Brown's wish
to slip away quietly but such is the regard in which he is held in the
Manchester District that it was felt that this could not be allowed and in
his kind and humorous manner Mr. Blundell made special reference to three of
Mr. Brown's outstanding attributes—his courtesy,
civility and loyalty, gifts which had endeared him not only to his colleagues
but to his customers and everyone with whom he had come into
contact. In his reply Mr. Brown expressed
his extreme pleasure that his wife had been included in the gift and was
quite overwhelmed at the magnificence of his own gift. On the following evening he entertained his friends, and
over 50 members of the staff in the Manchester District were present to wish
him well in the days to come. |
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