Bank Of England

The Bank of England, located on Threadneedle Street, is a Grade I listed building that was largely rebuilt by Sir Herbert Baker in 1921. The listing recognizes the greatly altered screen wall designed by Sir John Soane in the late 18th to early 19th century, as well as various elements of the older building by Soane and Sir Robert Taylor from the second half of the 18th century, which were restored to resemble their original form within the new structure.

The screen wall is made of channelled Portland stone and features a Corinthian column order with pilasters and a crowning balustrade. The main entrance on Threadneedle Street has an eight-columned portico with round-arched openings, and there is a similar colonnade on Bartholomew Lane. The building has elaborated, rounded corners, particularly the northwest corner, which has a footway cut through it. A modern statue of Soane faces Lothbury.

Inside the gateway from Lothbury is a reconstruction of Soane's Lothbury Courtyard, originally built between 1798 and 1799, featuring Corinthian colonnades and sculptures, although it is now covered by a temporary glass roof. The most significant reconstructed interior is Taylor's Court Room, which has an arcade at either end that screens a vaulted lobby. This room boasts splendid plaster decoration (altered by Baker) and three chimney pieces made of Sienna and white marble, along with a clock framed in elaborate gilt bronze.

The adjoining octagonal Committee Room retains its original ceiling design, a marble chimney piece, and four built-in bookcases. Other interiors that have been partially copied in the new work include the former Consols Office, Colonial Office, Dividend Office, Prince's Street Vestibule, the lobby to the Rotunda (all by Soane), and the semi-dome in the vestibule on Bartholomew Lane by Taylor. Notable fixtures include a marble statue of William III by Cheere in the Prince's Street entrance hall and two patterned Roman mosaic pavements from the 2nd or 3rd century, located at the foot of the principal staircase and in what is now the museum.