Narrator:
In the centre of Birmingham, near Centenary Square, stands one of the city’s great civic buildings. Opened in 1933, it was built as the head office of The Birmingham Municipal Bank, a unique financial institution owned not by private shareholders, but by the city itself.
The idea emerged during the First World War, when booming industry and rising wages coincided with a national drive to encourage saving.
Neville Chamberlain, then Lord Mayor of Birmingham, saw an opportunity: a bank run by the city, designed to help ordinary people save, prosper, and secure their future.
In 1916, the Birmingham Corporation Savings Bank opened as a temporary wartime measure. The response was extraordinary. By 1919, it became permanent, and the Birmingham Municipal Bank was born.
Lesley Coley:
Birmingham Municipal Bank was set up by the Council for the people.
The people that used our bank would not go into Lloyds or some of the other banks. They were working-class people just trying to save a little bit of money.
You used to get the same people coming in every week. So you’d see, and you’d get a bit of a relationship with that person. You got to know whether people were all right. People that were, you know, in financial difficulties and that could have somebody to talk to and could be helped.
Narrator:
The Municipal Bank was part of everyday life in Birmingham. Hundreds of thousands of people held accounts there, and its branches stretched across the city and beyond.
Justine Pick:
The key thing was ‘pennies were welcome’ so you could come in and literally save a penny.
That wouldn’t have been the case with some of the other banks. They started to establish branches across the city as many as they could, to try and make it as accessible as possible, and also brought in convenient times, so late-night opening, opening on a Saturday so that actual working people could go to the bank at a time after work to deposit their savings.
Narrator:
The bank’s reach was local, but its presence was huge. A familiar institution that people knew, used, and trusted, often for generations.
Keith Bracey:
It was a great thing. It was the community bank — “The People’s Bank”, if you like. And it helped people borrow and finance houses. It was a really excellent, community-focused organisation, based here, obviously, in the city centre, but they had branches all over. It was like a West Midlands, or certainly a Birmingham and Black Country institution, in my opinion.
Narrator:
The bank also carried a strong civic message.
Its posters, passbooks and branch counters all encouraged the habit of thrift. And when the new head offices opened on Broad Street, that message was written into the building itself;
“Thrift Radiates Happiness.”
“Saving is the Mother of Riches.”
Yet beneath the banking hall was another side to the bank’s story. Known as The Vaults, this strong room contained thousands of Safe Deposit boxes.
Chris Carroll
Customers would come into the branch, and they would have an appointment to go down into the safe deposit. Occasionally I was allowed to go down with them. So you would escort them down, and they’d have their key, and Mr Monk would have the key, and he’d open the box, and they’d be able to have a look and see what was inside.
We had the police come and raid it, here was rifles and everything down there, and the jewellery - certainly the Indian jewellery - was stunning. Absolutely beautiful. So the ladies would come in, get their jewellery out, put it on, go home, come back the next day and bring it back in.
And it’s some of the most beautiful jewellery I’ve ever seen.
Resham Sahota:
Women were buying gold for the assets, and they needed that gold because rather than putting money in the bank onto your account, they were investing in gold because that’s how they’ve always been brought up. From my knowledge, this is how we were brought up, thinking that gold is your asset. And if you ever need it, gold is worth more than what you’ve got in your account. And, you know, it’s safe and you can come in between the banking time. But they called it the Gold Bank.
If I couldn’t make it in the day, I used to bring the children on the bus if we had to take out gold or put back, you know, the gold that we had taken out for weddings and parties and whatever.
Narrator:
Behind the counters, the Municipal bank had a life of its own.
For staff, it was more than just a workplace, it was a long-standing institution with its own culture, routines and social life. Perhaps unsurprisingly, many relationships began to blossom. When David Parkes joined as a Junior clerk aged 18, he met his future wife Jeanette, on his very first day. Over time the bank gained something of a reputation for match-making…
David Parkes:
The BMB was also known as ‘The Bank Marriage Bureau’ - there were lots and lots of couples who met their spouses working for the bank. I think part of that was due to the social aspects, but also because of the fact that on Monday to Thursday we finished at 15:30, so what else have you got to do, go look for your spouse!
Narrator:
The scale of the bank’s ambition can still be seen in its former head office in central Birmingham. Designed by Thomas Cecil Howitt, the building was created to project civic pride, and to provide a fitting home for the institution. Marble, stained glass, inscriptions and classical architecture all conveyed a sense of permanence and trust. That same confidence was echoed in branches across the region, buildings which not only served their customers, but left a lasting impression.
Christine Flaherty
Well, I was living with my Gran Monday to Friday because Mum and Dad worked in the factory, and she encouraged me to save my pocket money. Sometimes she’d let me spend some of my pocket money, but I remember her making me put the money in this heavy box, and she’d polish it, and we used to take it to the bank. And they’d count it out over the counter.
I used to love to go to the bank. All the polished furniture, and being tiny, I used to try and look over the top when they emptied the box and watch all the money fall on the counter. My Gran would lift me up and it just felt like paradise. The marble walls and everything.
So I used to love to go to the bank, and she used to say, “Not until it’s full, not until it’s full.” So then I would try and put a lot more into it, to go to the bank. And I used to think it was a palace. And I remember saying to my gran, “Is it Buckingham Palace?” and she’d say no. But I would tell my friends I’d been to Buckingham Palace.
Narrator:
For decades, The Municipal Bank remained one of Birmingham’s greatest institutions, but slowly, the world around it changed.
In 1976, it became Birmingham TSB, bringing an end to its life as a municipal bank.
The head office continued in banking use for a time, the building was finally vacated as a head office in 1998. Left empty for almost two decades, it was occasionally reopened for tours, creative projects filming.
Beginning a new chapter in 2018, the University of Birmingham took on the Grade II listed Building, carefully refurbishing it as the University’s city-centre home.
Reopened as The Exchange, the building now houses a café, offices, and exhibition spaces, with events, exhibitions and guided tours once again welcoming the public inside.
Stephen Ashton:
One of the things that makes me proud about the refurbishment project that we’ve done is the care that we took of the building, because it is part of the city’s heritage and we at the University are then the custodians of the building for the city and for the people of the city.
There were lots of original features in the building that talked about the importance of the city, the importance of saving, that we wanted to keep. And of course, one of the things that we wanted to do was to open up the vaults and let people see that space that was always closed off a little bit, but is a place that we can open up and let members of the public come.
Sometimes on my way to work, I can stop off here and buy a coffee and see people enjoying the space, something that we’ve been able to give back to the city.
Narrator:
The Birmingham Municipal Bank began with a practical idea: that ordinary people should have a safe and trusted place to save. Although the bank has long since closed, it has not entirely disappeared into memory.
This historic building has been given a renewed purpose by the University; once again welcoming the people of Birmingham into spaces created for their benefit.
