Flowers outside Abbey National 1999

The Abbey National on the corner of Market Place and Hamnett Street in 1999.

The antecedents of the Abbey National are the National Permanent Mutual Benefit Building Society established in 1849 and the Abbey Road & St. John's Wood Permanent Benefit Building Society, founded in 1874, based in a Baptist church on Abbey Road in Kilburn. In 1932 the society moved into new headquarters, Abbey House, at 219–229 Baker Street, London, which it occupied until 2002. The site was thought to include 221B Baker Street, the fictional home of Sherlock Holmes and for many years Abbey employed a secretary charged with answering mail sent to Holmes at that address. The two soicieties merged in 1944 to form the Abbey National Building Society.

1n 1989 it became the first of the UK building societies to demutualise, and become a public limited company. In 2003 it rebranded itself as simply the Abbey. In November 2004 it become part of the Santander Group.

Santander had also acquired Bradford & Bingley's retail branches and savings business in September 2008.

In January 2010, Abbey and the branch network of Bradford & Bingley were rebranded as Santander and for the next four years both branches continued to operate at the opposite ends of the Market Place.

In 2014 the former Bradford & Bingley branch was closed down and its business merged with the former Abbey branch which is now the sole Santander branch in town.

See how this same scene looks in July 2014 on Hyde Daily Photo.

Martins Bank 1965

Image © Barclays Ref 30/1399 Courtesy Martins Bank Archive.
(Click on image to view full-size version)
The Adelphi Bank opened at 38 Market Street in 1892. It became the Lancashire and Yorkshire Bank in 1899 and Martins Bank in 1928. By the mid 1960s the building had become inadequate and this new building was built in 1965.

The re-opening was heralded by local newspaper advertisements, informing customers that now the new branch is open for business, the temporary premises at 25 Market Street are closed.

Image courtesy of Jonathan Snowden from the Martins Bank archive.
(Click on image to view full-size version)
Note the opening hours in 1965: Mon to Fri 1000-1500, Saturday 0900-1130.

By 1969 Martins had merged with Barclays and lost their independent name above the branches. For more information about the banks see the Martins Bank archive.

For a look at the temporary premises at 25 Market Street see Hyde DP Xtra.

For a look at the current bank at 38 Market Street see Hyde Daily Photo.

Yorkshire Bank 1990

This 1990 view of Market Street was taken outside the Clarendon Hotel, by Alan Young. Alan was playing with the West Virginian classic rock band Par Avion who were over in the UK doing a few gigs. I'm not sure about the presence of the ambulance - what interests me is the Yorkshire Bank across the road.

Now, as can be seen on Hyde Daily Photo it is sandwiched between the Chicken Hut and Subway.

It had different neighbours twenty years ago. The shop above was Etcetera which I think was a ladies dress and accessories shop. The shop below was Granada TV Sales & Rentals
and to the right of that was Greenwoods Gents Outfitters.

According to Wikipedia

the bank was established on 1 May 1859 by Colonel Edward Akroyd of Halifax. Based in Leeds it was known as the West Riding Penny Savings Bank. It had originally been planned as a provident society but the status of savings bank was eventually chosen. ... The bank was operated on a non-profit making basis and in 1860 it was decided to extend operation to the other ridings of Yorkshire {and later obviously to surrounding counties}.

To recognise this the name was changed to the Yorkshire Penny Bank. In 1872 it issued cheque books for the first time, primarily for small tradesmen. At that time the bank became the first to create school banks, to encourage the idea of saving at an early age. {I recall as a child having a number of savings boxes and piggy-banks donated by the YPB}

... In its centenary year of 1959 the bank's name changed to the more familiar Yorkshire Bank Limited. During the 1970s the bank became one of the first to offer fee-free banking whilst in credit, a move that took bigger rivals a decade to follow. In 1982 it adopted public limited company status.

In 1990 it was acquired by the National Australia Bank who in 2005 announced its intention to merge the Yorkshire Bank with the Clydesdale under one operating licence, in which the former would be a trading name of the latter. Both operate under separate identities although the Clydesdale brand is the one that has been used in further expansion into the south of England.

For more Y posts visit ABC Wednesday.