Martins Bank Building

This bank building occupies the north side of Water Street and was built as the headquarters of Martins Bank between 1927 and 1932, designed by Herbert J. Rowse. Sculpture was created by Herbert Tyson Smith, assisted by Edmund Thomson and George Capstick. The building later served as a branch of Barclays Bank and was undergoing renovation in 2007.

The exterior is constructed in Portland stone on a steel frame, forming a large square block in classical style. It rises seven storeys with a mezzanine, attic, and basement, while the end bays are four storeys high. The façade is arranged in eleven bays with rusticated canted corner bays and eleven-bay returns. The ground floor is rusticated. The centre features a giant round arch with keystone and coffering, with a balcony above serving three central windows. A second entrance to the left has a cornice. Three round-arched windows to the right and one to the left are embellished with keystones and carved tympana. Arms are displayed on a flat band over the third floor, with a rich frieze and cornice above the fourth floor. A mezzanine with a Greek key band sits above this. Bronze doors feature low relief decoration.

The interior begins at the main doorway, which is flanked by identical relief sculpture panels in a flat, linear style influenced by the Paris Exhibition of 1925. These panels depict Liverpool as Neptune, accompanied by African children carrying bags of money, with an anchor and weighing-scales. Above these are grasshoppers, the sign of Martins Bank. The entrance hall frieze shows tribute bearers pouring coins into a central receptacle. The entrance hall opens into a large top-lit banking hall with vaulted arcades on four sides. The columns are hollow, threaded onto the steel frame. The walls, floor, and columns are finished in travertine. Circular corner lobbies occupy the corners, with a curved counter in the centre. Light fittings, desks, and a war memorial are housed within. Every detail of the design was overseen by Rowse.

Martins Bank has origins in the sixteenth century and is believed to have been founded by Sir Thomas Gresham—the grasshoppers at the Water Street building entrance derive from his crest. In 1918 Martins Bank was acquired by the Bank of Liverpool, with the combined entity initially called Bank of Liverpool and Martins, shortened to Martins Bank in 1928. The Bank of Liverpool had previously absorbed Heywood's Bank, which was founded by brothers Arthur and Benjamin Heywood in 1773. In 1969 Martins Bank was incorporated into Barclays Bank.

While the original Martins Bank is not known to have direct links with the slave trade, banks were inextricably linked to slavery in eighteenth-century Liverpool, supplying essential credit for a risky business offering long-term returns. The Heywood brothers, having inherited a substantial fortune, established themselves as Africa merchants and engaged in at least 125 slaving voyages.

The entrance relief sculptures have been controversial in Liverpool since the late twentieth century. Some interpret them as dignifying or accepting unquestioningly the role of slavery in Liverpool's economy, while others view them as a general celebration of Liverpool's international trade and prosperity. The selection of this subject matter during 1927–32 reflects the deep embedding of Liverpool's former involvement with the slave trade within its economic culture.