11-748 Southport 415 Lord Street

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It feels like treasure has been found, that we are able bring you some rare glimpses of 415 Lord Street Southport, each taken around 1933, which is only a year before this Branch was closed for good. As we shall see below, Martins had several branches in the Southport Area at this time.

These images seem to have been taken on almost exactly the same spot as each other. This is no coincidence, as we found out when Adrian Rawson, (whose grandmother and mother are the subjects of the beautiful coloured-in photo), contacted us having found this page of our Online Archive. Adrian points out that it was likely to have been taken by a street photographer looking out for tourists who might like a souvenir.

Adrian has carefully restored and colour-tinted an original monochrome image which serves as a precious memory of his family and he has kindly donated this digital copy to the Archive. The presence of several branches of Martins Bank in and about Southport is explained by the various constituent banks of Martins having branches in the town before the amalgamations that created the modern-day Martins Bank.

The Adelphi Bank, The Mercantile Bank, and The Lancashire and Yorkshire Bank all once had branches at Southport, and even at the time of the merger with Barclays in 1969, Martins has premises at six locations in and around the town.

These can be found in our Online Archive as follows: 365 LORD STREET, AINSDALE, BIRKDALE, EASTBANK STREET, HILLSIDE, and ST LUKES. 415 Lord Street Branch finds its way into Martins’ possession through the amalgamation, in 1928, of the Bank of Liverpool and Martins with the Lancashire and Yorkshire Bank, creating the modern-day Martins Bank Limited.

Our branch photo (above, centre) shows the exterior of 415 Lord Street in its days as a branch of the Lancashire and Yorkshire Bank. We are also delighted to have acquired the image above right, as it includes the Branch and shows what a busy shopping area Lord Street is in 1933, just a year before the branch closes. With two branches only a few doors apart from each other, it makes sense for Martins to close one of them, with minimal disruption to customer service.

Cheryl Farrell sent us this image (right) of her family out and about in Lord Street, also being captured for posterity by the street photographer. Her grandparents - Tom and Alice are out shopping with Cheryl’s mother Mary, who is sitting in her pushchair, and looking very happy to be holding a very large ball. Cheryl tells us that the photo also fits the timeframe of the other two tourist photos, having been taken around 1933. We are so pleased that the photographer decided that Martins Bank was a suitable setting for his studies of shoppers in Southport, as otherwise, we might not have any other clues as to how this branch looked in its Martins Bank days…

… and then there were FOUR! Another street photographer image of a passer-by outside our branch at 415 Lord Street has arrived at the Archive, and for this one we have no details at all about the person seen posing for the camera. We can’t help but be eternally grateful to the photographer who eked out a living standing in the same spot, day after day, capturing little pieces of social history in 1930s Southport.

Street Gallery…

This building in Service: 1893 until 1934

Image © Martins Bank Archive Collections – Adrian Rawson

Image © Martins Bank Archive Collections

- W N Townson Collection

Image © Martins Bank Archive Collections

We are delighted that a photographer happened to be out and about in Southport’s Lord Street in the early 1930s, capturing ordinary people going about their ordinary lives. Of the twelve adults visible in the four “tourist” photos in our collection (see below), only four are not wearing a hat – no excuse for that, as just a little further down Lord Street was the emporium of Madame Forshaw, Milliner!