The Chief Cashier's Office was part of the north-east extension, built simultaneously with the Lothbury Court and the adjoining offices (including the Accountants Office, Interior Office and the Secretary's Officce). It was decorated in October 1802. In preliminary plans from 1797 the hall was originally intended for the Accountants. Since the Bank's foundation in 1694, the Chief Cashier was one of the principal officers.

The coffered apsidal end is probably influenced by the Temple of Venus and Roma, also known as the Temple of the Sun and Moon, built in AD 121-35 by Hadrian and illustrated by Palladio in The Four Books of Architecture. Beside the office were two smaller rooms, one for the Chief Cashier and another office 'for conducting the more confidential concerns of this department' (Britton).

Two related drawings are in the Victoria & Albert Museum, showing details of a pendentive decoration with a palmette-like motif. Neither of them are dated.

Literature: J. Britton, The beauties of England and Wales: or, Delineations, topographical, historical, and descriptive, of each county, Volume X, Part 1, 1814, p.565; J. Francis, History of the Bank of England: its times and traditions, vol. 2, 1847, P. du Prey, Sir John Soane, 1985, in series of 'Catalogues of architectural drawings in the Victoria and Albert Museum', 1975, cat.144-145; p. 231; E Hennessy, A Domestic History of the Bank of England, 1930-1960, 1992, pp. 1, 224; D. Abramson, Money's architecture: the building of the Bank of England, 1731-1833, Doctoral thesis for the Department of Fine Arts, Harvard University, 1993, p.367.

Madeleine Helmer, 2010

Group

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