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Drive
on through…
 Things are not  always
as they seem. Martins’ gut reactions are sometimes very strong, and when on
30th January 1959 the Westminster bank opens a drive-in branch on Martins’
home patch – LIVERPOOL – the
gloves are off. The top Brass
decides that the Bank will be first in the UK with a Banking computer, and
follows this closely on 2 March 1959 with a beautifully appointed drive-in
Branch of its own in the Midlands!
For the opening of the Drive-In Bank at Leicester, (and to the
dismay and amazement of the staff of the Charles Street Branch itself), two
girls are brought down from Liverpool, given expensive makeovers and placed
behind the drive-in counter to add “glamour” to the many publicity shots
that will be taken on opening day!
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Images © Martins Bank
Archive Collections
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Six years
on, and once drive-in banking has become much less of an experiment - more
a way of life, Martins Bank Magazine asks Sylvia Butterworth and Maureen,
Lovett - the REAL drive-in girls
at Charles Street Leicester (pictured above) - to tell readers in their own
words about the ups and downs and every day running of this unusual
Branch. Given that these are the
days where petrol has a high lead content, it makes you wonder if any of
the staff were damaged by being effectively trapped in a tunnel full of
noxious emissions!
Life at the Drive-In…
 our drive-in branch attracted considerable publicity when it
opened in 1959 and was certainly a most forward-looking development. Those
who designed and built it overlooked nothing and after six years it does
exactly what it was intended to do. We have, however, observed what many
people before us have discovered—that no inanimate object has yet been invented which can cope
with the unusual A drive-in bank is, in principle, the simplest way for a driver
to pay in or draw out without leaving his vehicle. At our branch, vehicles
drive into a one-way covered passage at the side of the branch. In this
passage is the cashier's window which has a two-way microphone and beneath
it is a retractable drawer on which is a bar, 'Teller Call'. Pressure on
this brings the cashier to the window but, in addition, a photo-electric
ray sounds a buzzer in the office when a car approaches the window. When
the transaction is completed the car moves away, turns right along the back
of the branch and out into a side street.
In the course of a day we see many cars of all sizes, shapes and
ages but we lose sight of them once they leave the window. Round the back
they could be up to anything and, the parking problem being what it is in
any city, not surprisingly cars sometimes do just what they shouldn't do
despite the imploring 'NO PARKING' notices. It is only for a few minutes of
course, about ten usually, just while somebody nips across to somewhere.
It's not really parking is
it? Except to the next car which wants to get out, and the ones behind
that.
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Vehicles drive the length of the building to
reach the cashier’s window. This
allows for orderly queueing to take place, and provides the best shelter
for the motorist from adverse weather conditions. When the transactions are complete the
motorist can exit straight back onto the road.
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Cars can be temperamental and involve their drivers in
embarrassing situations as on the day when, through the window, we saw a
lady and gentleman exchanging names and addresses, presumably of insurance
companies for both cars were slightly scratched, while a third car waited
patiently to use the banking facility just out of its driver's reach. The cashier
can extend or retract the drawer at will but if the drawer is left out for
more than a few moments it very wisely retracts automatically. Despite
encouragement by word and printed leaflet to prepare cheques and paying-in
slips before arrival, this
may not always be possible. One cannot do these things while halted at
traffic lights, for example, and thus the customer, hastily completing his
signature, may notice the drawer receding and decide on a last minute
effort to catch the post. So far we have, by careful manipulation, avoided
the additional presentation of a glove which from a cashiering viewpoint
would not be strictly negotiable.
The early days…
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The Minister of Transport
opens the Drive-In
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Punch Magazine sees the
lighter side of the idea
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Banking by scooter catches on
quickly at the Drive-In
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Business is brisk on opening day
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Two cashiers for the price of one
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Weather plays a considerable part in the operation of the
drive-in bank. Any covered passage-way will act as a wind tunnel and a
gusting Force 8 can, by a peculiar shift of power and direction, create
sufficient over-draught to absorb the biggest cheque. This happened once
when the drawer was retracting, the cheque being whisked into the main
street. For one horrible moment customer and cashier stared at each other
in consternation, then the cashier acted. Another member of the staff set
off in pursuit of the cheque while the cashier allayed the worst fears of
the customer. Between gusts the cheque was retrieved and re-presented. Rain
often presents a problem as people naturally wish to avoid getting wet. Our
drive-in—and probably our drive-out as well, though we cannot see it
—becomes a public shelter for pedestrians, mothers with perambulators, and
watchful policemen with deceptively docile dogs. All of them indulge in a
restless variation of 'family coach' on the arrival of each car. Humans are
not alone in seeking sanctuary with us. For more than a week a cat became
lodged in the roof of the drive-in, refusing to be enticed from its
new-found home by the persuasiveness of an R.S.P.C.A. inspector, or by a
tin of sardines generously provided by a member of the staff. Eventually,
at dead of night, it responded to the combined charms of the Manager, the
Messenger and its owner.
