B is for Bank

The Bank on Bridge Street viewed from Great Underbank.

The Grade II listed building was built in 1900.

According to the Barclays' Archive:

The Union Bank was established in 1836 with a capital of £6 million divided into 24,000 shares of £25 each. Although the original intention of the Union Bank was to confine itself to Manchester, after twenty years this policy was changed, and its first branch opened at Knutsford in 1856. The bank flourished with the growth of industry and acquired several smaller banks in Lancashire, Cheshire and Yorkshire. It became an affiliated bank within the Barclays Group in 1919, when 99% of its capital was acquired under an arrangement whereby Union Bank shareholders were given shares in Barclays to replace their Union Bank shares. This was Barclays' last major acquisition before the Treasury put a block on major banking mergers in 1920. The Union Bank continued to be managed and marketed separately until 1940 when it was fully absorbed into Barclays.

In recent years the building has been home to the appropriately named Bank Fashion Store.

Bank Fashion which had previously been owned by JD Sports was put into administration in January 2015. It had 84 stores of which 20 have been closed. According to a sign on the window the next nearest still trading store is in Denton.

A contribution to ABC Wednesday.

The Buck & Dog

This is the top of the doorway to the Buck & Dog.

The Buck and Dog was an old coaching inn next to Lancashire Bridge over the River Mersey. In 1770 it was the house of call for the press gangs. In the mid 1980s it was demolished along with the bridge when the river Mersey was culverted under the Merseyway Shopping Centre. The ornamental doorway was incorporated into Barclay's Bank on Percy Street.

For a wider view of the doorway see Geograph.

A contribution to The Weekend in Black and White.

Weekend in Black and White: Underbank Hall

Underbank Hall is Elizabethan, dating from the late 16th century. It was the town house of the Arderne family of Bredbury. The original house must have been larger as an inventory of 1619 lists more rooms than survive today. The hall was sold for 3,000 guineas in September 1823 to the banking firm of Christy Lloyd & Co which became the Stockport and East Cheshire Bank in the following year. In 1829, the Stockport and Cheshire Bank became part of the Manchester and Liverpool District Banking Company. By 1880 this bank had 54 branches, in Lancashire, Cheshire, Derbyshire, Staffordshire and Shropshire. The bank changed its name to the District Bank in 1924 and in 1962 was acquired by the National Provincial Bank. Then in 1970 this bank merged with the Westminster Bank to form the National Westminster Bank, which is now known simply as NatWest.

A contribution to The Weekend in Black and White.

P is for Pyramid

The "Stockport Pyramid" was designed in 1987 by Manchester architects: Michael Hyde and Associates. The building is steel framed with mostly blue glass paneling and some clear glass paneling at the apex. It was intended to be the signature building for a much bigger commercial development to be called "The Valley of the Kings". Construction began in the early 1990s with completion in 1992. However, the developers went into administration and the building lay empty for several years. In 1995 the Co-operative Bank (who funded the developers) repossessed it and opened it as a call centre for the bank. The building has since given its name to the nearby junction of the M60 motorway and the area is now commonly known as Kings Reach.

This view, taken Wednesday, 6 April, 2011 is from the old bridge crossing the river Mersey from Brinksway.

A contribution to ABC Wednesday.