LIKE A BATTLESHIP.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume XLVII, Issue 10805, 28 December 1926, Page 6

LIKE A BATTLESHIP.

MIDLAND BANK, LONDON

IMPREGNABLE BY BURGLARS. Devices to make the building the most burglar-proof bank in the world are being used in the construction of the new headquarters of the Midland Bank in the City of London. The-bank is to be armoured almost like a battleship. Tons of iron, concrete, and steel plates will encase it to prevent burglars from burrowing their way to the strongrooms. It will me five years before the building is completed, and it will not only be the safest, but one of the most imposing in the city. It is to be a great palace in white stone, crowned by a cupola. It has been designed by Sir Edward Lutyens, the architect who planned Delhi, and who designed the cenotaph. -v Special marble, with a beautiful lustre, is being brought from East Africa for the pillars in the central hall. Adam ceilings from the recently demolished Devonshire House have been purchased for the hoard room. With the exception of the Bank of England, it will be the biggest bank building in the world. The site covers an area of 35,000 square feet. The estimated cost of the building is about £2,450,000. Two of the nine floors are being devoted almost entirely to strong rooms, and they will be the strongest strong rooms that have ever been built. The doors alone will weigh about seven tons, and will require from four to six keys to open—although each will have one master key for use in case of emergency. The master keys will be kept in some secret place. The strong rooms, like the. outer walls and the basement of the bank, will be entirely cased in ferroconcrete about 18in. thick, and a special steel plate three-quarters of an inch thick. Workmen are busy om the shell of the first two sections of the- great building, putting on the ferro-concrete armour. Mattresses of five layers of iron hoops have been placed in position and filled with concrete. Inside the ferro-concrete wall is to be a sheet of steel specially prepared to resist the heat of an oxy-acetylene blowpipe.

This steel contains a magnesium compound, and when attacked by a flame would throw out such a shower of sparks as would drive a- burglar away. But even if the burglar were protected by a suit o-f steel his efforts would be of no avail. . . A special electrical apparatus is being installed, which would cause a powerful burglar alarm to be_ rung if any attempt were made to pierce the steel shield. This alarm will be automatically set by the closing of the strong room doors. Other alarms, one of which is to be a great chime which will _ resound through the city, will be set in motion ■if anybody interferes with the strong room doors. Some of these doors are being specially constructed so that they can be opened only at a certain hour of the day, and only for a brief period. 1 One of the biggest French banks recently sent engineers to London to specially report on the wofrk, and it is said that they were greatly impressed, and material.