The Bank of England, looking up through the dome at the corner of Princes Street and Lothbury. Affectionately known as 'The Old Lady of Threadneedle Street', the Bank of England has been through several incarnations in its three-hundred year history. Now a large and imposing edifice sprawling over four acres of the City, the original bank opened for business in 1694 in the Mercers' Hall later moving on to the Grocers' Hall. The gilded-bronze figure set high above the dome between Princes Street and Lothbury and known as Ariel after the Spirit of the Air in Shakespeare's 'TheTempest', is the symbol of the dynamic spirit of the Bank carrying credit and trust over the world.