11-00-90 Liverpool Victoria Street

The Circle of Happy Winners…

To maintain and operate the vast bank accounting system for Littlewoods Pools, a top-class bank with a VERY large branch is needed. With 4 Water Street already busy, it falls to Liverpool Victoria Street branch to provide the know how and the manpower – around eighty staff – to dedicate to the weekly payouts from the football pools. This well-oiled machine has one drawback for Martins Bank’s staff: The worst working Mondays imaginable, when thousands of cheques, and around one million postal orders arrive in sacks to be processed. Most of the staff are in a pools syndicate, and just every once in a while, they share a modest win or two. You can read more about this in our CORPORATE BANKING section.

In Service: 25 April 1881 to 3 November 1995

Image © Barclays Ref: 0033/0339

1961 Circle of Happy Winners Lwood Pools Winners Cheque MBA.jpg Once a lucky pools winner’s cheque has been processed, it is retrieved, pasted by Littlewoods staff on to a special certificate as a souvenir, and sent to the winner. The top left-hand corner depicts someone filling out a pools coupon. The bottom left corner shows the “Happy Circle Handclasp” (!) and the bottom right corner has a drawing of the old bargaining stone at Fowey in Cornwall. Everything is designed to make the winner feel special for a little bit longer than it takes to spend their winnings!

Barclays have contributed hundreds of images to our online archive, many of them show the interior of Martins Branches, as well as what they look like outside. It is not often that interior shots include members of staff at work, so we are particularly pleased with the images below of the counter at Victoria Street. They certainly give a good idea of the large scale of the building, and show four somewhat diligent bank clerks at work – (perhaps being “on camera” has something to do with that!) The reason for the all male counter staff is explained now in these memories from friend of the Archive Teresa Harris who began work for Martins at Victoria Street in 1969, and stayed working continuously at the same branch until it closed!

The pictures of Victoria Street are really good and show the counter area as it was on the day I started working there in 1969. As in the pictures most of the cashiers in those days were male and as I recall the only female who had been "promoted" to counter work from the machine room at the time was Val Parish. She was on the counter for some years after I started working there and, in those days, it was virtually impossible for a female to be allowed onto the front line to do counter work. The Littlewoods Section, dedicated to looking after the Littlewoods Group which included not only Littlewoods Pools but all of the 100+ store accounts and Littlewoods Mail Order catalogue accounts, was manned by only 3 staff although the volumes of cheques and the non automated systems meant that a high percentage of the machine room work was Littlewoods related.

Images © Barclays Ref 30/1695

On a Monday and Tuesday evening after John Clegg had delivered his cheques and postal orders relating to the week’s coupons all the branch staff worked overtime up to 9pm in the evening to encode the cheques for clearing. With regard to the merger in 1969, having only just joined the staff at Victoria Street in the October I don't remember too much about the build-up. On the actual day I was sent to Water Street to lend a hand with the huge amounts of correspondence that was delivered and all I can remember is how intimidating the branch seemed with so many staff. The post desk was on the Mezzanine floor and overlooked the busy Horseshoe counter area. As far as I can remember the transition was very smooth, the hardest part for me was remembering to answer the telephone as "Barclays Bank" rather than "Martins Bank".

I do remember many of the staff on the Martins Bank Victoria Street page (see staff gallery at the foot of this page) including the Manager at the time, Roger Whittam, his secretary Maureen McDonald, Mr Blair, Mr Robinson and of course Val Parish. The branch is now the Sir Thomas Hotel and a couple of years ago a friend and I were kindly given a tour of the building. The interior is now unrecognizable from the offices where we worked and the old Managers room on the second floor is now the VIP Suite which according to our guide has accommodated many of today's "celebrities". Thank you for helping to bring back so many happy memories of my time at the branch and although I only worked for Martins for a very short time before the merger, I still think of myself as a "Martins" person. Keep up the good work.

The Songbird of Victoria Street…

1955 02 MBM.jpg 1955 Miss Valerie Parish MBM-Su55P24.jpg Reference was made in the last issue of the Magazine to the success scored by Valerie Parish in the production of" The Gondoliers" by the Music Section of Martins Bank Society of the Arts. Her performance was watched by the professional critics of the Merseyside amateur shows and one of them, the Liverpool Echo critic, made a separate feature about her, using the photograph alongside. He said: “One of Merseyside's youngest and most promising artists is Miss Valerie Parish, of Wallasey. Seventeen years old, she earned considerable appreciation for her study of Casilda in the recent production of ' The Gondoliers' by Martins Bank Society of the Arts, at Crane Theatre, Liverpool. A clerk with the Victoria Street, Liverpool branch of Martins, Miss Parish has a soprano voice of quality and is a most capable actress. Valerie is fond of pantomime and variety and for the last three years has played principal boy for the Wallasey Emmanuel Church Pantomime Society. She has also appeared with the ' Chrysanthemums,' and, with her flair for dancing and light comedy, is well known as an entertainer in charitable causes. She is a member of the Wallasey Emmanuel Church Choir”. A pleasant postscript to an excellent show, and the first time in the history of the Music Section of the Society that such a thing has happened.

