Wealth of banks failed to stay safe

Post Office staff in a formal photograph outside St Marychurch Post Office, Torquay circa 1900

THERE was a time when banks and post offices were present on most shopping parades.

Before the “hole-in-the-wall” cash machines, they were the only way of getting money.

Like so much of the high street however, things have changed and now major towns in South Devon have neither a bank nor a dedicated post office. For people of a certain age who can’t access the internet, life has become a little more difficult.

Most of the buildings in these pictures are still intact but few are still in use as post offices or banks.

Torquay’s central post office at the top of Fleet Street survived the war, but not the changing economy, and is now a Tesco supermarket.

Just down the road the Trustees Savings Bank is now a bar.

What would the stiff-collared staff of St Marychurch post office have made of that?

Bank buildings are still recognisable because they were often built to grand designs, classical edifices or mock Tudor mansions standing out among the drab grocery shops.

They were designed to send a message to customers that their money was safe behind stout, noble walls.

But it wasn’t the walls that failed in the banking crisis of 2008 but the integrity of some of those sat behind them.