| Code | DS/UK/619 |
| Corporate Name | Bank of England Threadneedle Street |
| Dates | 1733 - |
| OtherFormsOfName | Head Office |
| Activity | Originally open in temporary accommodation at Mercers' Hall on Cheapside, the Bank moved to Grocers' Hall in Princes Street later in 1694, where it remained until it moved to a purpose built property on Threadneedle Street.
The site on Threadneedle Street had been aquired in 1724 and inlcuded the former home of Sir John Houblon. George Sampson was the architect who built the original building, which opened in 1733. In 1764 Sir Robert Taylor was appointed Surveyor to the Bank and began a series of works adding to the building, including an extra east and west wing and the Court Room. The Bank was further extended and adapted under the tenureship of Sir John Soane as Surveyor to the Bank between 1788 and 1834, during which time the building came to occupy the whole of its present site of 3 1/2 acres between Princes Street, Lothbury and Bartholomew Lane.
The Bank building remained largely unchanged until the almost complete demolition and rebuilding programme under Herbert Baker between 1925 and 1942 (according to Sayers' book on the Bank of England, Appendix 34, pp.338-342). Despite the near reconstruction of elements of the previous building, such as of the Court Room and Parlours, the only remaining part of Soane's building unaffected by the building work was the curtain wall built around the site, which remains in tact to this day. The head office of the Bank continues to be situated on the Threadneedle Street site today. |
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