11-77-80 Bristol University

Goodbye “Paris fashions”…

Bristol is amongst the first of the new wave of British Universities that opens in the 1960s. The realisation that student business represents the chance to acquire and keep loyal customers with a large future earnings potential is enough to put Martins at the forefront of bidding for retail space on the many campuses that start to appear all over England and Wales.

Here, we have a rare chance to see a part of Bristol that is changed by the arrival of a University Branch in 1960. The images below show first the J Roussel shop at No 7 Queens Road, and its stunning transformation into a branch of Martins.

… hello Student Customers! Inside, everything is as you would expect from Martins, including a spacious banking hall, and a private office in which to discuss those tricky problems such as how to make your grant money go further! The Bank issues a number student leaflets and guides.

In Service: 1962 until 18 November 1983

Image © Barclays Ref 0030/0425

Images © Martins Bank Archive Collections

“About a bank account” is a leaflet that can be tailored to any University in the country, and inside, students are told about banking and the locations of the many branches of the Bank they can visit in Bristol. In 1967, Mr P J Randle as the new manager of Bristol univeristy Branch, becomes a successful import from the staff of LEWIS’S BANK, which Martins Bank sells that same year to Lloyds Bank.