Martins Bank in Water Street is one of Britain's finest 20th century
buildings and with its striking Portland Stone exteriors and lavish
interiors it has starred in many film and TV shows. Historic England calls the
Grade II*-listed building as one of the best interwar classical
buildings in the country. In 1918 Martin's Private Bank based in London
was taken over by the Bank of Liverpool and renamed Bank of Liverpool
and Martins, creating a national banking group that expanded across the
country. Upon the merger the Head Office was immediately moved to 7
Water Street, Liverpool, then the largest English bank with its
headquarters still in the provinces.
The merged group needed a
grand new headquarters and in 1932 opened its grand new head office in
Water Street. Designed by Herbert Rowse between 1927 and 1932, who was a student of Professor Charles Reilly at Liverpool University, a perfectionist who was
already working on India Building's on the south side of Water Street
when he won the competition to design these new headquarters. Joseph
Sharples describes the building: "The resulting building is the
outstanding example of early twentieth-century Liverpool classicism. No
Liverpool office block topped the Royal Liver Building until the 1960s,
but several very large steel-framed buildings went up in the early 20th
century, giving an almost transatlantic character to the commercial
centre. The most elegant are the India Buildings and Martins Bank
Building facing each other across the canyon of Water Street. Both were
designed by Herbert J Rowse, who trained at the Liverpool School of
Architecture before working for a period in Canada and the United
States, and they show the clear influence of American commercial
architecture in their enormous size and refined Italian Renaissance."
The construction method is steel frame with the seven storey building faced in Portland stone. One of the reasons behind the setting back of the upper floors was determined by the right to light of the adjacent properties as well as preventing the bank building from overpowering its neighbour, the Town Hall. Some of the renaissance detailing was also chosen out of respect for the historic neo-classical building. The use of the steel frame enabled Rowse to cantilever walls which in turn helped to gain extra space on the floors above the banking hall with its towering columns and arcades. Upstairs is a beautiful boardroom with its brightly painted ceiling. You can spot Liver Birds throughout the building. Right at the top of a building is a small wood-panelled flat that was used by the bank's chairman. One of the other outstanding design features was the use off ducts meaning that the building is completely free of exposed pipes or wires.
Rowse persuaded his
client that an expensive building was a good investment. The banking
hall is an extravagant display in travertine and bronze, and every
detail in the building down to the smallest item was designed by Rowse’s
office. The plan is symmetrical with four corner rotundas and has a
large, unobstructed central banking hall lit from above. The central
entrance is a large set of bronze double doors, impressively detailed
with themes of money and the sea, and leads to the main banking hall which is described as the most ornate banking hall in the country. Other
entrances north-east and south-west provide access to lettable office
spaces that cantilever over the bank hall, the eighth floor board room
is reminiscent of a hall of a Renaissance palace.
The use of
sculpture on the building to emphasise power is still visible today.
The main doorway is flanked by identical relief sculpture panels, the flat,
linear style influenced by the Paris Exhibition of 1925. These depict
Liverpool as Neptune, accompanied by African children carrying bags of
money, with anchor and weighing-scales. While the original Martins Bank is not known to have any direct links
with the slave trade, banks were inextricably linked to the trade in
eighteenth-century Liverpool.
Controversially there appears to be slave children as relief sculptures at the entrance to 4 and 6 Water
Street which have provoked controversy in Liverpool since the late twentieth
century. Some see them as dignifying, or accepting unquestioningly, the
role of slavery in Liverpool's economy; whilst some see them as a more
general celebration of the international aspect of Liverpool's trade and
prosperity. Either way, the fact that the subject was chosen in 1927-32
is an indication of the extent to which Liverpool's former involvement
with the slave trade has been embedded in its economic culture. The figure of Neptune is used because Liverpool made its money
from the sea, importing and exporting goods through the docks and trade
industry. Above are Grasshoppers, the sign of
Martins Bank.
The frieze of the entrance hall, showing tribute bearers pouring coins into a central receptacle, leads to large top-lit banking hall, with vaulted arcades on four sides, the columns hollow, threaded on to the frame.
Considered to have been one of the most secure locations for safekeeping with three basements,World War II brought Martins the honour of storing Britain's gold reserves. About 300 tons of gold was brought from London in three heavily guarded trains to its strong rooms.
Herbert J Rowse, certainly was one Liverpool's greatest architects, designing India Buildings (1923), the Mersey Tunnel (1925-34) including George's Dock Building, Martins Bank (1927-1932) and the
Philharmonic Hall (1933-39).
see also:- http://www.thefootballvoice.com/2021/11/remembering-liverpool-structures-dukes.html
No comments:
Post a Comment