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In this lovely shot looking down
Southampton Bargate/High Street in the 1960s, Martins Bank’s’ Branch is third in a row of banks that also includes Midland Bank and
the District Bank. What this image
fails to show clearly is the sheer grandeur of the Martins building, but you
can see it in all its monochrome glory in the article below. The Bank of
Liverpool and Martins opens its first two Branches at Southampton in 1925, at 139 Above Bar and Southampton Docks. In 1935 the main branch relocates to 171/2 High Street. The first time that Martins Bank Magazine
pays a visit to the branch is in September 1952, where even seven years after the end of World War 2,
evidence of the devastation of bombing is still all too apparent…
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In Service: 1935 until 11
February 1983
Image © Martins Bank Archive Collections
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 In the
morning of September 1st we boarded the London express for the run of less
than an hour to the first stop at Southampton. Poor Southampton, city of
one-storey corrugated-roofed shops!
The destruction at Southampton is greater than any we have so far seen
anywhere except in the area around St. Paul's. The shopping centre was
practically a total loss and it is a heartening sight to see the efforts
which have been made, if not to rebuild, at any rate to get things going again in temporary buildings.
The background of green parkland has helped greatly in hiding
the dreadful scars of war but, make no mistake about it, Southampton has had
worse wounds to heal than many places. Our branch was fortunate in surviving
with so much destruction around. After lunch we made our way along the busy
main street and in the passing scene one cannot forget for long that this is
the great Ocean terminal, dominated by the shadow of the Queen's, the American record
breaker and other great passenger liners. Southampton is no beauty spot now
but the bombing has not destroyed the tradition and, on every hand, one
senses the pride of the inhabitants in their possession of the Gateway to
England.
Perhaps a Northerner, and especially a Liverpudlian, feels this
especially keenly, for the Cunard giants of the past, the Lusitania and the Mauretania, dominated the life of
the port of Liverpool precisely the same way as do the Queen's in Southampton. Mr. Parker entered the Bank in Liverpool in 1923, going
to the London district the following year. His first signing power was held
at Bromley in 1937 and he was appointed Acting Manager at Guildford in 1939,
becoming Manager in 1945. He has managed Southampton branch since 1948.
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Images © Barclays Ref: 0030-2695
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They're a tough lot at Southampton
branch; H. W. Francis, who signs Pro Manager, is a first-class footballer who
played for the Bank's team for 25 years, and is well-known in senior amateur
football circles.He is also a lecturer on Foreign Exchange at the Southampton
Technical College. F. Sarah is a member of
the R.A.F.V.R., though he too has his gentler side in being an organist and a
member of two choral societies. Then there
is S. W. Street, one of the most promising runners in the county of
Hampshire. He ran in the Inter-Banks' Champion ship in July and was second
in the senior mile, the winner being an international runner.
 To cap them all we have R.
Kitchen, the junior, who is by way of being a judo expert. H. S. Coad was having a week's holiday getting his house shipshape
for his wedding, but he came in for the photograph and we were able to give
him our best wishes. We were sorry not to see Miss S. Dotterell, who was away ill. Miss J.
C. Thompson, the junior girl, looks after the sporting tradition of the
branch on the female side, being a keen rider, and the third girl is Miss D.
B. Green. The following morning we went aboard the Queen Mary, and
enjoyed to the full the feeling of pardonable pride in British workmanship.
There is nothing cheap or shoddy on the Mary: everything is of the best and everything is a fine advertisement for
the British way of life, British craftsmanship and the character of the
people who have in the past made Britain the mistress of the seas. You enter
another world when you step aboard the Queen Mary, a world which does not know the meaning of
shortages and makeshifts, a world which we, too, might have enjoyed but for
the years 1939-1945 which took away so much comfort and grace from life. The
things displayed were the things we knew when we were children, the things
our children would never know, and as we walked around this floating palace
and enjoyed this brief hour in a world such as we would like the larger world
to be we suddenly remembered the inscription on a stone we had seen in a
garden in Bournemouth a few days previously, and we were comforted. “1939-1945—Enough that valour filled the blank between”.
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Modernisation
Now,
what’s going on here then – a scene from “The Avengers” perhaps? Maybe we’ve joined the plot just at the
point where Steed and Venus Smith, Cathy Gale or Mrs Peel are about to
arrive and apprehend a hapless getaway driver? Have all the Bank staff been hypnotised
by an eccentric old man with a large pocket watch and room full of cats? Will “Mother” have been kidnapped and
locked in the basement? No such luck, this is the rear of Martins Bank’s
extended branch at Southampton showing progress in two ways – one: business
is quite possible booming and more room is required, and two: the shock of
the new - all straight lines, functionality, bricks, glass and what appears
to be crazy, crazy paving! In the
images below, you will see that the interior of the branch has also been
given that all important “modern” look for the swinging 60s…
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Branch Images © Barclays
Ref: 0030-2695
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 Period
Piece(s)…
I
This lovely
photograph is from the private collection of Martins Bank Branch Images
photographed by the late Geoff Taylor. Here we see Southampton Branch in
1954. The photo has a special charm because it is a personal snapshot,
rather than being specially commissioned by the Bank. Geoff’s collection included a dozen or so
Branches of Martins Bank located in the south and South East of England, and
you can find the other pictures by viewing our pages for the following
Branches:
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Image ©
Martins Bank Archive Collections – Geoff Taylor
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