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A large number of publicity shots
are taken on the opening day…
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…so perhaps the Minister of Transport
has an incredible feeling of déjà vu?
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But cars provide our greatest interest, particularly the rare
ones which speed in from the exit in playful defiance of all the signs. Others
for some unfathomable reason find it possible to transfer or assign their
effect on our photo-electric beam, so that they arrive at our window
unheralded but cause an unsuspecting passer-by to produce an excruciating
noise on our buzzer. And, of course, there are the cars which, when
switched off while the customer transacts his business, later refuse to
start.
Through the cashier's window one can only smile encouragingly
or register sympathy. Anything one might say in such circumstances would be
wrong— things like 'Have you switched on ?' To the increasingly harassed
customer the smile must seem more like a leer, and the look of sympathy one
of disdain, but at the drive-in bank one quickly learns to be tactful. And
so far the point has never been reached where we had to go out and push or
telephone a garage for a tow. Taken all round our drive-in bank runs very smoothly
both for our customers, who like it, and for us, who find it so
interesting.
What became of the
Leicester Drive-In?
 
As drive-in banks don’t seem to be have been
around for the last few decades, we wondered about the fate of Martins’
pioneering efforts at Leicester. We
asked our friends at Barclays Group Archives what happened following the
merger with Barclays…
 {“The Leicester drive-in till at 81
Charles Street is last listed in 1988 – the branch closed in 1993 and the
premises were acquired by Derbyshire Building Society”}
This means that Drive-in Banking at Leicester
ran for 29 years, 1959-1988 – not bad for an experiment! In 1993, when the Barclays signs are
taken down in Leicester, Martins’ own signage is revealed intact and certainly
not looking out of place. We are
grateful to our friend Rob Hancock, a former Barclays Operations Manager,
who took this picture:
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Images © Martins Bank
Archive Collections - Rob Hancock
Rob
says: {“This picture was taken during the alterations to the branch to
ready it for re-opening as a branch of the Derbyshire Building Society.
Sadly, that era did not last very long and the place is now operating as
some ethnic food supermarket. The Drive-in section was already separated
into a lock-up with two parking spaces at the back and this continues”.}
Rob has also unearthed some more images of Charles
Street, this time from the mid to late 1980s. The first shows the branch once more displaying
its beautifully carved Martins Bank signage, during a refurbishment under
Barclays’ Customer Service Programme.
The second shows the slight damage caused to the rear entrance of
the Drive-in bank, by a Mini crashing into it on a Sunday morning!. Rob
also recalls these events for us:
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Images © Martins Bank
Archive Collections - Rob Hancock
{This picture is
taken during some refurbishment work in the mid-80s as part of the “CSP”
(Customer Service Programme) cosmetic upgrades to certain branches. At this stage, the outside signage had
been removed ready for replacement with the then latest style, but
revealing MARTINS underneath! }
Image
© Martins Bank Archive Collections - 1985 Rob Hancock
{This picture is taken
in the mid to late 80s and as Branch Operations Manager, I received a
Sunday morning call-out from the local Police about an incident at my
branch. I arrived to find a Mini embedded in the rear folding doors to the
Drive-In, no passengers still about, or apparently harmed. I never got to
discover whether this was a crude attempt at a ram-raid or just careless
driving! Whatever, the car was
dragged away and after some shoving and kicking, these concertina doors
were pushed clear to one side. So they remained for the remainder of the
branch`s existence – the front portcullis grille to Charles Street was
still useable so we could close off the roadway out of hours but the area
now provided an accessible covered place for unsocial activities and modest
vandalism – what signage that was left in here soon disappeared. The
Drive-In was closed down not long afterwards, the space then remaining to
provide parking for Management based nearby. Charles Street branch itself ceased to
exist a couple of years after that.}
Intellectual Property Rights © Martins
Bank Archive Collections 1988 to date.
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