Hulme Branch Savings Bank,

HULME BRANCH SAVINGS BANK. The Manchester and Salford Savings Bank, with its well-known headquarters in Booth Street and Kennedy Street, has three branch banks in Manchester and two in Salford. Arrangements have been made for enlargement the premises in Ardwick, where at times people have even to stand the street, the space within being crowded.  The Hulme branch also attracts so much business that new premises have had to be acquired. The new bank room here is a fine apartment, and the largest all the branches. It is to be opened to-day, having been completed a day or two before the contract date. The old shop premises the corner Welcome-street and Stretford-road were bought, and the easterly portion cut off for the present, to be let as a shop until further enlargement be required. The westerly part, with frontages to Stretford-road and Welcome-street, is devoted to the bank and a caretaker's house. The bank room itself is 41 feet long 26 feet wide and 21 feet high. It is approached through a corner doorway and spacious outer and inner porches. To convert old premises, with a veto upon pulling down, and yet to make them thoroughly suitable for an entirely new use and purpose, is not easy, especially when there is room for grave suspicion that the old building may resist conversion and fall down in the struggle. Such new work as there is in the architectural style known Renaissance, and is (as to the doorways, etc.,) executed for the most part in red brick and terracotta. Above the tall bank windows runs a cornice, between the members of which, and on the fronts, is the name Manchester and Salford Savings' Bank in large raised letters. Also, projecting from the south, or Stretford-road front, is a sign of the ancient Manchester type, gilt, with Savings Bank, in dark letters, thereon. The bank inside is lined with coloured glazed brick, the base of deep reddish brown, and, above this the prevailing wall surface is a pale yellow. Pilasters, cornices, and coigns are of a greenish grey, the whole making a very harmonious combination. The chimney-pieces are also of glazed brick, with red terra cotta mouldings, and each has a motto proverb, glazed tile letters, inculcating thrift. The ceiling is panelled in wood. The counter, desks, and other fittings, and the outer doors are of Dantzic oak. The other internal woodwork generally is pitch pine. At the south end of the bank is an enclosure, where those seeking to open a new account are interviewed in private. In a recess to the west of this enclosure are the hoist and the stairs to the cellar, and to the clerks' luncheon gallery, for here, as in the other new branch banks, where the staff, on most days of the week, is limited to two clerks, one at a time can take refreshment in comparative privacy, and et see and be seen by any customers coming in. This luncheon gallery is provided with a small cooking range and oven, and has other fixtures and furniture for the convenience and comfort of the clerks. On the ground-floor is the lavatory with its adjuncts. In the basement is warmed and well-ventilated fire-proof cellar for books, On the top storey is the caretaker's house, approached by a staircase from the private entrance to bank at the north-west corner of the premises. Mr. Medland Taylor is the architect and Mr. Thomas Scott the builder. [Manchester Courier 21 March 1888 page 3]

HULME - New branch premises have just been erected at Hulme for the Manchester and Salford Savings Bank. The style is Renaissance, and the work is carried out in terracotta and red brick, with Dantsic oak fittings. Mr. Medland Taylor, of Manchester, was the architect of the premises, which have just been completed and opened, and the builder was Mr. Thomas Scott. [Building News 30 March 1888 page 482]

Reference    Manchester Courier 21 March 1888 page 3
Reference    Building News 30 March 1888 page 482