Intrametropolitan branch banking : Ottawa, 1930-1979.

While many components of urban land-use patterns have been examined, banking has been all but ignored by geographers. This study attempts to introduce intrametropolitan branch banking to the literature of tertiary location theory. A brief history of Canadian banking is provided to Introduce the topic to geographers. This is followed by an examination of the spatial patterns of branch bank location in Ottawa between 1930 and 1979 using parallels drawn from the extensive literatijre of retail geography. While the expected spatial association between retailing and banking is established, banks are not represented in proportion to the retail importance of the centre. A brief study of consumer/bank relationships indicates that locational convenience is the most important consideration for bank selection. However, service considerations did form a considerable proportion of bank selection criteria. The major finding of the study suggests that the spatial pattern of the contemporary branch banking system is characteristic of a low order function.