Editing Bank of England (section)

===19th century===
[[File:Bank of England (soane) - North West Angle by JM Gandy.jpg|thumb|right|''View of the Bank of England taken from the north-west angle as erected in 1805'' ([[J. M. Gandy]], 1825)]]
At the start of the 19th century a plan was enacted by John Soane for the further extension of the bank's premises, this time to the north-west (necessitating the rerouting of Princes Street, to form the new western boundary of the site). Much of the area of the new extension was taken up with steam-powered presses for the printing of banknotes (notes continued to be printed on site until the First World War, when the former [[St Luke's Hospital for Lunatics|St Luke's Hospital]] was acquired and converted into the bank's printing works).<ref>{{cite web |title=A history of banknote printing at the Bank of England |url=https://www.bankofengland.co.uk/museum/whats-on/2018/feliks-topolski/history-of-banknote-printing |website=Bank of England Museum |access-date=4 January 2024}}</ref> Soane continued in post until 1833; in the last years before his retirement he completed his rebuilding of Taylor's east wing and reconfigured Sampson and Taylor's street-facing façades to make the entire perimeter of the complex a coherent whole.

In 1811, an 'ingeniously contrived clock' by [[Thwaites & Reed|Thwaites & Co.]] was installed above the Pay Hall:<ref name="RosenbergHopkins1933">{{cite book |last1=Rosenberg |first1=Kate |last2=Hopkins |first2=R. Thurston |title=The Romance of the Bank of England |date=1933 |publisher=Thornton Butterworth Ltd |location=London |page=175}}</ref> as well as chiming the hours and quarters, it conveyed the time remotely (by means of brass rods extending a total of {{convert|700|ft}} in length) to dials located in sixteen different offices around the site.<ref name="Kelly1820">{{cite book |last1=Kelly |first1=Christopher |title=A New and Complete System of Universal Geography (Part IV) |date=1820 |publisher=Thomas Kelly |location=London |page=760}}</ref>

[[File:Die Gartenlaube (1866) b 245.jpg|thumb|left|The Pay Hall (where notes were exchanged for coins, and vice versa) pictured in 1866]]
The '[[panic of 1825]]' highlighted risks inherent in the bank's three-way split loyalties: to its stockholders, to the Government (and thereby to the public), and to its commercial banking customers. In 1825–26 the bank was able to avert a liquidity crisis when [[Nathan Mayer Rothschild]] succeeded in supplying it with gold;<ref>{{Cite news |last=Wilson |first=Harry |date=4 February 2011 |title=Rothschild: history of a London banking dynasty |work=The Telegraph |url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsbysector/banksandfinance/8302288/Rothschild-history-of-a-London-banking-dynasty.html |url-status=live |url-access=subscription |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20220111/https://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsbysector/banksandfinance/8302288/Rothschild-history-of-a-London-banking-dynasty.html |archive-date=11 January 2022}}{{Cbignore}}</ref> nevertheless, after the crisis, many country and provincial banks failed prompting numerous commercial bankruptcies.<ref name="BoEBranches" /> The passing of the [[Country Bankers Act 1826]] allowed the bank to open provincial branches for the better distribution of its banknotes (at the time small country banks, some of which were significantly [[undercapitalised]], issued their own notes); by the end of the following year eight Bank of England branches had been set up around the country.<ref name="Hennessy1992" />

[[File:Bank of England 1876.JPG|thumb|right|Bank Stock of the Bank of England, issued 25 January 1876]]
The [[Bank Charter Act 1844]] tied the issue of notes to the gold reserves and gave the Bank of England sole rights with regard to the issue of banknotes in England. Private banks that had previously had that right retained it, provided that their headquarters were outside London and that they deposited security against the notes that they issued; but they were offered inducements to relinquish this right. (The last private bank in England to issue its own notes was Thomas Fox's [[Fox, Fowler and Company]] bank in [[Wellington, Somerset|Wellington]], which rapidly expanded until it merged with Lloyds Bank in 1927. They remained legal tender until 1964. (There are nine notes left in circulation; one is housed at [[Tone Dale House]], Wellington.))

The bank acted as [[lender of last resort]] for the first time in the [[panic of 1866]].<ref>{{Cite web |date=23 July 2011 |title=From lender of last resort to global currency? Sterling lessons for the US dollar |url=http://www.voxeu.org/article/lender-last-resort-global-currency-sterling-lessons-dollar |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140511214525/http://www.voxeu.org/article/lender-last-resort-global-currency-sterling-lessons-dollar |archive-date=11 May 2014 |access-date=8 May 2014 |website=Vox}}</ref>