Banks saved

Since May 2016, 600 banks have closed in the UK; Lucinda Merriman finds out how our banks are being saved and deposited back into the community.

Ladies & Gentlemen cocktail bar

Take a walk down the high street in many of our smaller towns or cities and you will see that the buildings have changed enormously over the years. Once thriving communities, they no longer offer a range of different shops or businesses - every other shop is a charity, fast food or a coffee chain. 

As shops, factories and banks close, people find less and less reasons to visit these soulless places, investment is withdrawn as sales move on line and out of the city centres to large sterile retail parks.

It’s encouraging to see therefore that at least some of our historic buildings are being saved and regenerated.  Underground public loos in London are being turned in to novelty cocktail bars, traditional red phone boxes in Birmingham are now trendy micro cafes and by 2022 the London Museum will be relocating to its new home in the renovated and adapted buildings of the western end of Smithfield’s Market. 

While the Landmark Trust is busy saving the more exciting end of the spectrum of abandoned or dilapidated buildings such as castles, forts or follies, it is left to consortiums or private investors to save the more mundane structures.

Banks are closing all over the country at an alarming rate; in May this year Rebecca Wearn, Business Reporter for BBC News, reported that: "More than 600 bank branches have closed across Britain over the past year."  The data included information from Lloyds, Royal Bank of Scotland, HSBC, Santander, Barclays and the Co-operative and it seems that rural communities, especially in remote parts of Wales, Scotland and South-West England are most effected.

In the 19^th Century, banks were built in the most opulent, grandiose fashion as displays of wealth aimed to convince potential customers to invest in these establishments.  Built by leading architects of the time, scores are listed, having historical significance, and frequently they have an interesting story to tell.

The Old Bank of England restaurant and pub

Built in 1888 on the site of two former 16^th Century taverns in Fleet Street, London, the Law Court’s branch of The Bank of England traded for 87 years. Lovingly restored in 1994 by London brewers Fuller, Smith and Turners, The Old Bank of England is now a restaurant and pub. 

It’s lavish interiors and original features make it a stylish venue and it’s reputed to have some infamous historical neighbours. This site is said to have been once sandwiched between Sweeney Todd’s barber’s and Mrs. Lovett’s pie shop and it was in the tunnels and vaults below the building that the victims were butchered before becoming pies. An interesting claim, given Sweeney Todd and his accomplice were fictional but I would like think if there is any grain of truth to this well-known urban myth, that it happened either side of The Old Bank of England.

The Gotham Hotel

‘King of King Street’ the impossibly impressive former Midland Bank headquarters, 100 King Street, Manchester was designed in 1928 by Edwin Lutyens and decorated by local sculptor John Aston Floyd in a classic Art Deco cenotaph style.  

Taking 7 years to complete, this Manchurian ‘skyscraper’ traded as a bank until 2008 when it was acquired by a developer and restored by Aura Conservation. Christened ‘The Gotham’, in a playful nod to the iconic New York skyline, this Grade 2 listed building is now an elegant 5-star hotel with a Jamie Oliver restaurant in the main banking hall.

Last of our interesting trio is an ex-Lloyds bank head office in Bristol. Built in 1856 by architect William Bruce Gingell, inspired by Sansovino's Library in the Piazzetta, Venice, considered to be one of the major architectural works of the 16th Century.  Long considered as an iconic historical building in Bristol, the bank has been converted into a prestigious luxury hotel - Bristol Harbour Hotel which opens in October this year. 

The Bristol Harbour Hotel

Its spa is cleverly located in the vast bank vaults and its entertaining to ponder how once these vaults were where people saved money, when now they are where they spend large amounts of cash.

It’s heartening to see that these fine buildings are being saved but it seems ironic that people now enjoy spending time in these formerly austere and institutionalised spaces, where only a Bank Manager or robber would happily have spent time.

Their rejuvenation brings jobs and prosperity back into these areas but we should spare a thought for the former bank’s customers.  The decline of these financial institutions is a contentious subject as a minority of people struggle to come to terms with modern banking methods and the lack of face-to-face interaction. 

It may also be that many local residents don’t have the resources to enjoy the 5-star exclusive spaces that the developers are creating, which theoretically causes further fragmentation of these communities. It is certainly a discussion that will gather interest!

Fair pensions for all women!

Eager, hopeful faces shine out from this school photograph taken of pupils aged between 8 – 9 at Havelock Junior School, Desborough in the early 60’s. Carefree and innocent, these children wouldn’t have known what a pension was, much less considered the day when they would need to draw one.

All of the girls highlighted on picture are now in their sixties, still living locally, in and around the area they went to school. They have families and led busy lives working and bringing up their children, looking forward to a time when they can retire and enjoy their grandchildren.

