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Review: Bank of England Museum
The Bank of England stands behind high walls in the City of London and is often ignored by visitors, however it has a fascinating history. The Bank of England has played a unique role in British history for over 300 years, it is the central bank of the United Kingdom which was established in 1694. The bank also plays an important role in setting monetary policy and has a monopoly on the issue of banknotes in England and Wales and regulates the issue of banknotes by banks in Scotland and Northern Ireland.
To find out more about the bank, visitors can enter The Bank of England Museum which has a selection of displays and exhibits which cover the history of the Bank, its buildings, and the role the bank has played more than 300 years.
The first room is The Stock Office which is a reconstruction of one of the bank’s eighteenth-century offices built by Sir John Soane, who was the Bank’s architect from 1788 to 1833.
Displays show how the bank is involved in monetary policy, tries to ensure financial stability by identifying and monitoring risks in the financial system and looks at the Bank of England’s architecture from Sir John Soane to Herbert Baker who rebuilt and expanded the Bank in the 1930s. The current bank building has seven floors above ground and three floors below.
The next section entitled The Early Years 1694 – 1800 explores the first 100 or so years of the Bank of England. The bank was created as a response to the need to raise money at the time of war with France. The Bank was located in rented buildings for its first 40 years, but moved to Threadneedle Street in 1734.
One of the oldest pieces of furniture in the Bank, dating from approximately 1700 is a great iron chest that was the forerunners of modern safes. Visitors can also see a £1 million pound note used for internal accounting in the 18th century. It was in the 18th century that The Bank of England’s got its famous nickname, ‘The Old Lady of Threadneedle Street’, which originated from a 1797 cartoon by the satirist James Gillray.
The centre of the museum is the The Rotunda which features displays for the period 1800 to 1946. The statues around the Rotunda, called caryatids, were original features of Sir John Soane’s bank. They were salvaged for use in the new building.
The bank played an important role during the interwar years, managing the country’s gold and foreign exchange reserves and operating monetary policy, this was formalised when the bank was nationalised in 1946.
A remarkable little known fact is that The Bank of England stores around 400,000 gold bars in its vaults. The gold stored in the vaults doesn’t actually belong to the Bank of England. Instead, the Bank stores gold on behalf of the UK Treasury, other governments and central banks around the world, and many other financial institutions.
If you have ever wondered what it is like to handle genuine bar of gold, you can with a bar weighing 13kg (28lb) available for visitors to lift up in a small box.
The Banknote Gallery looks at the origins of paper money in ancient China and how banknotes have changed from the seventeenth century to the present day. The problem with forgeries is discussed and you can look at the complex designs that make modern banknotes more difficult to counterfeit. There is a section on the cutting-edge technology used to create the Bank of England’s newest polymer banknotes.
As well as the permanent displays, the museum has a series of temporary exhibitions taking place throughout the year.
The Bank of England Museum is located within the Bank of England itself and is a fascinating look at this often mysterious institution. The museum is relatively small but full of interesting exhibits which provide some background to the role of the bank in the past and in the modern world.
Admission is free, but all visitors will need to go through airport style security to enter the museum, the museum entrance is on Bartholomew Lane.
Visiting London Guide Rating – Highly Recommended
For more information and tickets, visit the Bank of England website here
London Visitors is the official blog for the Visiting London Guide .com website. The website was developed to bring practical advice and latest up to date news and reviews of events in London.
Since our launch in January 2014, we have attracted thousands of readers each month, the site is constantly updated.
We have sections on Museums and Art Galleries, Transport, Food and Drink, Places to Stay, Security, Music, Sport, Books and many more.
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The Banknote Gallery at The Bank of England Museum opens 7th September 2016
The Bank of England Museum opens a new gallery on the 7th September 2016 that tells the story of the banknote from Ming dynasty paper money to the new polymer £5 note which is packed with security features, historically significant designs and printed on polymer rather than paper.
The origin of banknotes was in Ming dynasty China and the gallery features some of the earliest paper notes from China and the ‘running cash’ notes used as payment in place of a pile of gold. The Bank of England started to issue banknotes in 1694 and some of the earliest Bank of England notes are on view with other classic designs like the ‘white fiver’ which lasted for 100 years.
As soon as banknotes appeared, so did forgeries and the Bank of England has undertaken a constant battle to stay ahead of forgers, even some the simple black and white notes of the 18th century contained security features, complex watermarks and secret marks that helped Bank clerks identify genuine notes from forgeries. In the 18th and 19th centuries, forgers faced the death penalty if caught, the harsh punishments may have been a deterrent to many but there were criminals who would take the risk for the potential high rewards. On a completely different level were the notes which are evidence of Operation Bernhard, the Nazi plan to flood and ruin the economy of the British Empire during the Second World War. The notes were intended to be dropped by plane over Britain to be used by members of the public. While this never happened, the Bank was forced to withdraw all notes over £5 and re-design the £5 note after forgeries began to appear.
The gallery includes some of the intricate original design artwork, much never previously displayed, which illustrates the complete process of creating a note. This includes material by Banknote designers including Daniel Maclise, Harry Eccleston, Stephen Gooden and Roger Withington with initial design sketches, detailed master drawings, test prints and printing plates for scores of different notes.
In the gallery is a historic piece of design machinery called a geometric chuck lathe, it was built-in 1905 and was in use until the 1980s, the machine created the ‘Spirograph’ patterns that decorated the Series A (1928) and Series C (1960s) banknotes. A combination of art and mathematics, the lathe generated an almost infinite number of complex patterns, virtually impossible to copy exactly, either by hand or machine.
The Bank of England’s newest note, the polymer £5 is considered the most sophisticated Bank of England note ever designed, its thin plastic material also makes it stronger, safer and cleaner. Its design are a see-through window, a gold and silver Elizabeth Tower and a portrait of Winston Churchill. The new £5 will be followed in summer 2017 by a polymer £10 note featuring Jane Austen and, by 2020, a polymer £20 note featuring JMW Turner.
The new gallery is a good example of how everyday objects like paper money have a fascinating and complex history. When paper money was introduced to the public in 1690s, the reaction was not positive and people preferred the security of gold and silver. In the modern world it is so much part of everyday life that no one questions its use. The gallery is part of the small Bank of England Museum which has free admission and has a series of galleries that tells the story of one of Britain’s most important institutions..
Entrance: Bartholomew Lane (off Threadneedle Street), London EC2R 8AH
Opening hours: Monday-Friday: 10am-5pm (last entry 4.30pm).
Closed Public and Bank Holidays and weekends.
Visiting London Guide Rating – Highly Recommended
If you would like further information about the exhibition, visit the Bank of England website here
London Visitors is the official blog for the Visiting London Guide .com website. The website was developed to bring practical advice and latest up to date news and reviews of events in London.
Since our launch in January 2014 , we have attracted thousands of readers each month, the site is constantly updated.
We have sections on Museums and Art Galleries, Transport, Food and Drink, Places to Stay, Security, Music, Sport, Books and many more.
There are also hundreds of links to interesting articles on our blog.
To find out more visit the website here
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