You Can Bank on Gunnersbury Park Museum

---

The history of banking with an entry fee of £0

By popular demand Gunnersbury Park Museum has extended its exhibition tracing the history of banking until Wednesday 25 June.
 
The exhibition is called ‘A History of Barclays, Big Business, Local Links’ and focuses on the history of the banks in the area, the formation of Barclays, banking in the Victorian era and post-war developments in banking.
 
The exhibition features original items from Barclays Group Archives, including the giant metal grasshopper, symbol of Sir Thomas Gresham’s bank, Victorian bank notes and cheques and a Victorian pistol, used to protect a bank before the days of alarms and CCTV.  
 
This exhibition at Gunnersbury is the first time that the Barclays archive has been on public display. The exhibition also includes costumes supplied by the Bank and Gunnersbury, a magnificent bank teller’s desk, and samples of Tudor and Victorian coins.

Although there is much about the general history of banking, there are also many local connections. Did you know that the famous Tudor banker, Sir Thomas Gresham, once owned both Boston Manor and Osterley Park? Are you one of the many local people to have come to events at the Barclays Bank sports ground in Ealing? Can you spot your local branch of Barclays in old photographs of the area?

Visitors to the exhibition can do the banking clerk’s quiz and children can experiment with the old banking scales or practice their handwriting at a mini clerk’s desk.

The idea of Barclays staging an exhibition at the Museum in Popes Lane, London W3 followed an approach two years ago from former Mayoress of Ealing, Julia Clements-Elliott to the local staff at Barclays in Ealing & Hounslow. Since that time local staff, the Museum and the Bank’s archivist have been busy planning the contents of the exhibition.

The exhibition was officially opened by Barclays Group Chief Executive John Varley on Friday 21st September 2007. The Mayor of Hounslow Cllr Andy Morgan-Watts and Mayor of Ealing Cllr Hazel Ware were in attendance.

John Varley Group Chief Executive of Barclays said ”We've been serving the local communities in Ealing, Hounslow and Hillingdon for more than a hundred of Barclays 300-year history.  It is fascinating to see how times have changed, but the values on which we have built our business have not. Barclays was a relationship business back then and it is today." 
 
Vanda Foster Deputy Curator of Gunnersbury Park Museum said: “Barclays Group Archives has produced a fascinating exhibition on the development of the bank which has something to interest everyone. There is also much that is of specific local interest, from the development of the Ealing Sports Ground to the changing fashions of bank uniforms first introduced in the Ealing and Hounslow branches. This is a pioneering exhibition in which a national bank has made its archives available to a community museum.”
 
Maria Sienkiewicz from Barclays Group Archives said: “We are thrilled to have the chance to show off some of the treasures of our collection, and have really enjoyed working with the Museum staff to create this unusual exhibition.”
 
The exhibition runs until 27th April 2008
 

June 9, 2008