Even the 90's seems early for a major bank to close a branch in a prime position. Or maybe I'm out of touch; had the decline of the area happened by then? It's still puzzling to have the bank and Sturla's with the same address: looking at the phone book, the assumption is that it was a shop, since offices at Kirkby and St.Helen's are shown as such.
HSBC took over Midland Bank in 1992, prior to that Midland had been concentrating on their telephone banking service First Direct. Midland were only just recovering from their flawed incursion into American Banking.
We don't do charity in Germany, we pay taxes. Charity is a failure of governments' responsibilities - Henning Wehn
I asked 2 mature neighbours, both have no recollection of Sturla's operating as a store from the bank premises, they would know, expert shoppers and brought up in the Grange Rd area. One reckons George Sturla did open a shop on a corner opposite Woolworths, it was only open a short while.
Sturla must have had office space at the Bank building, the 1964 phone book may prove office space was available.
God help us, Come yourself, Don't send Jesus, This is no place for children.
Here is one from the 70's by the looks of things. It's been on WiKi before, because that's where I got it from.
As well as Derwent, wasn't there a DER TV shop nearby? I remember when colour TV came out, both shops had colour TV's on display. Subdued lighting was recommended, and the shop fronts around there rarely saw any sunlight during the day, which probably accounts for the lack of photographs, and so was ideal for showing the trade test transmissions on BBC2 during the day.
Anybody remember the likes of 'Crown of Glass' and 'Plastics'?
I was going to create a thread about this anyway, but this seems an apt forum.
My Great Great Great Grandfather owned a photography shop on 119 grange lane.
Not sure when it closed or whether the building is still there. It makes it difficult as its now called something else (the road) and I think the address numbers are different?