Report - Birmingham Municipal Bank - Jan 2010

God · Jan 23, 2010

Visited with Adders0121 and Sophietherat, then again with Adders0121 and a friend

This place is a tourist trap at the moment, and history has been covered in a few previous threads. Not wanting to do a half-arsed job I've put a bit a bit in from wiki.

Sorry no external shots, the street was being washed the first time around, and then it rained on the second time

From Wiki:

The Birmingham Municipal Bank was a savings bank in the city of Birmingham, England. It was created as the Birmingham Corporation Savings Bank by a 1916 Act of Parliament, to raise money to aid World War I. It was the only municipal bank in the country.

Suggested by local politician Neville Chamberlain in 1915, the bank was originally for savings from earnings, earning interest at 3.5%, with most of the income reserved for the government. It opened on 29 September 1916 after resistance from the banks and the Treasury[citation needed]. It had achieved 30,000 new investors by the end of 1917 and was made permanent in 1919.

The name changed to Birmingham Municipal Bank by a 1919 Act which allowed the creation of branch banks. By 1950 there were 66 branches. The bank's headquarters moved from a basement (1916) to the Council House (1919), to Edmund Street (1925), and finally to a new building by Thomas Cecil Howitt opposite what is now Centenary Square at 301 Broad Street which was opened on November 27, 1933 by Prince George. It ceased to be a department of the city council in 1976, becoming a Trustee Savings Bank, and moved to the former central Post Office building in New Street. Ultimately the TSBs were privatised, and in 1995 became part of Lloyds TSB.

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