Bank of England Museum
As museums go, the Bank of England’s is a bit of an odd one. To get in, the visitor goes through a bag scanner (one would have thought there would be a similar procedure on exiting but apparently not), and is then told to “keep left” to go through the exhibits. The idea is that this will take you on a journey through the Bank’s history from founding to the modern day, but in practice everything winds up as a bit of a jumble and rather repetitive, as if each room is trying to tell the same story from a different perspective.
You’ll learn about the construction of the building (three times), how the idea of a national bank was arrived at (three times), how banknotes were invented (three times), how interest rates are set (at least twice), and the security features of polymer notes (3 times). And still not remember much of it when you leave…
Kudos though to the museum for trying to make banking seem interesting to younger visitors. This includes a vague ship-like construct (demonstrating how setting interest rates is like sailing) with interactive activities such safe-cracking, a game about keeping interest level, and banknote puzzles. There’s also an opportunity to hold an actual 13 kg gold bar (secured in a special box with several CCTV cameras trained on it) and then have gold explained to you by an animated gold brick voiced by Stephen Fry, who tries his best with the many groan-inducing one-liners.
