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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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