Bank of England Museum at London
Known affectionately by Londoners as “the Old Lady of Threadneedle Street", the Bank of England is one of Britain’s most famous and august institutions. The Museum is housed within the Bank of England itself, right at the heart of the City of London. It traces the history of the Bank from its foundation by Royal Charter in 1694 to its role today as the nation’s central bank.
It performs all the recognized functions of a central bank – to maintain price stability, and subject to that, to support the economic policy of Her Majesty’s Government (Bank of England Act 1998) in order to promote economic growth. It has a monopoly on the issue of banknotes in England and Wales (see Sterling); it is both the Government’s banker and the bankers’ bank; a “Lender of Last Resort"; it manages the country’s foreign exchange and gold reserves; it used to be responsible for the regulation and supervision of the banking industry (see Johnson Matthey, BCCI, and Barings), although this responsibility was transferred to the Financial Services Authority in June 1998. Since 1997 the Monetary Policy Committee has had the responsibility for setting the official interest rate. Scottish and Northern Irish banks retain the right to issue their own banknotes, but they must be backed one to one with deposits in the Bank of England, excepting a few million pounds representing the value of notes they had in circulation in 1845. It maintains the Government’s Consolidated Fund account. Computershare took over as the registrar for UK Government bonds (known as gilts) from the Bank at the end of 2004.
Related Travel Information
London - Sights
Since the 18th century England has been the cultural center of Europe. What they thought was lacking in their cultural heritage, the British imported through study travels abroad, the grand tour, or just by importing important artefacts. The London museums thus gathered an enormous wealth of artefacts both from their own history as of the shared history of the entire western civilization, plus a load of oriental treasures form their colonies.
Next to its museums, London has quite a collection of buildings that played an important role in the history of architecture. Not just classical buildings like the St
Jewish Museum at London
The Jewish Museum in the Camden Town district on the northern fringes of central London, England is one of two Jewish museums in London. It was originally founded in 1932 with aim of showing the history and religion of the Jewish community in Britain as well as further afield and it has one of the finest collections of Jewish art in the country. It moved to Camden Town in 1995. It is operated by the same charitable trust as the Jewish Museum (Finchley), in the north London suburbs.
The Camden Town museum claims to have one of
London is the coolest city on earth, according to a big crowd of fans of the city, and there is quite some truth in that. The city on the Thames has an amazing lot of things to do. One can spend several weeks in the city alone, doing something different every day.
On the first day, one could enjoy his love for the fine arts in some of the world's finest museums, such as the British Museum and the National Gallery. The second day is for fun and entertainment. There are streets filled with bars, pubs and theaters. And contrary to
Dickens House at London
London's Charles Dickens Museum is in Doughty Street in the district of Bloomsbury. It occupies a typical Georgian terraced house which was Charles Dickens' home from 1837 to 1839. Dickens moved on to grander homes as his wealth increased and his family grew, but this is the only house he owned in London which survives. The museum opened in 1925. Indeed, the expression "Dickensian England" is still widely used today to describe the effects of abject poverty and social deprivation.This museum is the preserved house where Dickens lived when writing many of his greatest works. On
Ragged School Museum at London
This Award winning Museum of East End Life is housed in three Victorian canalside warehouses. Visitors to the Museum today can take a journey through the history of the region as well as experience what it was like to be taught over one hundred years ago by 'stepping back in time' to the atmospheric recreated Victorian classroom. The Museum was opened in 1990 in three canalside warehouses in Copperfield Road, East London.
The Ragged School Museum Trust aims to enable everyone to gain inspiration, learning and enjoyment from exploring the history of the East End and its
