Bank of England Museum, London

What can you expect from a late opening of the Bank of England Museum? A lot of learning about money and the economy, with a healthy dose of history and some architecture!

The Bank of England Museum

The Salterton Arts Review maintains a list of all the museums and heritage spots in London we haven’t yet been to. As you can imagine, it’s still rather a long list. But one of the oldest entries on there was the Bank of England Museum. It’s free to enter, and centrally located – why hadn’t I been before now? Well, at least in part because the slightly inconvenient hours banks keep seem to extend to this museum, too. Unless you want to take time off work to visit between 10-5 Monday to Friday, you need to wait for their late opening the third Thursday of every month. I finally managed this recently around my busy theatre schedule!

Once you manage to find a time to visit, what can you expect from the Bank of England Museum? Quite a lot of information, actually. The museum’s collection includes objects going right back to the bank’s founding in 1694. And the ground they cover using these objects is vast. Topics include:

• The history of the Bank of England as an institution
• The history of the Bank of England’s buildings including this one on Threadneedle Street
• How money functions in the economy, and basic financial literacy
• How the Bank of England tries to fulfil its mission of promoting monetary and financial stability
• How banknotes are printed and counterfeits identified and prevented
• Subtopics, for instance the Bank of England during wartime, military protection, the gold vault, famous bank employees, the inclusion of women in the bank’s workforce
• Special exhibitions: for instance when I visited there was an exhibition on ‘Pardner Hand‘ – a Caribbean answer to banking exclusion through community savings schemes

Quite a lot to take in! So let’s now get a quick overview to set the scene, before we look at the museum visiting experience.

A Quick History of the Bank of England

A central bank is one of those things that seems so obvious you forget someone had to invent it. But invent it they did. In the 1690s, in fact, in response to England losing the Battle of Beachy Head to France, and being unable to build a stronger navy due to lack of funds and credit. The first iteration of the Bank of England was a private body that raised these funds for the government through subscription. They received a Royal Charter in 1694.

The Bank of England has been in the City of London since its founding. It operated first from Mercers’ Hall on Cheapside, and then Grocers’ Hall on Poultry. In 1734 the bank moved to its current location in Threadneedle Street. Or part of its current location: starting with the former house and gardens of first Governor of the Bank of England, Sir John Houblon, and expanding piecemeal until it occupied the current site. This included knocking down the church of St Christopher le Stocks, made easier after people climbed the church to throw missiles into the bank during the Gordon Riots.

Although Sir John Soane is the most famous architect associated with the Bank of England, the bank’s architectural history surprised me during my visit. The early architects were George Sampson and Robert Taylor. They knitted together a cohesive building from piecemeal plots. Soane took over in 1788. He went further, expanding and partially rebuilding the bank, as well as adding the famous exterior wall which includes a temple after the Roman Temple of Vesta. But much of the Bank of England today isn’t Soane’s work (this was the surprising part). Between 1925 and 1939 Herbert Baker undertook an expansive rebuilding project to meet the needs of a larger workforce. Much of Soane’s work was demolished and rebuilt rather than being retained. Baker’s expanded bank added floors both above and below ground.

Similarly, the work of the Bank of England has changed considerably over the years. From early government fundraising, they quickly began taking deposits, issuing banknotes, and mortgage lending. Over the years the Bank of England has undertaken private and personal banking, managed government stocks, hosted a stock exchange trading floor, and more. In the 20th and 21st centuries the Bank of England has focused more on its role as a central bank, moving away from commercial banking. It was nationalised in 1946, and granted operational independence over monetary policy in 1997. That’s a fancy way of saying it’s linked to, but independent from, the government on things like interest rates.

Visiting the Bank of England Museum

Hopefully I explained all that clearly enough that you got an overview of the work and home of the Bank of England. That is but a minute sample of the information you get if you visit. There is so much information here, on so many different topics, that you could visit a dozen times and still be learning things. But let’s go back just a smidge and find out a little about the Bank of England’s museum.

As you can imagine, the Bank of England has long had a collection of its own. Until fairly recently, you had to make an appointment to view it in a small display area. In the 1980s, ahead of the bank’s 400th birthday, plans began for a publicly accessible museum. A fire in 1986 proved an opportunity to get to work even sooner, and the museum opened in 1988. It covers two key spaces on the Bartholomew Lane side of the site: a reconstruction of Soane’s 18th century Stock Office, and the refurbished rotunda.

You enter, after a brief security check, into the Stock Office. The architecture is familiar for those who have visited other buildings by Soane. This large, open space is where holders of bank stocks would come to collect their dividends on appointed days. Signs above the different counters indicate different services. This is where the museum’s shop is, as well as a history of the bank’s architecture and some introductory material about monetary policy.

Then, heading towards the rotunda, you encounter different galleries organised by theme. There’s the founding of the bank and the bank’s early years. The rotunda itself is a blend of topics linked to financial literacy and all of the different historic footnotes that don’t have a home elsewhere. Off the rotunda is a gallery about banknotes. And heading back towards the Stock Office you learn about the modern economy, including connections to topics like COVID-19 or sustainability.

Should I Visit?

Firstly I would say, as it’s a free museum and covers some interesting ground, why not? Don’t take any time off work though just yet. Much better if you can manage one of the late evenings, which often have additional talks on specialist subjects.

My overall impression of the Bank of England Museum was one of information overload. I think this comes down to the breadth of what it’s attempting to do. In a nutshell, that is to cater to all audiences. Whether you’re a City worker who’s an expert in finance, or a school pupil learning for the first time about the economy, there’s something for you. Whether you’re a feminist, military enthusiast, or attracted by the lustre of gold, there’s something for you. Even fans of The Wind in the Willows are catered to. In a relatively small exhibition space, this can easily become overwhelming.

So I stopped trying to take it all in, and just focused on what was most interesting to me. I liked the architectural history, for instance. And perhaps my key takeaway fact is that the designs on banknotes are basically done by an immense and complicated spirograph. That’s the one thing, anyway, that I went to find the Urban Geographer and tell him about. He, as more of a serious economic type, was less enthused by that than I was.

Ultimately, the fact that there is something for everyone probably means there’s something for you, too. So why not take the opportunity to learn more about the Bank of England’s role in our economy and society? Perhaps you, like me, had always wondered what’s behind that big, forbidding wall.

Salterton Arts Review’s rating: 3/5