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 Thanks to the remarkable forward thinking of
Martins Bank colleagues who took and preserved images of some of the
branches they worked at, our Archive contains this extremely rare photo of
what was only ever meant to be a temporary Branch in Reading.
 It was opened at No 6 Station Road in 1939, the
idea being to get the place up and running whilst looking for more
commodious premises in the town. As
it happens, (and the Second World War will have played a part here) Martins
stays at Station Road for twenty-one years, finally moving into a more
spacious building at 160 FRIAR STREET in 1960. We
have divided, and in some cases duplicated images of the Reading Staff
across the two Reading pages to reflect the periods they worked there. Two interior photographs of 6 Station
Road were found amongst the photographs of the Friar Street Branch that
were left to Barclays at the time of the 1969 merger, and these are shown
below.
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In Service 2 January 1939 until 1960
Image
© Martins Bank Archive Collections - Geoff Taylor
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Then there are two
newspaper advertisements including the announcement of the opening of the
branch itself. The advertisement on the left was used to advertise the Bank
in National newspapers, and to provide details of the Bank’s Assets at the
end of 1948. In this case however, what is usually a standard generic
advertisement for the Bank’s services has been adapted to show the address
of Reading Branch, 6 Station Road, effectively and cheaply turning it into
a local advertisement.
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Berkshire
Mercury 7 January 1939
Image © Northcliffe
Media Limited Image created courtesy of THE BRITISH LIBRARY BOARD
Image reproduced with
kind permission
of The British Newspaper Archive
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Image © Martins Bank Archive Collections
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remastered February 2017
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