Feliks Topolski: Drawing Debden

About the exhibition

Monday 1 October 2018 - Friday 28 June 2019

In 1957, artist Feliks Topolski RA (1907–1989) was commissioned by the Bank of England to sketch everyday life at its newly opened printing works in Debden, Essex. All of our banknotes are still printed here today.

Our exhibition explores the printing works through Topolski’s eyes. The artist’s dynamic style of drawing captures the activity of people and machinery at the newly-built factory.

Scroll through this gallery to see the 27 original drawings and paintings by Feliks Topolski in our collection. The artworks are fragile, so we can’t display them all at once. Instead, we will display them in small groups, on rotation every few weeks.

Admission free

We are open Monday-Friday 10am to 5pm (excluding Bank Holidays), last entry at 4:30pm.

Watch curator Jennifer Adam introduce the exhibition

Curator Jennifer Adam introduces the exhibition

Watch Teresa Topolski talk about the artist, Feliks Topolski

Teresa Topolski talks about the artist

Watch us installing our new exhibition in our timelapse video

Watch us installing our new exhibition in our video timelapse

Read more about Feliks Topolski and his work at the Bank of England.

Picture galleries

See the artworks

Scroll through this gallery to see the drawings and paintings by Feliks Topolski in our collection.

A history of banknote printing at the Bank of England

Explore the history of the Printing Works department at the Bank of England through these artworks from our collection. Find out where banknotes were printed before the 1950s. You’ll learn how increasing demand for banknotes lead the Bank to move banknote production from Threadneedle Street to Old Street in 1917.

Building the Debden Printing Works

In 1954, the Bank of England began construction of its new banknote Printing Works in Debden, Essex. The building project was photographed over the next two years. Many features of the building that are visible in these photos can be seen in Feliks Topolski’s drawings of staff at the Printing Works. Bank of England Archive: 15A13/6/2/1.

Admission is free and there is no need to book in advance.

The Bank of England Museum would like to thank the Topolski Studio for their help with this exhibition.

The Topolski Studio is an arts educational organisation that continues Feliks Topolski’s legacy of pictorial reportage. Through a yearly residency, now in its sixth year, it enables young artists to record today’s issues through drawing and produce their own contemporary Chronicle.

We are also grateful to:

Estate of Feliks Topolski
Ruth Borchard Collection / Piano Nobile Gallery
The Bank of England Archive
The Bank of England Notes Directorate

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