11-97-70 Liverpool Smithdown

The Bank of Liverpool opens another of its brand new branches in this particularly flamboyant building at 1 Smithdown Road. Enjoying the corner aspect favoured by so many banks, it resembles the front of a mighty ship, or perhaps a multi-tiered wedding cake, and Smithdown Branch sets sail for eighty-eight years as branch bank in this part of Liverpool in September 1886. You don’t at first appreciate the scale of this building until you set it against the lovely old red telephone box outside – This must make Smithdown Branch at least SIXTY feet tall!

Including Smithdown Branch itself, Martins Bank has no less than three Liverpool branches with addresses that contain the word “Smithdown” - SEFTON PARK Branch is at No 438 Smithdown Road, and HEATHFIELD Branch is at 7 Smithdown Place.

Nowadays, Sefton Park Branch comprises a number of offices, Heathfield has become a unisex hair salon, and more than one hundred and twenty years after first being opened, Smithdown branch, is now home to a company of funeral directors.

In 1967 such a radical conversion is still some years off, as we join some fifty members of Martins Bank Staff, assembled at Smithdown to say farewell to Mr John Gribbin, on the occasion of his well deserved retirement after a very long and distinguished career…

In Service: September 1886 until 22 March 1974

Image © Martins Bank Archive Collections

on April 26 John Gribbin with his wife, son and daughter entertained some fifty colleagues at Smithdown branch to mark his retirement after 43 years' service. He had been Manager there since 1960, having been Manager at Clubmoor since 1955, prior to which he had been Pro Manager at Church Street for six years. A bouquet was presented to Mrs Gribbin by Miss Maureen Hegan and a cheque from his colleagues was presented to him by Mr Buchanan who, having outlined Mr Gribbin's service, all of which was spent on Merseyside, also mentioned his excellent war record in the Navy. He finished by wishing Mr Gribbin and his wife every happiness in their new country home near Malpas. In reply John Gribbin revealed that he had originally wanted to be a farmer; his parents had thought otherwise but at last he would realise part of his youthful ambition.		Image © Barclays Ref 0030/1682
We are lucky to have THREE images for comparison here, from roughly the 1940s, the late 1960s, and the early 2000s. Robert Montgomery has spent a number of years taking photographs of former branch banks, and has kindly donated a large number of these images to the Archive. His contemporary view of Martins Bank’s Liverpool Smithdown branch (below, right) was taken in June 2009, and the monochrome image on the left is from Barclays’ collection of Martins Bank Branch Photographs.

Image © Barclays	Image (left) © Martins Bank Archive Collections and (right) Robert Montgomery



*Mr J S Summerfield* *On the Staff* *1926 to 1927*	*Mr J Randle* *Manager* *1934to 1937*	*Mr D G Higgins* *Joined the Bank Here* *1942 to 1942*	*Mr N E foster* *On the Staff* *1944 to 1944*	*Mr Reg W Bywell* *On the Staff* *1946 to 1950*	*Mr B G McCauseland* *Manager* *1947 to 1957*



*Mr A J Dixon* *Joined the Bank Here* *1949 to 1951*	*Mr E Basil Thorington* *Limited Authority* *1956 to 1961*	*Mr A T Foulkes* *Manager* *1957 to 1960*	*Mr F Bush* *On the Staff* *1957 to 1965*	*Mr J Gribbin* *Manager* *1960 to 1967*	*Mr I D Craig* *Pro Manager* *1961 to 1964*



*Mr L Manslow* *Pro Manager* *1964*	*Mr F P Wilson* *Manager* *1967 onwards*