11-43-00 Barrow Rawlinson Street

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It’s just like the

corner shop, really…

This image provides a rare glimpse into the life of the Bank – and this quiet corner of Barrow in Furness – in 1937. It looks almost like the set of an old American gangster movie! Martins Bank opens a sub-Branch in Rawlinson Street in 1930, and it trades for almost fifty years. We were contacted by Peter Potter, whose parents and brother both worked for Martins. He sent us his brother’s 1960s recollections of the sub-branch at Rawlinson Street…

“My father and mother worked in Martins Bank, finishing off in Millom, Cumberland. My brother John began work at Martins Bank, Rawlinson Street, Barrow-in-Furness. The sub-branch had a small, grey brick, front, with the entrance on the left and the Martins Bank Ltd sign and logo across the front.

There was a window to the right of the door, showing the customer part of the bank, but filled with advertising. Inside the bank there was a counter at a right angle from the door, and a bank clerk's entrance through a door in a large panel at a right angle with the left wall and from the end of the counter.

In Service: Tuesday 10 June 1930 until Friday 30 June 1978

Image: © Barclays Ref: 0030-0106

There was a table and some chairs against the left wall, allowing customers to write cheques or other papers. There was no mechanisation, other than adding machines in the bank, because most of the paperwork and money was sent or taken to the main branch in Barrow, at Duke Street”…

It’s good to see a former branch still providing a service of some kind, and what can be better than a quick sandwich to take away, or a longer sit down with a pot of tea? Rawlinson Street may no longer have the romance of the 1930s going for it, but it’s clearly still thriving… Thanks to our friends at Google Maps UK, for this unusually sunny shot of the former Bank Branch.

1937 Barrow Rawlinson street Exterior BGA

Image: © Barclays Ref: 0030-0106

Image © Google®

BARCLAYS BANK LIMITED 107-9 Duke Street	DISTRICT BANK LIMITED Ramsden Square 140 Dalton Road	LLOYDS BANK LIMITED 98 Duke Street

MARTINS BANK LIMITED 96 Duke Street 153 Rawlinson Street Vickerstown The Promenade Walney Island	MIDLAND BANK LIMITED 104 Duke Street	NATIONAL PROVINCIAL BANK 125 Duke Street

WILLIAMS DEACON’S BANK 236 Dalton Road