Birmingham Municipal Bank

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Birmingham Municipal Bank
Birmingham Municipal Bank
Metal door
Metal door

Birmingham Municipal Bank was created in Birmingham, England as the Birmingham Corporation Savings Bank to raise money to aid World War I by a 1916 Act of Parliament raised by Birmingham MP Neville Chamberlain. This was the first municipal bank in the country.

Suggested by Neville Chamberlain in 1915 it 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. 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. In 1950 there were 66 branches. The bank 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.[1] It merged into the Trustee Savings Bank (TSB) (now part of Lloyds TSB) and moved to the old central Post Office in New Street.

In 1935, Birmingham Municipal Bank caused controversy in Birmingham and Sutton Coldfield, when they outlined plans to open a branch in the town for the 4,000 residents who had accounts in the bank. Their plans created an outcry from people who believed that Birmingham was attempting to annexe Sutton Coldfield. The protest resulted in a heated debate in the council chamber to whether a written guarantee should be submitted to Sutton Coldfield outlining that they were not proposing to annexe Sutton Coldfield. A spokesperson for Birmingham later said that they had no plans of annexing the town, however, in 1974, Sutton Coldfield was annexed by Birmingham.[2]

The building on Broad Street was bought by Birmingham City Council in 2006.[3] The building was granted grade II listed status on October 14, 1996.[4]

In March 2007, Birmingham Opera Company produced a new version of Mozart's Don Giovanni, renamed He Had It Coming, in the bank.

[edit] References

  1. ^ Birmingham Municipal Bank, new head offices, souvenir of opening ceremony performed by His Royal Highness The Prince George, K.G., 27th November, 1933
  2. ^ The Royal Town of Sutton Coldfield - A Commemorative History, Douglas V. Jones, 1994, Westwood Press (ISBN 0-9502636-7-2)
  3. ^ Birmingham City Council buys landmark building on Broad Street. King Sturge (2006-05-09). Retrieved on 2008-06-07.
  4. ^ Images of England — details from listed building database (462175)
  • A History of Birmingham, Chris Upton, 1993, ISBN 0-85033-870-0
  • A History of the County of Warwick, Volume 7 – The City of Birmingham, ed W. B. Stephens, University of London Institute of Historical Research, Oxford University Press, 1964

Coordinates: 52°28′42.80″N, 1°54′27.34″W