However, government policy changes to both state retirement age and how the pension is paid have resulted in serious and upsetting repercussions for many of the women shown in the photograph. 

Women's state pension age is now set to increase to 65 by 2018 and 66 by 2020, instead of the previously proposed 2026.  By increasing these timescales, the government has reneged on its promises and slashed the time potential pensioners have to prepare for this life changing event.

If you are a women born on or after April 1953, not only will you have to work longer (up to 4 years 3 months in some cases) to claim your pension but if you were born before April, 1953; you will also lose out on the new ‘Single-tier’ State Pension, which began this year in April. Only women born on or after April 6th, 1953 will be able to collect the enhanced state pension under the new system. The hope is that these new proposals will bring to an end the poor State pension deal that most women get who have stayed at home bringing up their children or worked in poorly paid jobs.

However, it is estimated that 80,000 women will miss out on the proposed £144 a week improved pension receiving a basic state pension of just £107.45 a week – a loss of £36.55 per week for the rest of their lives. 

And consider also that by having to work longer, the women in this photograph will also be missing up to 2 years and 4 months worth of pension payments that women born before then will automatically receive.  So the loss from the first and last lady to retire could equate to a loss of over £16,000. 

Kay Wykes, née Tebbutt is very upset and said: “Jean Franklin who is just one month younger than me and started getting her pension in July this year but I have to wait another 8 months for mine. Pauline and Kay have to wait until November 2017 for theirs, it really isn’t fair.”

Married to Ken with two children, Heather Ward, née Goodman has lived in Rothwell all her life. Leaving school at 16, Heather took a secretarial course and was employed by Rigid Containers before joining local footwear manufacturers Groococks in 1973, where she has been ever since. After working for nearly 43 years, with only short breaks to bring up her two children, Heather is understandably keen to retire but was born in June 1953 and in consequence has to work an extra 3 years, 9 months before she finally does.

“I’m so disappointed and feel very let down that hard working women aren’t rewarded in this country.  I have worked all my life, brought up a family and contributing to the community.  I really don’t think it’s a lot to ask for the government to stick to their side of the bargain and pay my pension when they should. Instead I now have to wait almost four years to receive my pension.”

Two of her friends also in the picture, Pauline Panter, née Wiltshire and Kay Wykes, née Tebbutt both born in August 1953 are also concerned and disappointed as they also have been hit by the new retirement age and will not receive their pension until November 2017; the irony being that some of the boys in the photograph will be receiving their pension before they are.  

If you were to calculate, over a working lifetime, the amount a woman loses through timeout having children and now through pensions, it would add up to a sizeable amount. And don't forget that they are already subject to gender pay discrimination where men earn considerably more and even today’s pay statistics show a pay discrepancy between men and women of around 19.2%*, when full and part time employees are combined. This really is a national disgrace for these hard working women and thousands like them who throughout life have worked hard, brought up families and added to their communities. 
Over to you Damien Gere, Secretary of State for Work and Pensions! 

*Figure taken from the Equal Pay Portal.

Read Dr. Ros Altmann views on this debate..

Join WASPI (Women Against State Pension Inequality).

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The Help

Adapted from a best-selling book that took its author Kathryn Stockett 5 years to write, ‘The Help’ was directed by Tate Taylor who along with Kathryn was born in Jackson and attended the same pre-school.

‘The Help’ is set in 1962 in the middle of the Mississippi Civil Rights Movement, 7 years after Rosa Parks made history in Montgomery and 6 years before Martin Luther King was to be assassinated.

The film tells the story of African-American maids working for white families in Jackson, Mississippi and how a privileged white woman, Eugenia ‘Skeeter’ Phelan (Emma Stone) returning from college, aspiring to be a writer, takes up their cause.

‘The Help’ has a convincing cast who fill the screen with interesting, all be it stereotypical, strong women. Octavia Spencer won the Academy Award for the 'Best Actress in a Supporting Role' as sassy Minny Jackson who saves Celia Foote (Jessica Chastain), the good-hearted floozy in an entertaining 'Gone with the Wind' pastiche.

It’s a shame the men are so 2-dimensional, given in the 60s women were still suffering prejudice themselves in education and the workplace.  And it’s also interesting to note that there is only one real villain – Hilly Holbrook, played with great pantomime gusto by Bryce Dallas Howard; when in reality she would be in the majority.

It's a commendable attempt to present a sanitised version of this emotive subject but for all its uncomfortable moments of segregated loos and complete disregard for feelings; it never delivers the brooding menace of real violence against African-Americans that festered in the South at this time.

For all its faults, it's worth watching - this elevated 'chick flick' is superficially uplifting - women triumph, baddies get what they deserve and good prevails.