Bernard Ginns: Magnificent bank building housed traditional values

Last week I wrote about Beckett’s Bank, a family-owned regional lender, and its support for one of its customers, Joshua Tetley.

The bank was flourishing in the mid-to-late 19th century and was at the nexus of industry and finance in Yorkshire.

It occupied a magisterial redbrick building in Park Row, immortalised in Atkinson Grimshaw’s painting of the street in 1882.

One of its customers was the eponymous brewer, who went to see his bank manager for a loan for a new vat.

The loan ledger is said to record that he was worried about the meeting. But Beckett’s lent him the money and the rest, of course, is history for Mr Tetley and his famous beer.

I wrote that in those days, security was not of the essence when it came to lending.

Instead, bank managers were more interested in whether a man was honest, knowledgeable about his trade and hard-working.

Not quite so, said Martin Allison, a former high-flyer at the Royal Bank of Scotland who spent some formative years in the NatWest building in Park Row known as Beckett’s Branch.

He insisted that the loan to Mr Tetley must have been secured against land and property, otherwise it wouldn’t have gone ahead.

Perhaps, suggested Mr Allison, the bank already had security from Mr Tetley from a previous loan.

Maybe, but without the loan book it would be hard to say. Perhaps someone from the RBS archive could dig out the old ledger and clear this up?

The old Beckett’s Branch was certainly a sight to behold, but this doesn’t seem to have deterred the owners who smashed it down to make way for something new in the 1960s, I think.

Leeds Building Society chairman Robin Smith, whose father worked in the building in the 1950s, said: “The building was much praised by the cognoscenti, including Sir John Betjeman, who fought a long but ultimately unsuccessful battle to preserve it from demolition.”

By then, the bank was under new ownership, having been taken over by Westminster Bank in the 1920s. Westminster merged with National Provincial in 1968 to create NatWest, now part of RBS.

Martin Vallence, the Yorkshire retailer who became known to millions through his TV advertising campaigns, made contact with me to share his recollections of the building and its demise.

He said: “I was no connoisseur of architecture but that banking hall left an indelible impression on me, it was magnificent. What a terrible shame it has gone.”

The old Beckett’s Branch building may be lost, but its replacement still stands in Park Row. According to Martin Allison, some of the best bankers in the country have passed through that building during their careers.

While there, they were imbued with winning cultures and values of traditional banking, said Mr Allison, who made it clear that wasn’t talking about investment bankers.

He also revealed that it was once one of the top three best-performing branches in the country.

Its doubly sad, then, that with all this rich heritage, the banking sector in this part of the world feels more like part of a back office for decisions taken elsewhere than a genuine leader these days.

I CAUGHT up with the newish deputy director general of the CBI last week.

Neil Bentley was in Leeds for a private dinner with business leaders, hosted by law firm Gordons.

He told me that the CBI is very concerned about the lack of skills in the UK workforce.

Dr Bentley said: “We know that when we get back to growth, skills shortages are going to be what hampers growth and productivity improvements.”

He added that every company he spoke to during his visit to Yorkshire mentioned apprenticeship schemes. To help the private sector, he said Government must reduce red tape on these schemes so more SMEs can take on more apprentices.

After our interview, I asked him if he thought the CBI had lost any of its influence with the departure of its former director general, Sir Richard Lambert.

Dr Bentley said: “No. We are having a lot of influence from the energy debate to the public service debate. We are seeing all of the Cabinet and the Chancellor regularly and are in regular contact with Number 10. Our influence remains as strong as it ever was.”

That said, he was careful to avoid any substantial criticism of Government policies during our interview, unlike Sir Richard who used his valedictory speech to blast the coalition for its lack of strategic thinking.