The following information

has been kindly provided by

Lloyds Banking Group Archive

Ø Lewis’s Bank was bought from Martins by Lloyds Bank in 1967, and continued to be known as Lewis’s Bank Ltd until 25 Nov 1980 when it became “an in-store division of Lloyds Bank”. During that time two more branches of Lewis’s opened. Lloyds Group Archive make reference to the Weston Favell branch opening in 1977 and that their records show this branch appears to have closed before 1985.

Ø In the case of the Glasgow branch, a letter dated 1991 informs Lloyds of a name change from Lewis’s to Debenhams Glasgow.

Ø The earliest listing of Lewis’s Bank under Lloyds ownership in the records of Lloyds Group Archive dates from 1985. The branches are listed below along with their Lloyds and former Martins sorting code numbers.

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We wonder what might have happened, had Lewis’s Bank still been part of Martins at the time of the merger with Barclays – perhaps it would have been as curious to see the Barclays logo in the corner of a department store as it was to see that of Lloyds. Sadly the march of technology such as cash machines and internet banking, not to mentions the long slow death of the British High Street has put paid to all that. This lovely image from 1970 shows shoppers at a branch of Lewis’s Bank queueing up to change their money into the new decimal coinage. We don’t have the details of the origins of this picture, which we assume to have been taken at Selfridges Store in London. If you can help, please do contact us at the usual address – gutinfo@btinternet.com. You can read more about our country’s conversion to decimal currency, including how Martins is involved in working out which system will be best for Britain, by visiting our DECIMALISATION feature.

© gut informiert 2007 to date