See better days and do better things ......... out on Great Ducie Street with the the William Deacons’s Bank

Now Great Ducie Street is not somewhere I have been for a very long time and like Andy I wondered on what this building had once been.

Great Ducie Street, 2016

Andy wrote that “this is a building I missed 12 months ago when it was MOT/service time, probably because
I was walking too near it. It is one of the more interesting buildings still left in the area and
as per usual I assumed it was an old pub.”

But not content with leaving it there he went looking in the Manchester’s digital archive and discovered that back in 1964 it was once a branch of Williams Decaon’s Bank.

Great Ducie Street, 1964

At which point I could launch into a history of the bank but will just point out that in various forms it dates back to the 18th century was various acquired by the Manchester & Salford Bank in the 19th century by the Royal Bank of Scotland into the 20th.

It was proudly cashing the cheques and looking after the accounts of local people in 1911 when its neighbour through that big arch was Arnold Henry Vernon, artificial teeth manufacturer which I reckon is as good a business as any.

By 1964 despite the open land to south of the building I have no idea if artificial teeth still left by van under that arch but during the last decade it has been a series of car wash operations.

Of course as ever there will be someone who can supply the answers.

Location; Manchester

Picture; Great Ducie Street, 2016 from the collection of Andy Robertson and in 1964, G Gray, m02027/8, courtesy of Manchester Libraries, Information and Archives, Manchester City Council, http://images.manchester.gov.uk/index.php?session=pass