11-00-60 Manchester City Office

Lancashire and Yorkshire Bank

The elaborate premises at 43 Spring Gardens are formerly the Head Office of the Lancashire and Yorkshire Bank. In the 1960s they are home both to Martins Bank’s MANCHESTER DISTRICT OFFICE, and to its Manchester City Office Branch. City Office Branches offer all the services found in the smaller branches, plus the advantage of specialist departments such as Foreign, as well as the convenience of District Office being located at the same site. They are good training grounds for those who aspire to move on and up through the bank, and a valuable experience for those who find themselves working there on a temporary basis. In the twenty-first century the building has an altogether different use, serving Indian Cuisine in what was once the banking hall, yet still is a breath-taking space in which to dine. The merger with Barclays actually spares Spring Gardens from being knocked down and replaced with an eleven-story block complete with sixties landscaping– you can read more about this by clicking on the Manchester District Office link above. The photograph below shows the main counter at 43 Spring Gardens was taken in 1969, and unsually for the Martins Collection includes people!

In Service: 9 December 1889 – 14 May 1990

Image © Martins Bank Archive Collections


			The internal images show a wood panelled room with what appears to be a proscenium arch and curtains at one end – perhaps the Bank’s MANCHESTER PLAYERS once performed here?
Images © Barclays 0030-1830


Past (and possible future) times… This lovely sepia view of the Head Office of the Lancashire and Yorkshire Bank is part of the Barclays Collection of Martins Bank photographs. By strange coincidence it was taken in 1929, one year after the merger with the Bank of Liverpool and Martins, just as the image below in our “then and now” feature was taken in 1970, the year after the merger of Martins and Barclays. In both cases the previous name of the Bank is still above the door… The following rarely seen images show the banking hall and the five-tonne safe door in the early 1920s before the merger of the Bank of Liverpool and Martins with the Lancashire and Yorkshire Bank. They were published in 1922 to mark the fiftieth anniversary of that bank.


Images © Martins Bank Archive Collections – The W N Townson Bequest
In 1968, it seems these (right) plans were afoot to demolish 43 Spring Gardens, to create a modern area of concrete and trees! Thankfully this idea did not take off, and today Manchester City Office is preserved and in use as a restaurant – eating in such fabulous surroundings must surely “complete the pleasure” as a 1960s ad campaign would have it. Former Martins Staff Member Alan Thomond has found time during one of his blood-donor related trips into central Manchester, to take pictures for us of how Martins Branches look today. So here is Spring Gardens, former Head Office of the Lancashire and Yorkshire Bank, still looking grand, imposing, and could that be evidence of fire damage where the Bank’s name used to be?

Image © 1970 Barclays Ref 0030/1830	Image © 1983 Barclays Ref 0030/1830			Image © 2016 Martins Bank Archive Collections – Alan Thomond

1922 Image © Martins Bank Archive Collections – W N Townson Bequest		1969 Image © Barclays 0030/1830
1983 Images © Barclays 0030/1830		2016 Image © Martins Bank Archive Collections – Alan Thomond

DISTRICT BANK LIMITED

Foreign - 13 Spring Gardens

Head Office - 17 Spring Gardens

MARTINS BANK LIMITED

City Office Branch - 43 Spring Gardens

District Office - 43 Spring Gardens

Overseas - 43 Spring Gardens

MIDLAND BANK LIMITED

Exec & Trustee - 56 Spring Gardens

District Office - 56 Spring Gardens

NATIONAL PROVINCIAL BANK

District Office - 41 Spring Gardens

Trustee - 41 Spring Gardens

1

Mr W G Goodier Joined here 1905 to 1936 Pro Manager 1929 to 1936	Mr F C Hardman On the Staff 1920 to 1927	Mr L R Tomlinson Sub Manager 1938 to 1941	Mr C Knowles Joined the bank Here 1941 to 1943	Mr W Hampshire Pro Manager 1942 to 1945	Miss Brenda Lowe On the Staff 1945 to 1948



Mr A K Bromley On the Staff 1948	Mr T Weetman Chief Cashier 1950	Mr G A Shaw On the staff 1950 to 1968	Mr Harold Blundell Manager 1953 to 1962	Mr J M Baldwin Head of Clearing Dept 1956	Mr G Ashworth Assistant Accountant 1956 to 1957



Mr H J Wright On the Staff 1958 to 1969	Mr W Tunstall Sub Manager 1960	Mr G K Eaves Manager 1962 onwards	Miss M P P Glover District Relief Staff 1964	Mr A Swarbrick Chief Cashier 1964	Mr G B Hibbert Deputy Manager 1966



Mr G Ramsell Assistant Manager 1966	Mr R B Estill Deputy Manager 1966	Mr A E Plows Asst Accountant 66 – 68 Accountant 1968 on.	Mr H Mellor Messenger 1967	Mr C B Fletcher Assistant Accountant 1968 onwards	Mr G R A Thompson Accountant (retiring) 1968



Mr G Chadwick Assistant Manager 1969