Unassuming building once home to lost Liverpool drive-in bank

A rare image captures the early days of Liverpool's now lost drive-in bank that was the first of its kind in the country. Decades before the days of online banking, the latest phenomena in the banking world was the ground-breaking Westminster Bank in Toxteth.

In the late 1950s, residents in the area and beyond had never seen anything like it and the new concept made history in the UK. Located at the junction of Upper Parliament Street and Princes Road, the bank first opened on January 29, 1959 with an official ceremony.

The following day, the ECHO reported how chief general manager of Westminster Bank, Mr A.D. Chesterfield, was the one who drove in and presented an illuminated cheque to open the first account at the branch. The article reads: "The bank was opened by the Lord Mayor of Liverpool, Alderman H Livermore, who paid tribute to the initiative of Westminster Bank Ltd.

"The new drive-in bank not only makes it easier for the motorist-customers to do his banking business; it also provides additional security, since it obviates the possibility of customers being attacked while walking with large sums of cash. The system is claimed by the bank to be gun-man proof."

The bank's first drive-in customer was Mr Edwards Elkan Mentel, aged 17, from Larkfield Road who was "determined" to make history as the first to use Westminster Bank in Toxteth. He arrived at 9am and waited for the bank to open at 10am.

The new bank enabled customers to drive straight into the new branch without getting out of their cars, cash their cheques and pay in money at one of the specially-installed windows. On February 2, 1959, the ECHO said the drive-in added to Westminster Bank's "already impressive range of services, all of them planned to help modern people cope with modern problems."

Above, you can see the advertisement attached to the February 1959 advertisement in the ECHO. But here, you can also see what the drive-in bank looked like in Toxteth in its early days.

Courtesy of Keystone and Getty Images, the images show Westminster Bank in Toxteth on February 1, 1959, just days after its official opening. In the photograph, driver Sylvia Underwood, aged 18, hands over a cheque at Britain's first drive-in bank to a member of staff through a window.

When Westminster Bank first opened, controversy also arose because a rival banking firm, Liverpool-based Martins bank, had been planning for some time to launch their own drive-through facility in Leicester, the ECHO previously reported. Certain generations in the city will remember using the drive-in bank, as well as being customers at Westminster Bank chains across the region.

The ECHO also previously reported how in 1970, the bank became known as National Westminster and closed for a period in 1981 when the bank was set on fire amidst the riots on July 6 and raised to the ground.

It was rebuilt after the riots by National Westminster bank. The building operated as a bank until 2013 and two years later, the ECHO reported how the site was set to become a funeral home, as it was sold to he Cooperative Funeral Care.

Today, the building is no longer a funeral home and many will drive past the site without knowing its fascinating history. But certain generations will remember the days of the drive-in Westminster Bank and what a novelty it was in the city and beyond.