LLOYDS BANK LIMITED		MARTINS BANK LIMITED

MIDLAND BANK LIMITED		NATIONAL PROVINCIAL BANK

WESTMINSTER BANK LIMITED

	BANCO ESPANOL EN LONDRES Liverpool, Victoria Street



*Mr N A Milroy* *Joined the Bank Here* *1908 to 1912*	*Mr C H Bileau* *On the Staff* *1908 to 1922*	*Mr E H Denman* *On the Staff* *1911 to 1912*	*Mr H Unsworth* *Joined the Bank Here* *1914 to 1916*	*Mr A Wall-Jones* *Joined the Bank Here* *1916*	*Mr R P Williams* *Joined the Bank Here* *1920*



*Mr A C Daniels* *Joined the Bank Here* *1922 to 1923*	*Mr G F Camidge* *Joined the Bank Here* *1925*	*Mr S J Johnson* *On the Staff* *1927 to 1928*	*Miss Dorothy Diment* *Joined here as Machine Supervisor 1929*	*Mr C P Williams* *Pro Manager* *1930 to 1936*	*Mr J H Woodfine* *On the Staff* *1932 to 1934*



*Mr W E Worrall* *On the Staff* *1933 to 1937*	*Mr D D Lynch* *Pro Manager* *1934 to 1937*	*Mr G R Tarn* *Pro Manager* *1934 to 1937*	*Mr W M J Scott* *Joined the Bank Here* *1935 to 1936*	*Mr A N Parry* *Joined the Bank Here* *1935 to 1935*	*Mr E B Gillard* *Chief Cashier* *1935 to 1945*



*Mr P L Tiplady* *Joined the Bank* *1938 to 1939*	*Mr W D Armstrong* *Manager* *1939 to 1944*	*Mr A R Trevelick* *On the Staff* *1940 to 1942*	*Mr S J Crisp* *On the Staff* *1941 to 1943*	*Mr A J Corner* *Joined the Bank Here* *1945*	*Mr F C Hardman* *Sub Manager* *1945 to 1949*



*Mr R H B Whittam* *On Staff 1946 to 1947* *Deputy Manager 1964*	*Mr E Russell* *Joined the Bank Here* *1946 to 1947*	*Mr G S Gallagher* *Joined the Bank Here* *1946 to 1948*	*Mr F F W Youd* *Pro Manager* *1946 to 1961*	*Mr G B Nickson* *Joined the Bank Here* *1947 to 1947*	*Mr J C Stockdale* *On the Staff* *1947 to 1947*



*Mr F P Wilson* *On staff 1947 to 1949* *Accountant 1959 to 1960*	*Mr N K Gibson* *Joined the Bank Here* *1949 5to 1951*	*Mr A Butcher* *On the Staff 1949 to 1953* *and 1963 to 1966*	*Mr R L Couper* *Pro Manager* *1949 to 1957*	*Miss Valerie Griffiths* *On the Staff* *1950*	*Mr B G Pearse* *Joined the Bank Here* *1950 to 1951*



*Mr J D Home* *On the Staff* *1953 to 1954*	*Mr J A McGregor* *Sub Manager* *1953 to 1956*	*Mr M McClay* *On the Staff* *1953 to 1960*	*Miss Valerie Parish* *On the Staff* *1955*	*Mr J K Washington* *Manager* *1955 to 1960*	*Mr F L Armstrong* *Pro Manager* *1955 to 1965*



*Mr B O’Brien* *Accountant* *1956 to 1959*	*Mr F S Pitts* *On the Staff* *1956 to 1960*	*Mr G A Corkill* *On the Staff* *1956 to 1961*	*Mr H Williams* *on the Staff* *1959 to 1962*	*Mr W O Davies* *Manager* *1960 to 1962*	*Mr F H Clayton* *Pro Manager* *1960 to 1961*



*Mr D J Corlett* *Pro Manager* *1960 to 1964*	*Mr S N Joynson* *On the Staff* *1960 to 1964*	*Mr E J F Crawford* *Pro Manager* *1961 to 1967*	*Mr E P Doyle* *On the Staff* *1962*	*Mr J P Brown* *Manager* *1962 to 1968*	*Miss M P MacDonald* *Manager’s Secretary* *1964*



*Mr F A Robinson* *Accountant* *1964*	*Mr F G Thomas* *In charge of Foreign Department 1964*	*Mr P M Summersgill* *Pro Manager* *1964 to 1966*	*Mr R D Dyke* *Pro Manager* *1966*	*Mr J Blair* *Pro Manager* *1967*	*Mr A W J Roberts* *Deputy Manager* *1968*



*Mr R H B Whittam* *Manager* *1968 onwards*	*Mr R S Taylor* *Pro Manager* *1969*