NEW BANK OF ENGLAND

Taranaki Central Press, Volume IV, Issue 394, 30 March 1937, Page 7

NEW BANK OF ENGLAND

An Impressive Fortress.

Nine hundred men toil in secret in building the new Bank of England, impragnable fortress that will defy fir e flood, burglary, and ( . air bombardment. No workman engaged on the job is allowed to give information concerning the nevs' building. Bank officials have sealed lips. The biggest, meat expensive task ever undertaken in the City of London it also the most secret. Behind its stately facades the new bank: contains many wonders. Fifty feel below street level are the world’s strongest strongroom.?, capable of holding £150,000,000 in gold bullion, Lays the Sunday Chronicle.

There are fifty under-ground vaults, each surrounded by a wall of 1 steel and concrete eight feet thick. Dynamite would be useless against them; heavy -tomh attacks would not shake them. - |

Mastive steel doors, guarding the entrances to the Vaults, are opened and closed by electric pov-’er. In the event of invasion or any emergency, it would be possible to flood the vaults.

As a further precaution, the new bank has also its own electric power station.

The “Old Lady of Threadneedle Street,” keeps pace with the times, and the familiar phrase, “safe as the Bank of England,” carries more conviction thias ever.