We keep hearing about the credit crunch and how no one has any money any more. It seems to be in every paper and on every news show. Enough already, we set out to track down some gold and jewels.
The Bank of England must have some gold we thought. Where found out that the UK's gold reserves are stored in vaults underneath the bank. We set off in search of it. The Bank itself is located close to Bank (how ironic) and Monument stations in London. They have a free museum at the bank which deals with the history of the bank and the finances of the UK.
The first surprise was that the Bank of England was started by a Scot (surely not) and it was pretty cool to see all the old bank notes et all. I certainly came out knowing a lot more than I walked in with. You can however hold a solid gold bar (valued at £177k on the day that we went). It’s much heavier than you imagine at 13kg. There’s also a stack of 10 bars in a case. You don’t get to see the vaults unfortunately or even do a tour as the Bank is a working building.
We still wanted to get into the building itself and after a little time bugging the museum staff we discovered that you can do a free tour of the interior of the building on certain days of the year. The best day to go this summer is June 28th when free 30 minute tours are available.
While the museum is bigger than you expect but we didn’t feel it’s worth a long trip just to visit it. It’s much better to combine it with a proper tour of one of London’s big attractions. The Tower of London, London Dungeons and Buckingham Palace are only a few stops on the underground from the Bank. The Tower of London is also home to the 23578 gems that make up the crown jewels (including the Imperial state crown, the
Star of Africa and Koh-I-Nor diamonds)
It is also a short walk to Finsbury Square which is a nice little park to have an afternoon picnic.
The entrance to the museum itself is on Bartholomew Lane (just off Threadneedle Street. in London. The postcode is EC2R 8AH, The museum is open Monday to Friday 10:00 to 17:00.
Tickets to the Tower of London
Tickets to Buckingham Palace
Tickets to London Dungeon
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