Broad Street Head Office - the Foundation Stone ceremony The ceremony to lay the Foundation Stone for the Bank's new Head Office in Broad Street took place on Saturday, October 22nd 1932. The following photographs recorded the event, and show a group of distinguished visitors and journalists gathered to witness the ceremony. The Foundation Stone was laid close to the building's loggia, and the assembled crowd are in the Broad Street frontage area of the building site. Already visible are sections of the building's steel frame and the lower part of one of the loggia's pillars. The branch was to close for business almost exactly 66 years later: October 23rd 1998

Visitors gather for the ceremony The Lord Mayor (John Bedford Burman) addresses the assembled crowd Neville Chamberlain (immediately to the right of the steel upright) makes a speech The next speaker is the Bank's Chairman, Alderman R R Gelling Neville Chamberlain is presented with a ceremonial trowel with which to perform the laying ceremony. For many years, this trowel was displayed in a cabinet in the building's Banking Hall Neville Chamberlain with the Foundation Stone (inscription reproduced below) Neville Chamberlain (centre in top hat) is congratulated by the Bank's General Manager, J P Hilton

The foundation stone was inscribed: THE FIRST MUNICIPAL SAVINGS BANK IN GREAT BRITAIN THIS STONE WAS LAID ON OCTOBER 22nd 1932 BY THE RT. HON. NEVILLE CHAMBERLAIN, M.P. Chancellor of the Exchequer FIRST CHAIRMAN OF THE BANK BY WHOM THE IDEA WAS ORIGINALLY CONCEIVED AND WHO WAS PRINCIPALLY RESPONSIBLE FOR ITS INITIATION JOHN B BURMAN (Lord Mayor) JOHN P HILTON (General Manager)