11-96-00 Boscombe

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From burger buns to spring rolls…

It’s 1966, and Bournemouth is still in the county of Hampshire. The suburb of Boscombe sits quietly at the seaside with its own pier. The main shopping area is Christchurch Road, where the newest outlet to make a splash is Martins Bank. A bright shop front is finished off with the golden grasshopper of the South at right-angles to the building, above the front door. Steel and glass windows and frames incorporate the letter box and the night safe which are spaced equally apart on the front of the building. Although this particular building in Boscombe does not continue to trade as Barclays following the merger, the town itself moves from Hampshire to Dorset overnight - on April Fool’s Day 1974 - yes, REALLY!

In Service: 1966 until 12 December 1969

Branch images © Barclays Ref: 0030-0324

In the 2020s it is refreshing to see that many of the unpopular arbitrary changes to country boundaries made on that fateful day are being looked at once more with a view to restoring the historic counties of England. 2023 saw the return of Westmorland, (in the form of the local council) a county once the setting for a very large number of Martins Bank Branches, as the unwieldy Cumbria County administration was removed, and the area split once more into two, covering roughly the historic counties of Cumberland and Westmorland.

A curious history…

The story of the Bank’s connection to Bournemouth begins in 1925, when the Bank of Liverpool and Martins chooses 128/130 Old Christchurch Road as the location for its branch in the town. In 1934 Martins Bank relocates to 49 Old Christchurch Road, and this is the branch that survives the 1969 merger with Barclays and lasts until until 1975. Interestingly, although the South Coast could not be further from its catchment area, the Halifax Equitable Bank also has a branch in the same road from about 1925, until its merger with the Bank of Liverpool and Martins in 1927. Having its own sub-Branch locally, Barclays has no use for Boscombe Branch, which is closed on the eve of the merger in December 1969…