The Bank of England has its own museum, who knew! You did? Well ok, well done you, but I didn’t. Fear not, I do now and I’m going to share my visit with you in the hopes that when you’re next in London and have a free hour or so, you will take a look…
Did I mention its FREE? A bank not charging for something – wowee! Advanced warning, as its housed in the actual Bank of England building, you will have to remove watches, belts etc., put your bags through an x-ray machine and walk through a security gate – a bit like at the airport, but with no holiday at the end. All very friendly though and in the most beautiful room, and then you are free to roam.
Housed in one of its old rooms, the stock office, it still has some lovely original features including the old desks and oil lights they would have worked under, now of course electric.
Fascinating exhibitions throughout the rooms, including the history of the building and some old photographs.
DID YOU KNOW
The Bank of England originally operated out of rented premises and moved to this building in 1734, the first purpose-built bank in England.
There were some great information panels, one in particular caught my eye as it gave a really simple way of explaining what inflation is.
There were iPads in the first room you enter where you could take a virtual tour of the whole building and find out some really interesting facts like…
You can also read about the design of the new £1 coin and how it’s the most secure coin in the world and find out about some of the banks earliest and most famous customers; Charles Dickens and the artist JMW Turner to name a couple.
One of their most famous employees, who started there as a junior clerk and rose to Secretary, was Kenneth Grahame, who wrote ‘The Wind in the Willows’ during his time working there (though not ‘on the job’ I am sure!)
You can even touch a real gold bar! I didn’t get any photos of this as you weren’t allowed and there was CCTV everywhere! But it did show you photos of the vaults there and some video footage – rooms piled high and filled with gold bars. It looked like it does in the movies!
Another great find in London and a bit different from all the other fabulous free museums there. Lots for kids to get involved with and easy to find. Only about 5 minutes’ walk from ‘Bank’ tube station (of course!) and perfect to combine with the London Mithraeum I’ve blogged about here.
I hope you remember to visit when you are next in London and enjoy!
One (wo)man and her (cara)van 