July 27th: The Bank of England

Bank of England was established on this date in 1694. Here are 10 things you might not know about the Bank of England:

1. The Bank of England was established on 27 July 1694 to manage government loans for the purpose of building a navy. It is the second oldest central bank in the world, after the Sveriges Riksbank. Its founder was a Scotsman called William Paterson. A year later, in 1695, the Bank of Scotland was founded by an Englishman, John Holland.
2. You may know that the Bank is sometimes referred to as "The Old Lady of Threadneedle Street" but do you know why? The nickname is said to have arisen from a 1797 cartoon by James Gilray depicting the bank as an old lady sitting on a chest of gold and being forcibly courted by Prime Minister William Pitt the Younger.
3. The Bank has been on Threadneedle Street since 1734. Before that it was in Walbrook, a street in the City of London. This location was found in 1954 to have been the site of a Roman temple of Mithras, the god of contracts.
4. The first Governor of the Bank of England was Sir John Houblon 1694 – 1697. At time of writing, the Governor is Mark Carney, a Canadian, the first non-British citizen to hold the post (although seeking UK citizenship is on his agenda).
5. The Bank is custodian to the official Gold reserves of the United Kingdom and many other countries, as well. A 2012 estimate reckoned there was about £156,000,000,000 worth of gold in the vault, which covers a floor space greater than that of the third-tallest building in the City, Tower 42. Gold bars are packed in stacks of 77. Each stack literally weighs a ton, and if they were any bigger the floor under them could collapse. The keys to the vault are three feet (90 cm) long, presumably so no-one can smuggle them out in their pocket ("is that the key to the vault of the Bank of England in your pocket or are you just pleased to see me?") The key alone doesn't open the vault. Anyone wanting to get in also has to speak a password into a microphone.
6. The outer walls of the building at street level are between 8 and 11 feet thick.
7. It is the only bank in England and Wales to literally have a licence to print Money, having the monopoly on the issue of banknotes in those countries. There are seven other banks which can issue notes in Scotland and Northern Ireland. The last private bank in England to issue its own notes was Thomas Fox's Fox, Fowler and Company bank in Wellington, Somerset, which merged with Lloyds Bank in 1927. Its notes were legal tender until 1964.
8. The Bank of England used to burn banknotes which had become unfit for circulation on site. They used the heat from the incinerator to help heat the building. Nowadays burning the notes isn't seen as environmentally friendly, so they shred them, instead.
9. The Bank of England has never been robbed of any of its gold. Its security system is probably second to none - but there is a tale which suggests that wasn't always the case. A man employed to clean the sewers in the area got lost, and while trying to find the way out, went through an unlocked gate - which led into the vault of the Bank of England. When he reported this potential security loophole to the then Director, the Director didn't believe him, so the man challenged the Board of Directors to meet him in the vault in five minutes. The Board went down there to be greeted by the man. He didn't steal anything, and was given a reward of £800 for reporting it. In today's money his reward would be worth roughly £75k so no more cleaning sewers for that guy.
10. The Bank of England is haunted. The ghost of Sarah Whitehead, also known as The Black Nun, is said to haunt its gardens.