Don't Bank On It
I nipped down to the bank at lunchtime and was almost tempted by the gammon steaks. The bank, you will realise, no longer operates as safe haven for savings, but then, which banks do these days? No the bank in question is the former headquarters of the Caledonian Bank in Inverness. Its lower floors are now given over to one of those nondescript family pubs where every meal comes with big chips. The interior décor contains no reference to the building's former life. That's a shame, really, because we could all learn much from the story of the Caledonian.
Founded in 1836, the Caledonian Banking Company once has 20 branches along the Moray Firth and as far north as Caithness and Wester Ross. It specialised in lending money to farmers, fishermen and, well, anyone who was bored and fancied building a whisky distillery. By the end of the nineteenth century it was running into trouble and in 1907 it was taken over by the Bank of Scotland.
In case you're wondering, I got all this information from the official where it cites two reasons for the Caledonian's demise.
"Firstly, the bank's lending and investment controls were not stringent enough. Some of the famous Highland distilleries that were built around the turn of the century would not have been possible had the more stringent banking attitudes of the Edinburgh and Glasgow banks prevailed. Secondly, the failure of the Scottish India Coffee Company of Madras Province, which went into liquidation in 1902, left the Caledonian Bank with a debt of £30,000."
Seems a little ironic given , but not half as ironic as the call a colleague of mine received when he was sitting at home the other night. Apparently a nice man from HBOS came on the line and offered a personal financial audit.
"What? From you guys?" my colleague was almost tempted to say, but didn't. He's just too polite.
As for the Caledonian building itself, well, you may think me mad, but every time I look at it I'm reminded of Indiana Jones and The Last Crusade. You know that climactic scene where they meet an old Knight of the Crusades. It was filmed in the
famousy Treasury building at in Jordan.
There just something about the way the Caledonian building sits squeezed between two bland office blocks on the High Street seems just a incongruous as a temple carved out of the rock face.
What do you think?
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