Bank of England Museum

Website: http://www.bankofengland.co.uk/education/museum

Today I visited the Bank of England Museum on Threadneedle Street in the heart of the City of London. This museum is only open on weekdays so it's taken me a while to fit in a visit.

I didn't know where to go so ended up asking in the actual Bank of England. The doormen politely directed me around the corner to the actual museum. After a security check I picked up a guide pamphlet and set off.

The first stop was a surreal room that was made to look like the original Bank of England banking room from the 1800s. This included wooden counters and original decorations on the walls. The surreal thing was that in the centre of the room was a very modern exhibition about inflation called "The Pound in Your Pocket". Not sure where to start I read a few bits and pieces and tried to better understand inflation. Since 1992 one of the Bank of England's main jobs has been to keep inflation at 2%. They've had mixed success at this and the exhibition was heavily slanted towards explaining how difficult this task is.

At the side of the room were display cases exhibiting original, mint condition, coins from the last few hundred years. These included some from Queen Victoria:The exhibitions in the museum were arranged in chronological order but it was difficult to tell where to go to follow it in the right order. I took the next section in reverse. I learned all about the modern security measures in bank notes. I was impressed to use their testing equipment to see an ultra-violet "20" on the £20 note I had with me. From a computerised display I learned all about inflation and the difficulties it can cause if it's too high or too low. I also saw a printing press for bank notes: The next stop was a circular room which described the history of the Bank of England from the 1800s to the 20th century. I was lucky enough to follow it in the right order and found it all very interesting. I learned all about the Gold Standard (when the value of UK pounds was linked directly to a certain amount of gold in the Bank of England's vaults), as well as the financial turmoil caused by the first and second World Wars. Gradually it was explained how the current Bank of England emerged in the form it is today.

In the centre of the room was a collection of portraits of the Queen that have adorned bank notes over the past few decades. There was also a real bar of gold! This was in a plastic box and you could reach your hand in and lift it up. I have never held a bar of gold before and really had to struggle to lift it - it was very heavy! It was worth around £315,000.

After the round room I reached another room about the history of bank notes. This explained that they started as notes explaining how much gold you were entitled to from the vaults. If there were big disasters there'd be a run on gold - everyone would cash in their notes and get gold instead. The modern bank notes have evolved from those and no longer entitle the bearer to any gold unfortunately!After that I retraced my steps to the room I should have gone in first. This contained the early history of the Bank of England. I also came across the line-portraits that appear on current bank notes:
I emerged from the museum knowing a lot more about currency, money and central banks.

Summary: Interesting museum if you can make it on a weekday.