Visiting the Bank of England Museum
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When we visited the City of London in the Easter holidays, the Bank of England Museum was one of the top places we wanted to visit. It’s somewhere Dave had visited as a child and somewhere that we had just not yet got around to visiting. So we made sure to add it into our plans.
Where is the Bank of England Museum?
The Bank of England Museum is situated in the Bank of England, with the entrance tucked around the side of the building. Thanks to the fantastic transport system in London, the Bank of England Museum is easily accessible, being just a stones throw from Bank underground station and a short stroll from Mansion House. It’s in a really historic part of London and a great addition to any day out in the city.
What is the Bank of England Museum?
The Bank of England Museum is a free to visit museum, dedicated to the history of the Bank of England and the role that the Bank of England plays in the economy today.
Visiting the Bank of England Museum
When we visited the Bank of England Museum we were blown away by the architecture. The building is incredible. The rooms are vast and the domed ceilings really are a sight to behold.
On entering the museum you have to go through a simple airport style security process before moving into the first museum exhibition room. You then work through on a one way system style route, taking in everything the Bank of England Museum has on display.
Our visit started with the Stock Office which shows what the inside of the Bank of England would have looked like 200 hundred years ago. This was home to the museum shop and seating to take a load off – which was made of old bank notes! This was pretty cool.
The Stock Office was also where the exhibitions started and we went straight into learning about the transformation of the current Bank of England building over the last century. It showed the City of London’s most iconic buildings from the ancient archaeology beneath the site to the intricate sculptures on top and everything in between. The drawings and displays are wonderful to explore.
There’s a large artworks collection in the Bank of England Museum which includes paintings, drawings and prints, showing the Bank of England’s buildings, London landscapes, and portraits of staff which have been collected over many years.
One of our favourite parts of the museum was the Rotunda, a glorious, light filled room full of lots of little displays to look at and enjoy. This was where we found the gold bars – and even had a chance to lift one! It was definitely heavier than we expected!
The museum has a vast banknotes collection however this was closed for a school visit during our trip. We did get to see many examples of notes and coins throughout the other displays though so don’t be disheartened if you end up visiting at the same time as a school trip too!
The Bank of England Museum taught us about what the Bank of England does and how it affects us as individuals. There were enough hands on exhibits to keep the children entertained and engaged and the whole trip only took an hour or so – it’s not a long, heavy museum visit, more of a short, educational one that the whole family will enjoy.
The Bank of England Museum is only open Monday to Friday – 10am to 5pm. It basically operates on banking hours, being closed Bank Holidays and weekends. However, it does also open for Museum Lates every third Thursday of the month, until 8pm.
We had a great time at the Bank of England Museum and are so glad we finally made the time to visit. If you are looking for something different to do in London for free, then the Bank of England Museum is well worth a visit.
You can find out more about the Bank of England Museum over on their website and for reference the address is: Bartholomew Lane, London EC2R 8AH
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