Durban - In its early days Durban had no proper banking facilities. Shops issued copper tokens and “good-fors” to customers until 1854, when the first banknotes were printed in Durban on blue paper. In that year the Natal Bank was floated, opening its first branch in Aliwal Street opposite the courthouse, which was completed in 1866.
By the late 1860s, the Durban branch had outgrown its small single-storey office. The directors purchased a new site on the corner of West and Gardiner streets and engaged Joseph Cato to design an elegant double-storey building.
In the late 1860s, a severe economic depression gripped the province, leading to most banking institutions being wound up. In 1867 even the Natal Bank tottered, but it managed to survive.
It eventually became so prosperous, it built a grand building in the Renaissance style seen in the first picture, a postcard of 1905. The statue of Queen Victoria is on the left. The Town Hall (the current post office) is obscured by the palm tree on the right. The City Hall was built in 1910.
The woman who sent the postcard to a friend in Newcastle wrote: “Don’t you think this is a nice building?”
The second photo was sent to us by Doug Gelling, a retired senior manager of First National Bank. He wrote that during World War II, the bank was largely staffed by women, as many men were on active service. Thousands of troops thronged the banking hall to draw cash, he wrote.
The Natal Bank was eventually absorbed into Barclays Bank. Considered inadequate for modern times, the building was demolished, to be replaced by an office block few would describe as a "nice" building.
The photo was shot last month by our correspondent and researcher Mark Levin.