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."

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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.


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The images below were taken in November 2007.