Blog
Paul Muscat, student at Ampleforth College
Back in the spring of 2023, while searching for actives to do to fill my half-term, I came across the Bank of England Museum. Due to my interest in central banking, this was right up my alley. I decided to go and check it out and ended up spending the whole day there. I learned a lot about the early British economy and the important role central banks play in it; the South Sea bubble exhibit hit me the hardest - how this fraudster John Blunt swindled the nation into buying into a bubble to pay off the national debt.
In January 2025, while yet again trying to fill in my free time, I wrote an email to the Museum (on their holiday) about working with them to make an exhibit. I have been obsessed with the Romans since I was child (now taking Latin as an A-level), and ever since I read “Economics for Dummies” (aged 10) economics as well. Therefore, I proposed that the theme of the exhibit should be on the Roman Economy. When they responded to me, I found out not only did they love the idea, but that they had a massive collection of Roman artefacts. It turned out that during renovations in the early 1930s of the Bank of England, they came across tonnes of relics and a well-preserved mosaic – the Bank was built on what once was Roman townhouses. The museum was created as a result to preserve and display these items.
In March, I had the first meeting with the Collections Manager and Museum’s Curator, where we agreed the display’s title: Roman trade in London. I went away from the meeting and wrote the display’s description. In April, I went to the archives in the Bank, which was really cool. There, I picked out the items to put on display. In July, I went back to the archives to assemble and finalise the display.
The whole experience of writing, designing and creating the display was not only fun, but also very rewarding. It has given me a real insight into the operations of a museum, the work it takes to create an exhibition and the value of passing on historical information through tangible objects.
I thank the Bank of England Museum for letting me do this exhibition and helping me, with special thanks to the Curator and Collections Manager. The Bank of England Museum team are very skilled and on top of their game, I could not have come across a better institution to work with.