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The Bank’s
support to the employees of certain VITAL industries through the provision of
special branches is well documented – farmers auction marts, paper
factories, hospitals, universities, chemical works, industrial estates, the
list goes on. But the British
Wool Marketing Board? – Really?
We conclude this is not even a disguised attempt to chase money in a
well to do area, a snobbery that is shown by all the Banks as they
establish themselves in parts of the country they have not yet conquered!
For
evidence of this, you will see in our information section at the bottom of
this page that in 1967/8 there were FIVE banks, including Bowmaker Asset
Finance company listed as trading at Kew Bridge! Two of them were at the
famous Brentford Market where no home was complete without Brentford
Nylons’ bed sheets… So, in 1966 The Bank takes space in the British Wool
Marketing Board building to provide the vital service of –
well – WHAT exactly? Our good friend
Clinton Anderson must surely know, as he was given the job of Clerk in
Charge. This is how HE sees things
at Kew Bridge in 1967…
The “human cash
machine”…
 I was sent to Richmond as the
Clerk-in-charge of the Kew Bridge sub-branch. A grandiose title for a
non-job as the staff consists of a cashier who does all the work and me! As
you come over Kew Bridge from Richmond, there is an office block of approx.
6 floors, tucked in tight in a dip on the left beside the bridge.
This is the office of the British Wool Marketing Board, an important
customer of Lombard Street branch, and we are there solely to service the
BWMB and its staff (although the majority of staff prefer to have their
accounts at Barclays, Kew Bridge as it is a full branch and provides the
full range of services whereas we solely cash cheques). We have two rooms
in the foyer of the building.
There are a couple of local businesses that use us and a few locals.
However, the only sign that the BWMB lets us hang outside is by the front
door of the building and this is not visible from the road, so very few
people know we are here. On a busy
day we might have as many as a dozen customers but this volume is
rare!! Security is largely wishful
thinking.
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© Martins Bank Archive Collections
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© Martins Bank Archive Collections
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There is a commissionaire at a desk in the foyer. There is no counter screen and our alarm rings by the BWMB
switchboard but as this is usually manned by temps it could well ring all
day without anyone knowing what it was. As there are only two of us, we
cannot leave during the day so are paid an allowance instead of a lunch
hour. We also have no toilet so if we need to go, we have to ask the
Commissionaire to stand guard so one of us can nip out and use the BWMB
loo. Whilst we do have a safe it has a very low overnight limit so we have
to transfer cash to and from the main branch on the bus using a leather bag
that couldn't really be anything other
than a cash bag. How times have
changed. Not surprisingly Kew Bridge sub branch is closed very soon after
the merger!
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