|
 Opened in 1967 at Alsop Building, Brownlow
Hill, these purpose-built premises will cater much better for Martins Bank’s
Liverpool University customers than the previous ones. Brownlow hill is redeveloped between 1965
and 1968, and the Bank has to leave the original University Branch at 164 BROWNLOW HILL, and open a temporary
branch at 45 BEDFORD STREET NORTH.
Martins
Bank’s presence at university campuses all over England has proved a
successful move for the Bank, tapping in to a student banking market that is
set to become a huge fighting ground for competition amongst the major banks
throughout the 1970s, 80s and 90s.
Whilst many University Branches offer only limited banking hours,
Liverpool University is a full Branch.
|
In service: 1967 until 29 January 2021
Image © Martins
Bank Archive Collections
|
|
It is
also open for the full banking week across six days, and is to all
customers of the Bank, whether or not they are students or University
Staff.
Martins
Bank publishes leaflets for students at just about every university in
England, directing them either to an on-campus branch of the Bank, or one
situated nearby. Students are reminded that Martins is an especially
friendly bank, and that is why so many students bank there. The leaflets
also contain useful information about banking with Martins, and often a map
of the relevant university campus, so that no-one gets lost finding the
Bank!
Liverpool’s
Brownlow Hill plays host one of the longest serving of the Bank’s
university branches, opening in its original premises in 1958, and closing
at the end of January 2021 – a total of sixty-three years.
|
|
|
|
|
Images © Martins Bank Archive Collections
|
|
|
Barclays
have kindly provided us with the following: an exterior shot from 1981, and an
interior from 1985, and a little further down the page, we journey back to
1968, when our short feature throws the spotlight on Liverpool University
Branch Manager, Bill Morris, who in October of that year appears to have
changed profession altogether…
|
Images © Barclays Ref 0030-1688
|
|
|
“ee’s
gettin’ married in the mornin’…”
Mr W G Morris, Manager of Liverpool
University Branch, outside his newly-built office.
Pardon?
Yes, it really is Bill Morris and his
outfit had nothing to do with the recent strike of the Liverpool
dustmen. This is how he appeared on
stage at Liverpool’s Royal Court Theatre as Alfred Doolittle in ‘My Fair
Lady’ which the Birkenhead Amateur Operatic Society staged for a fortnight
in October.
And if that dustbin looks heavy – it
was. Said Bill: “We had a session
taking pictures and I picked up this dustbin full of clinkers. The expression of anguish is not
altogether staged”…
|
|
The piece above, from Martins
Bank Magazine’s Autumn 1968 issue, assumes that readers already know of the
glittering singing career of Liverpool University Manager William Morris.
For those not quite so clued up, we turn to the assistance of Harold Brough,
who wrote the following article in the Liverpool Echo, on 10 October 1968…
|
|
Image © Reach PLC and Find my Past
created courtesy of THE BRITISH LIBRARY BOARD.
Text and image Reproduced with
kind permission of The
British Newspaper Archive
|
{NOW
WHAT'S an immaculate sort of gentleman like a Liverpool bank manager doing
staggering under the weight of dustbin? And in those clothes? And, what's
more, letting his hair grow “I’ll need an anaesthetist next time,”’ said
Bill Morris. “It's going to be quite a haircut.” As he says, he hopes that
his customers at Martins Bank, Liverpool University branch, would never
recognise him like this. It's all
due to Birkenhead Amateur Operatic Society's second production this year, “
My Fair Lady,” which opens at Liverpool's Royal Court on Monday.
Forty-two-years-old Bill, of 22 Chatsworth Road, Ainsdale, plays the part
of Doolittle, the dustman father of Eliza, and he is now amusing the rest
of the cast with his cockney accent far removed, of course, from the voice
his customers usually hear. “ It comes easy,” he said. “I don't have to
practise and actually I feel I can do a Cockney accent better than I could,
say, a Scottish one.” The dustbin? “It was a very heavy dustbin,” said
Bill. I picked up the wrong one. “We
had a session taking pictures at Bidston and I picked up this dustbin full
of clinker. The expression of anguish is not altogether staged.”
|
|
His musical career started when he was
13-years-old and at 16 he was second bass in the Liverpool Philharmonic
choir. He was only 19 when he sang solo at the Royal Albert Hall and he has
appeared with the B.B.C. Northern Singers and on radio and television many
times. He Joined the Birkenhead Society in 1963 and gave a magnificent
performance as Joe (Old Man River) in “Showboat” his favourite part and
show—and he followed this with Dr. Engel in “The Student Prince” and the
Earl of Essex in “Merrie England”. He is the founder-conductor of the
William Morris Singers, founded four and a half years ago and now with more
than 60 oratorio performances to their credit. Ambition? To play Porgy in
“Porgy and Bess” and Mephistopheles in “Faust.” By the way, he tells me that for “My Fair
Lady,” he won’t be carrying any bins, “just a pint of ale or something like
that.” Which must be a relief.}
As we have discovered, having
featured many old newpaper articles in our online Archive, it was quite
normal in the late 1960s to have your home address printed in the
newspaper! Sadly, it seems letting would-be bank robbers know where the
bank manager lived was not the best idea, and perhaps this is why from
around 1967 onwards, more and more security features are added to branch
banks, including the screens that separate customers from cashiers…
|
|
|
|
|
|
