Unlocking the Vaults

Lesley Coley, Birmingham Municipal Bank Employee:
Birmingham Municipal Bank, as it was, 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 get a bit of a relationship with that person. You got to know whether people were all right. People were helped. You know, people that were in financial difficulties and that had got somebody to talk to and could be helped.

Chris Carroll, Birmingham Municipal Bank Employee:
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. You would escort them down, they’d have their key, Mr Monk would have his key, and together you’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. There 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. It was some of the most beautiful jewellery I’ve ever seen.

But it was a very popular facility. The customers had to pay by standing order, and if the standing order wasn’t paid, they would lose the right to that safe deposit and it would be reassigned. But it was a very, very popular service that the bank offered.

Resham Sahota, Birmingham Municipal Bank Customer:
Women were buying gold for the assets, and they needed that gold because that was some sort of like, 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 needed it, gold is worth more than what you got in your account. And you know it’s safe, and you can come in between the banking time.

Because this bank used to be on Thursdays, I think from my knowledge, Thursdays it used to be open until seven o’clock. And that’s when I, like if, if I couldn’t make it in the day, I used to bring the children on the bus and we used to come in on the late Thursday night if we had to take gold out or put back the gold we had taken out for weddings and parties and whatever.

Keith Bracey, Birmingham Municipal Bank Customer:
Having branches all over the city, it was a great thing. It was the community bank, the people’s bank, if you like. 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.

Christine Flaherty, Birmingham Municipal Bank Customer:
Well, I was living with my gran Monday to Friday because my mum and dad worked in a factory. 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.

She’d polish it, and we used to take it to the bank, and they’d count it out over the counter. You couldn’t get into the box, only the bank could. I used to love to go to the bank. All the polished furniture.

Being tiny, I used to try to look over the top when they emptied the box and watch all of 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. She always said, “Not until it’s full.” I used to think the bank was a palace. 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.