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 Martins Bank always bucks the trend, so it comes as no surprise to find
that this British bank has its Head Office not in London, but in Liverpool at
extravagant purpose built premises in Water Street. This is no cosmetic exercise, the building
is a lavish but permanent statement of the intent of Martins to be
inextricably linked to the City of Liverpool.
The main London office of the Bank at 68 LOMBARD STREET is also
impressive – being the site of Thomas Gresham’s goldsmith’s business dating
back to 1563 - but to the end of
Martins’ days, 68 Lombard Street remains simply the home of London City
Office branch, and a number of administrative departments. The real centre of Martins’ universe is No 4 Water Street close to
Liverpool’s sea-faring history, and as impressive a site as anyone could wish
for. Head Office opens for business in its new premises on 24 October
1932. It took people’s breath away
then, and it does the same today, although sadly, the building no longer
houses a bank.
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WHY NOT ALSO VISIT THESE PAGES
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For a
detailed look at some of the fantasy-filled architecture and interior
design work, see our feature THE LIVER BIRDS. In 1982, and again in 1992 (to commemorate the fiftieth and sixtieth
anniversaries of the building), BARCLAYS produces a booklet describing how and by whom
it was built, and at what cost. That story is reproduced here, amongst
pictures of Martins’ magnificent HEAD
OFFICE…
Image © 1932 Stewart
Bale Collection – displayed under licence from Liverpool Museums
One of the great bank buildings…
In 1925, the old Bank of Liverpool building in Water Street
was proving quite inadequate to cope with the increasing business and the
Directors acquired two properties on a large island site opposite for £220,000. The site, roughly
rectangular in shape, is about 180 ft. in length and over 140 ft. in width.
It fronts on to Water Street, the principal thoroughfare leading up from
the river; while the east side faces Exchange Flags and overlooks the Town
Hall. On the other two sides, the site is bounded by comparatively narrow
streets, Rumford Street and Exchange Passage West. Designed on classical
Roman lines by Herbert J. Rowse, it forms a striking block with its facade
reaching 150 ft. above ground level. The design was the result of a limited
competition between three London and three Liverpool architects. There were
many difficulties to overcome, including the problem of 'ancient lights',
which Mr. Rowse surmounted in such a way as to contribute greatly to the
beauty of the building by setting it back in successive planes at the
levels of neighbouring roofs.
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The façade of 4 Water
Street
onto Exchange Flags
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The opulence of the
banking hall has long been a talking point.
Every effort has been
made to preserve its magnificence.
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There are nine floors above ground
level, plus a mezzanine and three below, with foundations 50 ft. under the
building. It is of fireproof, steel-frame construction, with reinforced
concrete floors and stairs. The external walls are brick lined with hollow
tiles and faced with Portland stone from the St. Paul's and Wakeham
quarries. Notable for its beauty and for the fact that exposure to the
atmosphere increases its whiteness, the stone was stored and cut at William
Moss's masonry works in Liverpool.
Central Lighting
Court
The new bank premises were designed
around a large central open-lighting court, which provides internal
lighting to the various upper floors. This well has received as much care
as the exterior elevations, and is faced with ivory glazed bricks decorated
with terracotta and Lombardic tile cornicing. At the base of the lighting
court is the glazed roof that provides light to the banking hall below
through an ornamental lay-light. This lay-light is at the level of the
second floor and at a height of about 40 ft. above the banking hall floor.
To all intents and purposes, the
ground floor is one large room with the high central portion, 90 x 56 ft.,
devoted to the main banking activities. This fine lofty hall, unobstructed
by columns, was made possible by carrying the walls of the light well on a
system of cantilevers. It is surrounded by double-vaulted, Italian-style,
colonnades of great beauty and through which other halls are visible.
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Such is the sheer size and grandeur of the
main banking hall, that it is used by Martins Bank
for its annual carol concert. These images are from the concert held in
December 1960
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In the centre of the
hall is the main public counter designed from purple Leventine, vert antico
and black marbles. The ornamental grille and other metalwork is of gold
bronze. Steps lead up to the banking hall from the main entrance at the top
of which is a war memorial comprising a wall inscription and a Roll of Honour in volume form, a fresh page of which is turned each
day. At the four corners of the hall are finely proportioned rotundas out
of which run the main staircases and lifts serving the upper part of the
building.
The principal areas
on the ground floor are highly finished with decorative stones. Travertine
marble is employed as a wall lining in the rotundas, the main vestibule and
banking hall, while the supporting columns are made from travertine drums
threaded onto solid steel cores. The plaster work in the ceiling has been
picked out in brilliant colours of gold, emerald green and Indian red and
the marble floor is patterned with similar stones to those used for the
banking counter.
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Boardroom Suite
The first floor was
occupied by the bank's administration offices and along the Water Street
side were the offices of the Chairman, the general manager and his
assistant and secretaries and the conference room. The remainder of the
floors up to the eighth were designed as tenantable office accommodation.
The boardroom suite, dining rooms and kitchen are located on the eighth,
and a flat, originally designed for the Chairman, on the ninth, commanding
a fine view over the city and the river. The remaining portions of the roof
were laid out as garden enclosed by colonnades which have the added
benefit of hiding the lift-machinery penthouses from view and actually
improving the silhouette of the building.
