In November 1936 the Court of the Bank discussed the report of a recent visit to the Birmingham Branch made by two Directors, Arthur Whitworth and James Weir, which from unfavourable comment on the Birmingham premises moved to consideration of the possibility of a rebuilding scheme for all the Branches, and, more radically, questioned whether there was really any need for Country Branches at all. At this date the Bank had nine Branches, eight in the provinces and one adjacent to the Law Courts in the Strand; a second London Branch, Western Branch in Burlington Gardens, had been sold to the Royal Bank of Scotland in 1930. Branch activity had been gradually eroded by the Bank's disinclination, since the First World War, to compete for local business with the clearing banks. Messrs Whitworth and Weir were not the first to comment on the costs of maintaining considerable numbers of staff in large and in many cases quite unsuitable buildings: the Economy Committee of 1933 had been critical of the expense of the Branches and the Directors' report crystallised misgivings which the Deputy Governor, B.G. Catterns, had felt for some time.