BANK OF ENGLAND.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXIX, Issue 107, 28 June 1911, Page 8

BANK OF ENGLAND.

AN EXTENSIVE SUBSIDENCE. The foundations of the Bank of England, which arc popularly supposed to bo as sound as the bank itself, have given way in certain parts, and important work is at present, being carried out with a view to ensuring the safety of the building. Attention appears to have been first drawn to tne matter by an accident that occurred early in the year. During business hours the staff of clerks engaged behind the counters in the Private Drawing Office, vyliicli is situate at the Princes Street corner of the Bank of England, and communicates with the bill office, were suaddenly startled by the sounds of loud reports, coming apparently from the roof of the building, and for some time considerable alarm was occasioned. Steps wore at once taken to ascertain the cause of the mysterious noise, and a searching examination was made of the roof by exports, but no satisfactory explanation was forthcoming at the time. The authorities, therefore, decided to thoroughly inspect tho foundations of the bill office, with the result that it was found that an undoubted subsidence had taken place, that 'the foundations had sunk away from the main structure to such an extent that a rod could be easily swept through the intervening space. Tho work now in hand involves tho task of under-pin-, ning the Princes’ Street corner of the bank, which necessitates the cutting away of the. original wooden piles upon which the bank has stood for nearly 200 years, and tho putting in of a solid* raft of concrete, six feet in depth, beneath the outer walls. Many interesting curios, in the form of Homan pottery ware, tusks of boars, and fossilised remains of other animals, have been unearthed during the excavations. The vaults containing tho millions of pounds worth of gold and silver plate and securities remain intact.