| Activity | Following the end of the Second World War, the UK government favoured a new policy whereby governmental offices would be dispersed to outside of London. Nationalised industries were also to be considered and so the Bank was asked by the Treasury to see if this policy might apply to them. Following an investigation, it was recognised that the one Bank operation which could be considered for this move was the Accountant’s Department. But a letter from Deputy Governor Cobbold to Sir Eric Bamford, Treasury on 26 June 1947 put the idea of dispersal to rest when he wrote ‘but in present conditions and with the tremendous burden of new work which is to be placed upon the Bank as a result of the Government’s policy of nationalisation, we cannot contemplate such upheaval.’ The proximity of the department to other banks and solicitors was deemed an essential facility which meant that although a new location was still needed, dispersal was no longer considered.
In 1949, a site east of St. Paul’s cathedral was brought to the attention of the Bank’s Chief of Establishments. It was a site, approximately two acres in size, which had been near obliterated by bombing in the Second World War. Separated in half by Friday Street, it covered an area that ran south from Cheapside, across Watling Street, to Cannon Street. Negotiations for the Bank to purchase what had become known as the ‘Friday Street site’ began in 1951 and led to the Bank being awarded a 200 year lease from the City Corporation to begin once construction finished. As part of this agreement, the Bank would re-house any former tenants from the site that requested new premises.
The naming of the building proved to be protracted. ‘New Change’ had come to light as the Bank learnt it was due to be the name of the new road between St Paul’s Cathedral and the building. It was a nod towards the narrow street between St Paul’s Churchyard and the site called ‘Old Change’, which in turn had been based on the ‘King’s Exchange at London’ that had been located close to the Cathedral in medieval times. Based on the analogy that the Head Office was known as ‘The Bank of England, Threadneedle Street’ with no inclusion of a building name or number, ‘The Bank of England, New Change’ was settled on in September 1955.
Victor Heal was appointed as the architect for the new project. The design of the building was limited by its proximity to St. Paul’s Cathedral and the restrictions placed on the area by the 1935 St. Paul’s Preservation Act and the City Re-planning Committee. Among other things, this act restricted the height of neighbouring buildings to protect views of St. Paul’s and dictated that the buildings should be faced in Portland stone to ground floor, with brickwork above. Internally, the building was designed to be functional, rather than decorative, with an emphasis on flexibility in order to accommodate future changes to the department and consequential changes to staffing needs.
The first phase of the building was officially opened in 1957. When completed, the building covered 341,000sq feet of space, 221,500sq feet of which were taken up by offices. The building also incorporated a lecture hall, which the Bank of England Operatic and Dramatic Society (BEODS) used as a theatre, an underground rifle range for the use of the Bank’s Rifle Club, a Medical Quarter, Luncheon Club, and two flats on the 8th floor, one for the use of the Governor and one as the official accommodation of visitors. Other areas of the building were let out as shops, offices, and branches of three of the clearing banks.
Phase II of the building work was completed in August 1960. The whole cost of the building was close to £6.25million, and at that date was London’s biggest single post-war building project.
Although designed to be functional, some decorative elements were incorporated into the building in the form of sculptures and mosaic flooring in the entrance hall. The mosaics were designed by Boris Anrep, who had designed the mosaic flooring on the ground floor of the new Threadneedle Street building. The New Change mosaics themselves had in fact been produced alongside those for Threadneedle Street and were destined for the Bartholomew Lane entrance, however the outbreak of the Second World War had prevented them from being laid. The design was of a figure of Ariel, medallions representing the countries of the commonwealth, and two larger medallions of William and Mary and of George VI, the latter of which was changed to Elizabeth II before they were laid in the New Change entrance.
In March 1958, the whole of the Accountant’s Department moved into their new home. Prior to their move, it had been estimated that there was a daily transfer of 38,000 documents from floor to floor, accounting for 420 journeys by Messengers, so the new building also included a number of new mod-cons such as a press-button carrier system to support the movement of files around the offices.
In fact, it was the Accountant’s Department that pioneered the use of commercial computers and high-speed printers at the Bank. But by 1983, twenty-five years on, a further change of work processes and procedures meant staff numbers were nearly halved. The Exchange Control Department resided at New Change for a short length of time to increase numbers, but this arrangement was not to last long. Instead, the Bank looked to let parts of the building and firms such as British Telecom, the Bank of America, and solicitors Allen and Overy moved in to accompany the remaining Bank of England staff.
By the 1990s, computerisation had had a huge effect on the Accountant’s Department numbers; so much so, that they were moved from London to Gloucester. This left only a few small Bank of England outposts at the New Change which included the Centre for Central Banking Studies (CCBS), who were relocated to Threadneedle Street in 2001. The Agency for Greater London, and the Agency for the South East and East Anglia, who had moved to what had been the Governor’s flat in 1995, were to be the Bank of England’s last connection with New Change. In 2000, the Bank sold the building, and so Agency staff became tenants in a building which had been purpose built for the Bank. The Agency moved out in September 2004, and Allen and Overy became the sole occupiers of the building.
New Change was demolished in 2007 and replaced by a major office and retail development. The sites planning and construction was subject to some controversy, but One New Change opened in October 2010 as the only large shopping centre in the City of London.
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