The UK Government stipulates that all Banks MUST be fully computerised in time for the introduction of decimal currency on the 15 February 1971. Plans for decimalisation are being honed from about 1962 onwards, and Martins plays a key part in the changeover, although it does not survive to see in the new currency – you can read more about this in our decimalisation feature by clicking the leaflet on the right. In 1966 Martins’ new Computer Centre opens in part of the new Bucklersbury House, Walbrook, London.			WHY NOT ALSO VISIT THESE PAGES
Staff are brought together from branches all over the country, and learning from its experiments with Feranti’s Pegasus Computer, Martins bring in the services of N C R, in a collaberation that sees staff from the Bank and N C R working side by side to create a Branch Accounting computer program that will meet the demands of Government, the Bank, and its Customers – present and future. At the same time, work is under way in the basement of Clements House, Gresham Street, London, to write the programs that will be used by the computers at Bucklersbury House, and to automate most of Martins’ London Branches to the stage where their daily work will all be handled by computer. This is a fascinating time in Martins’ history, for as we know, the bank will not be around for much longer.
Perhaps the most surprising legacy of this work is the continual use of parts of the original Martins Branch Accounting program by Barclays until at least 2009!
Image © Barclays Ref 33/847 Restored by Martins Bank Archive
When the site in Walbrook, E.C.4, was being excavated in 1954 for the building which would become Bucklersbury House, the remains of a Mithraic temple were discovered eighteen feet below ground level. Carefully removed and reassembled in the courtyard of Bucklersbury House, they can be seen from the windows of the second floor, an area 29,000 square feet which will house the General Clearing and Credit Clearing Departments in one wing and which, beyond the connecting passage, is now the home of the London Computer Centre. So far as the visitor can see there is no possible connection between Mithras and computers, which made their appearance 1,600 years after the Romans left Britain, but to those who soldier on in this vast expanse of steel, concrete and glass it may be of interest to know that the worship of Mithras flourished between 67B.C. and 378 A.D. when he was considered to be the god of light and of wisdom and moral purity. The Computer Centre reflects the culmination of a long period of investigation and planning. The first problem was to find premises of sufficient size and adequate design to house not only the computers but the complicated ancillary equipment such as air conditioning, motor alternators, stand-by power generator and electrical installations. The premises had to be close to the Clearing House in view of the daily cheque clearings in the City of London. Bucklersbury House proved ideal, both in location and size, for the allied working of the clearings and the computer system and in the spring of 1966 orders were placed with the National Cash Register Company Limited for computer equipment comprising three cheque reader/sorters, two Model 315 computers which could each be used to control sorters and act as satellite printers, and an extremely fast-working Model 315 R.M.C. (rod memory core) computer. Delivery dates for computer equipment of this nature are usually protracted but N.C.R. co-operated enthusiastically, promising delivery of our cheque reader/sorters and two Model 315 computers in October 1966, and the third computer in about March 1967. The Bank, knowing that the new accommodation would not be available until June, made complex arrangements with specialists in air conditioning, flooring, electrical installation, ceiling and sound proofing, partitioning – and of course general contracting – to ensure a swift transformation. By early November the task was virtually complete and credit for this is due to everyone concerned, particularly the architect Mr George West, London Premises Department, Mr W. S. M. Wilson, and N.C.R. whose technical, engineering and advisory service could not have been bettered. A computer requires a carefully controlled environment if it is to work properly, so a large air-conditioning plant was installed to deal with heat output from the computer equipment and maintain a steady temperature, a relative humidity and filter the air circulation. Lighting is of a high standard and a false floor ensures a level platform, giving a plenum for the air-conditioning and permitting hundreds of cables to cross the floor. The existing ceiling has been fitted with sound-deadening panels and a false ceiling installed underneath. Minerva smoke probes for fire detection are on the false ceiling, between this and the real ceiling, underneath the false floor and in the ducting for the air filtration. In addition, partitioning provides a reception area, a work assembly area, a computer engineer's room, a tape library, and offices for management and staff. Each computer has a 40,000 character memory, with a paper tape-reader and paper tape-punch. The cheque sorter/readers each have eighteen pockets, one machine being controlled by each computer with the third machine available for use 'off line' or to be switched into either computer should a sorter break down. Each computer has a cluster of three magnetic tape decks and by means of an inter-switching device all six handlers can be placed under the control of either computer at will. Finally there are three high-speed printers; one computer can control two at once and the middle unit can be switched to either computer as required through the same inter-switching device. The 315 R.M.C. computer will be twice as large as the other two and approximately twenty times as fast: where the 315's have a cycle time of two millionths of a second, the R.M.C. model has a cycle time of 800 nanoseconds (a nanosecond equals 10~^9 seconds or an American billionth). A communications controller for future use in teleprocessing is incorporated in the machine which will have a paper tape reader/punch, a high speed printer, eight tape handlers and a Mark 3 CRAM, a random access device which will be used for holding the programme.
The initial projects for the Centre will consist of an automated General Clearing, and also accounting for the Bank's travellers' cheques, and branch accounting for the London branches. Further projects will include data transmission to extend branch accounting to provincial centres, and taking certain specialised departments onto computer application. The clearing project, beginning in January, is almost certain to provide the first impact on branches, the notable change being that automated clearings will have been balanced before dispatch by the Clearing Department, arriving at branches complete with a listing and total. During March the automated procedure for travellers' cheques will be introduced and it is hoped that later in 1967 it will be possible to apply the first London branch to computer operation. Once this system has been proved the loading onto computer operation of further London branches will follow. As the work increases the staff of the Centre will move into a cycle of two-shift and ultimately three-shift 'round the clock' working.				The NCR 315 Rod Memory Computer Image: www.unplggd.com
Wiped from memory…
Image © Mark Hilary
It comes as a huge disappointment to us, to learn of the demolition of Bucklersbury House, home of Martins London Computer Centre, and where the UK’s first Bank Branch Accounting computer program, written at Automation Department in nearby Clements House, was used to record everyday banking transactions. Our modern day Banking systems owe much to these pioneers. It is even more of an irony that Clements House is located in Gresham Street – Sir thomas Gresham having started our Bank off in 1563 at the Sign of the Grasshopper. Exactly four hundred years later, during events to mark our Bank’s Anniversary, our Chairman Sir John Nicholson announced our COMPUTER FIRST to the World…
Mr A V Langton Assistant Manager 1966	Mr M C Pettit Assistant Manager 1966		Mr W S M Wilson Manager 1966		Barbara Bennett On the Staff 1966
Christine Hadman On the Staff 1966	Mr C Stirret On the Staff 1966		Deirdre McMahon On the Staff 1966		Mr J Drewitt On the Staff 1966
Jane Taylor On the Staff 1966	Janet Honeyman On the Staff 1966		Pat Smith On the Staff 1966		Sandra Harding On the Staff 1966
Susan Doughty On the Staff 1966	Mr B Dowie On the Staff 1966		Cathy Simpson On the Staff 1966		Mr K B Lee Pro Manager 1967
Mr N R Leigh Pro Manager 1967	Mr G R Green Assistant Manager 1968		Mr I E K Jones Pro Chief Accountant 1968		Mr D G Hill Assistant Manager 1969
Name:		Martins Bank London Computer Centre
Type:		Head Office OR&D Department
Address:		Bucklersbury House 11 Walbrook London EC4
Hours:		Not open to the public
Telephone:		01 626 1296/9
Manager:		Mr W S M Wilson
© gut informiert 2007 to date