MONEY STRONGHOLD

Greymouth Evening Star, 28 March 1930, Page 9

MONEY STRONGHOLD

FEATURES OF NEW BANK LONDON, January 26. { An artificially sunlit basement, where ledger clerks will work in sum--1 mer radiance; a telewriter system, by which messages will be automatically reproduced in facsimile in anothei pait of the building; central heating by the use of fuel oil; and seventeen strongroom doors, each weighing fifteen tons, which can be moved by a touch, ! are features of the new Lloyds Bank headquarters which are nearing completion in Cornhill. Tho room to be flooded with artificial sunlight during working hours is an experimental room under pavement level and adjoining one of the strong rooms. A series of wall panels, covered by special glass panes, are illuminated to give the impression of a summer morning’s light. Here the ledger clerks will be connected with the officials on the eight upper’ floors of the building by the telewriter system. A director on the sixth floor or a cashier in the central marble hall can casually scribble an inquiry on an innocent-looking pad on his desk, and immediate reproduction of the message is. secured in the sunlit basement. The reply written in the basement is similarly reproduced on the pad of the inquirer. Unlike most City buildings the new premises contain no fireplaces, no radiators, and no fire-fighting sprinkling apparatus. The fireproof building is padded with a non-combustible species of coarse prairie grass. Special precautions have been taken from basement to .roof to insulate every room against sound and cold. The heated air will be drawn by suction from the roof of the building and, after cleansing in a basement chamber, will re-ascend to form a constant current of even temperature. The modern stoker will merely turn oil fuel taps to feed the boilers.

Most of the strong-room doors, which are wrought of a special steel manufactured by a secret process, are three feet thick. They are suspended so delicately that workmen passing along the narrow corridors are able to move them with comparative ease. The strong-rooms, which occupy portions of two basement floors, have no windows, but are well ventilated and kept at an even temperature. Four years will have elapsed since demolition was commenced on the site and the occupation of the premises by the Bank in July of this year.