Palatine
Bank - Brown Street & Norfolk Street
![]() At the corner of Norfolk Street
and Brown Street stands the very sturdy looking
Palatine Bank building. It was built in 1908 - 1909
by Briggs, Wolstenholme & Thornley. A large
circular tower dominates the corner above a three
arched entrance. It has the appearance of a Scottish
castle.
![]() As with many of the banks that commissioned buildings
in Manchester's financial district, the Palatine is no
longer trading independently. It was amalgamated into
Barclay's Bank in 1919. The Barclay's website
explains that, "... Palatine Bank
was founded by a group of Manchester businessmen
'as a means of counteracting the increasing
tendency to bank mergers and consequent migration
of their control to London,' and was incorporated
on 30 August 1899 with an office at Cross Street.
It soon opened branches in Oldham, Shaw and
Rochdale, followed by smaller branches in the
southern suburbs of Manchester. A new head office
was erected at Brown Street in 1910. When the
amalgamation with the Bank of Liverpool and
Martins was agreed in 1919, by which time deposits
totalled £1m, the Palatine's directors made it
conditional on the establishment of a Manchester
local board." ************************* The building hasn't been home to a
bank of any kind for some time. I took the
images directly above and below in 2015 at which time
the building was occupied, I suspect as an office
building. ![]()
The images below were taken in
November 2007.
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