Here is a short piece of history attached to the now demolished Mariner House at Pepys Street, London EC3.

May 9th 2011

In late 1972 I was working for NatWest Bank in Leicester and as Access cards were being launched, the Bank called for volunteers to help handle the expected deluge of paperwork associated with this first real alternative to the Barclaycard. This was a joint project by Natwest, Midland, Lloyds and RBS. Being 18 at that time and up for anything, I volunteered.

A group of about 30 of us were housed at the now also demolished London Park Hotel at the Elephant and Castle and we tubed in daily to Mariner House. At the time owned by Midland Bank, it was offered as joint premises for this project.

As for the 'expected paperwork' - deluge didn't begin to describe it ... nowadays we'd call it a tsunami, about 5,000 applications a day poured in and we rapidly drafted in more volunteers, progressively cutting corners off the application process.

Although it was frantic work, we all thoroughly enjoyed being let loose on London at the Bank's expense, for most of us this was a totally new experience. I was sorry when the project wrapped up in early 1973.

I have some photos of some of the people I worked with - these are up the attic - I'll dig them out later and see if I can remember any of the names.

Mariner House was a good place to work, being at the time relatively new. I dropped by to see it again in May 2006 - as the photos here show - but was astonished to see on Google Earth Street view today that it's gone.

Probably of no interest to anyone except those who knew it!

But the building played a very important role in the launch of Access cards, and it was a good experience to have been there.

RIP.

From Alan Martin, Director, Pepys Street RTM Company Limited

Thanks for the info Rob.

I’ve lived at 1 Pepys Street for nearly six years now and I have to say that I was not sorry to see Mariner House go because it was somewhat of an eye sore from our flat.

The new Mint Hotel provides a much better view! Also, Savage Gardens has been made into a pedestrian area with cherry trees and an oak tree so all very nice.

However, it was fascinating to watch the demolition and build process of the hotel for which I have a photographic record showing each stage.

Best wishes

Alan Martin

Director

Photo : Google Earth