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 Martins
Bank opens a Branch at Watford Way Hendon in 1929, shortly after the
amalgamation of the Bank of Liverpool and Martins with the Lancashire and
Yorkshire Bank. When Martins and Barclays are merged, Hendon Branch is no
longer needed and business is transferred on 12 December 1969 to Barclays’
own Branch at 129 Brent Street. What a shame it is to have lost such a lovely
looking Branch building. Hendon is a full
Branch with no sub-Branches, and opens across the full six day banking week.
For our Hendon Branch feature, we travel back to 1952, when Martins Bank
Magazine pays the Staff a visit and writes the rather short article below. Good mention is in fact made of Hendon’s
place in the vast London District of Branches, and we do get to know
something about the members of Staff who work there…
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In Service: 27 May 1929 until 12 December 1969
Image ©
Barclays Ref 0033-0267
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 On April 4th, we visited Hendon branch, which is situated on the
Watford Way, near Hendon Central tube station. One does not normally
think of the London branches as being outposts but, in contrast to
Westminster, the staff have never seen any visitors from Head Office, if you
except Mr. Denman, who is really the chief representative of Head Office in
London. Nor, apart from the daily letter, do they receive postal
communications from Head Office, except an occasional letter from Mr.
Laidlaw, when something is wrong with the Clearing or with the Weekly Sheets!
(That should mean no
letters at all!) The London district
is so vast, so very much larger than we provincials realise until we come to
explore it, that we have to re-orientate our ideas concerning it. It is the
very word “London” which misleads the Northerners who think of the Capital in
terms of the City and the West End. The discovery that places like Hendon,
although thought of as part of Greater London, are townships practically in
their own right, and not suburbs in the provincial sense, involves
considerable mental adjustment.
 We experienced a similar
feeling on meeting a “Londoner” living in Hampstead who confessed that she
had never seen Buckingham Palace, St. Paul's Cathedral or the Tower of
London. She was 30 years old, too ! Our own staff are more widely-travelled than that and Mr.
Pattenden, the Manager, who entered
the service in 1928, includes in his experience service at Dartford (where
he lives), Bexley Heath, Welling, Inspection Dept., Hanover Square and Lombard
Street. Hendon itself is largely residential and thec oncentrated
shopping centre of Hendon Central soon fades into acres of houses, many of
which sprang up when the tube railway was extended there about a quarter of
a century ago. Old Hendon has much
exclusive property and one of the most remarkable houses is the former home
of David Garrick, now the Hendon Hall Hotel, where we had lunch. Although
extended and improved for its present purpose it was, obviously, a gracious
and magnificent home when the great actor lived in it, and the gardens are
still very beautiful. Mr. W. A.
Phillips is Mr. Pattenden's right hand man, and then there is Mr. J. F.
Anderson and Miss M. J. Mitchell. Mr. R. G. Newman, who was stationed there
at the time of our visit, is a District Office trainee.
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 Hendon
has definitely lost something, mind you, a cake and coffee house will always beat a
betting shop, sleazy theme pub, or empty premises hands down, but the
original splendour of this dear little Branch is gone forever. The only clue left to prove that this is
indeed the same building, is the carved wood to the left of the bank and
shop signs in the photographs below, and a glimpse of the three first-floor
windows. Wonder what happened to the
Martins Coat of Arms?
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Image
© Barclays Ref 0033-0267
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Image ©
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