One bank …… a tile shop ….. Café Nero ..... and a block of flats ….. the new Four Banks

So as everyone will remember there was a Chorlton discussion on retaining the name the Four Banks for the junction of Barlow Moor and Wilbraham Roads.

The planners preferred name of Chorlton Cross was and is unloved and unused. The historic name of Kemp’s Corner has all but passed out of living memory as has the previous Bank Square.

And like these two earlier names the Four Banks arose out of the everyday experience of those who lived in Chorlton.

In the first half of the last century, Kemp’s Corner made perfect sense because of Harry Kemp’s Chemist shop with its big clock which made it the commonly accepted meeting spot in Chorlton before the age of the mobile.

And likewise if you have a bank on each corner, then the Four Banks, or Four Bank Corner makes equal sense.

But the days of suburban banks is going, and Chorlton is no exception.

So, the news of planning applications for a set of apartments and shops on the site of the old HSBC and a Café Nero in the former Santander Bank offers up challenges for new names.

We shall see.

Location; Chorlton

Pictures; Chorlton former banks, 2022, from the collection of Andrew Simpson