The Boardroom is of
exceptional interest and, though the beamed walnut ceiling and marble
chimney piece are in character reminiscent of Renaissance Italy, the design
and decorations are most original. The ceiling is carved and painted in
various motifs redolent of the sea including Neptunes, dolphins, ships and
mermaids, with reds, greens and blues as the predominant colours. These
alternate with symbols of the LIVER
BIRD and Grasshopper which
together formed the COAT OF ARMS of Martins Bank. A carpet measuring 49 ft. x 19 ft. was
specially woven repeating the design on the floor and furnishings include a
fine horseshoe table made from solid walnut. At one end is a smaller
chamber designed as a committee room.
The sculpture and
decoration of the building generally are intended to be indicative of the
fact that Liverpool derived her wealth largely from her association with
the sea. Friezes of crabs and lobsters, dolphins, sea shells and legendary
sea characters are displayed with coins and bills alongside the Bank's own
heraldry.
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From Bombs to Beatles, a Day in the Life…
1939 (left) Mr Charles Carter, a
visiting inspector was one of the many volunteers who filled sandbags to
protect the Head Office building on the outbreak of war.
1964 (right) Mr Jack Jones, the
bank’s joiner, protecting windows against possible damage by crowds who
welcomed the Beatles on arrival at Liverpool Town Hall for their Civic
Reception
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Below Ground
Level
The bank vaults are
in the basement directly below the banking hall. It was here that a portion
of the gold of the Bank of England was transferred shortly after the
outbreak of war in 1939 when the threat of air attack and invasion made
Liverpool seem a safer place than London. Later on it was shipped to
Canada. Below, in the sub-basement, which has been excavated out of
sandstone, are situated extensive storerooms for the use of tenants renting
offices in the building, and great oil tanks for the central heating
system, each holding 7,000 gallons. The boiler house is under the
sub-basement.
The building
contains many original features. For example: the reinforced concrete
floors have been modified to house an under-floor duct system concealing
power and telephone cables. Heating is automatically controlled by a system
of thermostatically-operated panels embodied in the ceilings. Special
consideration has also been given to the arrangement of plumbing and there
are no visible pipes — even to the walls of the central lighting court.
A
rotunda to the right of the main entrance
Five Years to
Build
William Moss, who were
then based at Roscoe Street, Liverpool were the general contractors for the
building and, in addition to carrying out all the important aspects of that
undertaking, they were responsible for the foundations, Portland stone and
granite masonry, brickwork, reinforced concrete floors, strong rooms and
the standard joinery. It took nearly five years for this work to be
completed.
In submitting his
programme to the Bank's building committee in April, 1927, the architect
put forward eight tenders for demolition work on site. William Moss were
not awarded this contract since it was placed with the lowest tender of £16,777 while Moss
quoted £17,750. However, they were
successful in gaining the next three contracts as, in each case. Moss
offered the lowest tender. They were also very competitive on timing,
another important factor since Mr. Rowse was working to a strict schedule.
The contracts for
the foundation work and stone masonry were both given to Moss at a meeting
on 11 September, 1928, for £13,897 and £17,451 10s respectively. Their tender of £476,402
for the main superstructure was accepted on 22 January, 1929, although it
was the second lowest submitted to the Board.
Savings Made
As a matter of interest,
when the final accounts were produced, there was a saving on two of the
contracts awarded to Moss. Namely, £131 16s for the foundations and £5,367 Os 5d for the
structural steel. There was an additional charge of £426 2s 11d on the
excavation work.
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Before
and After
1960 The building undergoes its first
major clean since being built
Since Completion
A number of
alterations have, of necessity, had to be made to the building since it was
completed. However, all the work that has been carried out has been to the
same high standard as the original and, wherever possible, matching
materials have been used. Major alterations have included changing the
boilers to gas fired operations (retaining the ability to use oil in an
emergency), the strengthening of some of the underground strong room areas
prior to the last war and, with the need to improve security, the
ornamental gold/bronze grille surrounding the counter in the Banking Hall
has been replaced by a glass bandit screen. Externally, the walls were
washed down in the 1970's to remove the accumulated grime.
Acknowledgements: Barclays and The William Moss
Group
2022: Ninety
years, and still going?
Ninety years on, and in 2022, some
fifteen years after serving the last customer at the counter, the future
for Martins’ magnificent Head Office seems no longer to be in the balance.
Thanks to the efforts of Kinrise to bring the building back to life and
good use, positive developments are expected in 2024. In the meantime, the internal time-warp
of 1930s England had meant that 4 water Street has been in demand like
never before for inclusion in film and television productions. From playing
herself in “The Bullion Boys” (1993), transforming into a post war London
Hotel for BBC TV’s “Close to the Enemy” (2016), to a Harry Potter-like bank
in J K Rowling’s “Fantastic Beasts and Where to
Find Them” (2016), 4 Water Street has brought a high degree of reality to
productions, that re-creation by film set alone simply could not do!
 M
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