Bank of England Museum
Free, focused, and much more fun than you think. In under an hour you’ll lift a real ~13 kg gold bar (through a secure hatch), meet famous banknotes, and see how the ‘Old Lady of Threadneedle Street’ steers inflation, interest rates and crisis response. Good labels, plenty of interactives, and a neat thread from 1694 founding to today’s polymer notes. Drop in on a City wander; no booking needed.
Opening Hours
What's not to miss inside?
The Gold Bar
Weight of value, literallyA standard bar weighs around 12–13 kg—heavy enough to reset your idea of ‘portable wealth’.
📍 Central gallery, ‘gold’ section
Old Lady of Threadneedle Street
How a nickname became a personaA 1797 satirical print personified the Bank to scold its policies; the ‘Old Lady’ stuck for centuries.
📍 Foundations & cartoons corner
Banknotes & Counterfeits
Art, paper and national trustFrom hand-signed paper to polymer windows and micro-letters, design arms race vs. forgers.
📍 Note design displays
Soane’s Bank
Britain’s most influential ‘lost’ buildingSir John Soane’s windowless perimeter and luminous top-lit halls invented a new bank architecture.
📍 Architecture & archive section
Inspire your Friends
- During WWII, the Bank hid art treasures (including the National Gallery’s) in subterranean vaults—and quietly managed Britain’s gold transfers across the Atlantic.
- Nazi ‘Operation Bernhard’ forged millions in high-quality £5 notes; design tweaks and serial tracking helped the Bank outpace the hoard.
- Every Bank of England note carries the printed signature of the Chief Cashier—spot how the autograph changes across decades.
- The City sits above one of the world’s largest gold reserves—the Bank holds more than just Britain’s, storing bullion for other countries and institutions.
