Video transcript - The Bank of England and Gold

Below the Bank of England is one of the largest store of gold anywhere in the world. We look after more than 400,000 gold bars, worth billions of pounds.

The gold is kept in nine underground vaults and we guard it very carefully. Our customers are the UK Government, banks and other governments around the world.

Each gold bar costs hundreds of thousands of pounds. Their value can go up and down.

Our customers can trade their gold bars with other customers at the Bank. When a customer trades gold it usually doesn’t move, instead the name of the owner will change on our system.

Not many people are allowed to visit our vaults, however, the Queen and Prince Charles have had a look around.

Even though we look after lots of gold, we only own two bars. You can see them in our museum and if you’re feeling strong you can try to lift one.

Some interesting facts, did you know that an ounce of gold can be stretched a distance of over 50 miles? All of the gold mined so far in the world, would fill more than three Olympic sized swimming pools.