Martins
Bank - (en)
The Bank of Liverpool was founded in 1831 in Liverpool, England. In
1918 it acquired Martins Bank and the name was changed to Bank of
Liverpool and Martins Ltd. The name was shortened to Martins Bank Ltd
in 1928. The bank had expanded to have some 560 branches and had a
coat of arms featuring a grasshopper.
The headquarters of Martins Bank was designed by the architect Herbert
James Rowse in a Classical Revival style and constructed in 1932 in
Water Street, Liverpool.
It was amalgamated with Barclays Bank Ltd in 1969.
In 1901, the activities of the banks' employee Thomas Goudie formed
the subject of arguably the worlds' first filmed crime reconstruction,
The Arrest of Goudie filmed by Mitchell and Kenyon. Goudie had stolen
£70,000 from the bank to cover his gambling debts, and was
subsequently sentenced to ten years' imprisonment.
In early episodes of the BBC comedy Dads Army, the bank where Captain
Mainwaring, Sgt Wilson and Pike work is the Walmington-on-Sea branch
of Martins Bank. In later episodes this was changed to the fictional
Swallow Bank.
