I really shouldn’t have been surprised at the level of security to get into the Bank of England Museum, but I was. There are airport-style scanners through which all your stuff has to go, including anything metal, so off came the belt. This, of course, is not to protect the museum but what is housed elsewhere in the building.
Echos of Gringots
Once through security you enter the museum into a grand room which is very reminiscent of the hall where the clerks sat in Gringots bank in Harry Potter, only without the dragon…
In this room is a temporary display called “Building the Bank”. While the Bank of England was founded in 1694 and has occupied the same site since before 1792, the building in use today is only from 1925. The previous building was too small, and so a new building was built, going from what was a single-story building to seven stories. Work began in 1925 and was completed by the outbreak of the Second World War.
The story of the bank’s buildings were told though a series of pictures and descriptions which, while interesting, were a bit dry.
I want to get my hands on some gold!
The rest of the museum tells the story of the foundation of the bank and then more generic topics such as how notes are made, cryptocurrencies, and Kenneth Grahame, the author of The Wind in the Willows.
I’d never considered that Grahame might have had a day job and I certainly didn’t have him down as a Secretary of the Bank of England, one of the top three jobs at the bank. During his time there someone entered the bank wanting to speak to the Governor. Grahame intercepted him and the man attempted to shoot him three times – missing on all three attempts. No wonder Grahame took early retirement!
In one area there is a gold bar held, securely one assumes, in a box with an opening at the front where you can put your hand to try and lift the bar. Of course, what I would have liked to have seen was the 400,000 gold bars held below us. No wonder the security was so tight! The Bank of England is considered so secure that countries such as The Netherlands have moved billions in gold to London in ‘crisis preparedness’ move. Nice that the EU trusts us for some things.
The museum was an interesting visit, particularly if you are interested in money, and who isn’t?
