Personal Recollections of Birmingham and Birmingham MenEdwards, Eliezer
History
Personal Recollections of Birmingham and Birmingham Men
Edwards, Eliezer
Birmingham (England)
Captain Nichols was succeeded by Captain Tindal, brother of the
illustrious jurist, Lord Chief Justice Tindal. During this gentleman's
tenure of office the business was removed to the premises in Bennetts
Hill, vacated by the unfortunate "Bank of Birmingham," of which more
hereafter. Here the business has ever since been conducted.
Captain Tindal was a good man of business, and under his management
the bank was very prosperous. He was a man of highly-cultivated mind.
He took a very active interest in all local matters connected with
literature and art, and he was a very liberal patron of the drama.
Those who had the pleasure of being present at the pleasant _soirees_
at his house, to which he was accustomed to invite the literary and
artistic notabilities of the neighbourhood, will not easily forget how
pleasantly the evenings passed; how everyone enjoyed the charades
and theatricals which were so excellently managed by the gifted
Miss Keating, then a governess in the family; how, too, everyone was
charmed with the original and convenient arrangement for supplying
visitors with refreshments. Instead of the conventional "sit-down
suppers" of those days, Captain Tindal had refreshment counters and
occasional tables dotted here and there, so that his friends took what
they pleased, at the time most convenient to themselves. One room was
very popular. Within its hospitable portals, hungry bipeds of the male
persuasion were supplied, to their intense satisfaction, with abundant
oysters, and unlimited foaming Dublin stout. Oysters were then five
shillings the barrel of ten dozens! _Tempora mutantur; spero meliora!_
It was a great loss to social and artistic Birmingham when Captain
Tindal was removed to London, twenty-one years ago. The Bank of
England opened a "West End" branch in Burlington Gardens, London,
and the Captain was appointed its first manager. This new branch was
opened October 1st, 1856. The resolution of the Board of Directors to
appoint Mr. Tindal to this position seems to have been taken suddenly,
for Mr. Chippindale, who had been sub-manager for some years, and was
now placed at the head of the Birmingham branch, did not know of it
until he was informed of his appointment by a customer of the bank.
This gentleman, who was a merchant in the town, tells me that he "was
the first to tell him of it. He said it was not true, and he must go
out and contradict it. I told him I _knew_ it _was_ true, but even
then he was incredulous." Mr. Chippindale has recently retired, and
has been succeeded by Mr. F.F. Barham.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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