Extract from the original book of subscriptions, June–July 1694
The Bank’s second home, December 1694–June 1734: Grocers’ Hall, Poultry
Dominant early figures: Sir John Houblon, the first governor; Gilbert Heathcote (next), the only man to be governor twice
The original west wing, built 1783–6 by Robert Taylor after the demolition of the church of St Christopher le Stocks
The Pay Hall, 1808: engraving by Auguste Pugin and Thomas Rowlandson
Two men who demanded high standards: Samuel Bosanquet, portrait by Charles Turner after George Romney; Abraham Newland (next), portrait by Henry Spicer, c. 1800
James Gillray’s other 1797 take on the Bank’s subjection to William Pitt the Younger
Soane’s Bank: Rotunda
Accountants (later £5 Note) Office
Curtain-walled Threadneedle Street front
Bank Stock Office
Over 90 years on the Court between them: Samuel Thornton, study by Anton Hickel, c. 1795; John Horsley Palmer (next), drawing by James Swinton, 1851
Two upstanding governors: William Cotton, 1850s; William Lidderdale (next), c. 1890
G. E. Hicks, Dividend Day at the Bank of England, 1859
Front Courtyard, 1894, with entrances to Pay Hall and Stock Offices
Consols Office, 1894
The Bank en fête for Queen Victoria’s Diamond Jubilee, 1897; the wording above the Portico reads, ‘She Wrought Her People Lasting Good’
A touch of Mary Poppins, albeit by the Royal Exchange, not St Paul’s: the Threadneedle Street south front, from across the steps of the Royal Exchange, prior to inter-war demolition
Watching the gold: the Court, 1903, with the governor (Samuel Morley) fourth from left
Staff singing the National Anthem, 4 August 1916, the second anniversary of the start of the Great War
King George V and Queen Mary leave the Bank after their visit, December 1917; the governor, Lord Cunliffe, holds his top hat
Soane’s Bank demolished, 1920s: Bank Stock Office
Many years later recreated in the Museum; Rotunda
Including its lunettes; caryatids, made in 1795, being taken away from the Consols Transfer Office, though eventually restored to the Museum
Printing dividend warrants at St Luke’s, 1920s
Committee of Treasury, painted by A. K. Lawrence, 1928; the governor, Montagu Norman, third from right
Taking the Paris air, May 1930: Norman in the centre, with the Bank’s lawyer, Sir William Leese of Freshfields, on the right
Baker’s Bank: Portico
Front Hall
Court Room
Garden Court
Bomb damage to Bank station, January 1941
On the seventh floor, c. 1942: Messengers’ Quarters Kitchen
Waiting for nationalisation: Lord Catto, 1944
Bank Note Office, 1942: prickers and stampers
Bank Note Office, 1961–2: paid notes for destruction
Bullion Office, 1960s: gold vault
Dividend Preparation Office, New Change, 1962: the Bank’s first computer
A future governor, Leslie O’Brien, holding aloft a presentation book of signatures to the retiring governor, Lord (‘Kim’) Cobbold, June 1961
Lord Cromer, 1961, with Pitt the Younger continuing to keep an eye on the Old Lady
Personification of the Discount Office: Hilton Clarke, 1967
Printing works at Debden, c. 1960
Governors during turbulent years: Gordon Richardson, July 1973; Robin Leigh-Pemberton (next), c. 1990
South front, 1990s
The first two post-independence governors: Eddie George, 1990s; Mervyn King (next), April 2013. (The painting above George is Johann Zoffany’s portrait of Abraham Vickery.)