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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.
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In Service: Tuesday 10 June 1930 until Friday 30 June 1978
Image:
© Barclays Ref: 0030-0106
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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”…
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 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.
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Image:
© Barclays Ref: 0030-0106
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Image
© Google®
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