Bank accounts
The revamped Museum on the Mound follows the story of banking and money in Scotland. By Simon Stephens
The idea that all publicity is good publicity does not seem to be the case with the Halifax Bank of Scotland's (HBOS) role in the collapse of Farepak.
Despite donating £2m to the fund to help people who lost their savings when the company went bust, the bank of Farepak's parent company still came under fire for not doing enough and faced calls for a customer boycott.
The news of the scandal came a few weeks after the bank opened its shiny Museum on the Mound in Edinburgh. But luckily, in light of all the bad press, the new museum does not ram the company's message down people's throats. As the curator of the museum, Doug MacBeath, says: 'We are not just an HBOS museum. It is more about social history.'
There has been a museum on the site since 1987, but the Bank of Scotland's merger with Halifax in 2001 was the catalyst for its redevelopment as part of the wider restoration of the company's headquarters, which occupy most of the building. The museum closed in September 2004 and emerged two years later with six times more space, its own entrance and a small shop.
Before the closure, the museum was only open three months a year or by appointment, but it is now open six days a week, all year round. MacBeath is hoping to attract 30,000 visitors a year, which will be ten times as many as in the past. It has brought in 7,000 people in the three months since opening, in what is Edinburgh's quietest period for tourism.
The museum's six galleries are divided into the history of the bank; the history of the building; money; building societies; life assurance; and bank employees. These themes are used to look at topics such as trade, technology, design, crime and security.
The museum is designed to appeal to a wide range of visitors, from children to serious historians, but it might struggle to please such a diverse audience. Historians might have their appetite whetted for more research and there are three simple interactives for children.
Many kids will be drawn to one that allows them to get their hands on some chocolate money if they correctly answer three questions and carry out the fiddly task of opening a see-through safe. This might distract them long enough for older visitors to have a look at the displays.
There is no sound in the galleries, which avoids the need to provide induction loops or translations for non-English speakers, although this does give the museum a slightly low-key feel.
But the displays themselves - created by Edinburgh firm Studio SP - are busy and lively, without being cluttered or unclear.
The touchscreens are also well designed, with simple navigation and interesting subjects, such as one that allows visitors to print a life-assurance quote based on travel plans and 19th-century medical conditions.
The first room follows the history of the bank. It looks at the bank's heritage and how it relates to Scottish history through the development of the country's industries, such as shipbuilding and whisky production, and the role of significant historical figures.
These include the portrait painter Sir Henry Raeburn, whose application for a 'cash account', an early forerunner of the overdraft, provides a reference that will be familiar to many visitors.
The museum really gets going when it focuses on its core subject - money. The importance of cash is emphasised immediately in the Money Matters room by £1m in the form of 50,000 £20 notes (although they do have a big 'cancelled' stamp across them). It is in this area that many of the museum's liveliest stories are told.
In a feature called Red-Handed, the need to use red dye to stain notes if they are stolen while being transported is explained through the experience of William Begbie. In 1806, the British Linen Company porter was on foot and unarmed when he was robbed of £4,392 (now about £178,000). His assailant was not caught and the money never recovered.
After two rooms looking at building societies and life assurance, the museum concludes with a section about working in a bank. And to prove that bank staff can be as much fun as the rest of us, a touchscreen features various photographs of staff partying at the annual office do and even going away together after the bank introduced subsidised employee holidays in the 1920s.
One visitor who might return is the Edinburgh-based crime writer Ian Rankin, who opened the museum. With the National Museum of Scotland and the Museum of the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh featuring in his Inspector Rebus novels, the Museum on the Mound could be in line for some free publicity. It's difficult to say whether being the subject of a gritty crime novel is good publicity, but it's got to be better than Farepak.
Despite donating £2m to the fund to help people who lost their savings when the company went bust, the bank of Farepak's parent company still came under fire for not doing enough and faced calls for a customer boycott.
The news of the scandal came a few weeks after the bank opened its shiny Museum on the Mound in Edinburgh. But luckily, in light of all the bad press, the new museum does not ram the company's message down people's throats. As the curator of the museum, Doug MacBeath, says: 'We are not just an HBOS museum. It is more about social history.'
There has been a museum on the site since 1987, but the Bank of Scotland's merger with Halifax in 2001 was the catalyst for its redevelopment as part of the wider restoration of the company's headquarters, which occupy most of the building. The museum closed in September 2004 and emerged two years later with six times more space, its own entrance and a small shop.
Before the closure, the museum was only open three months a year or by appointment, but it is now open six days a week, all year round. MacBeath is hoping to attract 30,000 visitors a year, which will be ten times as many as in the past. It has brought in 7,000 people in the three months since opening, in what is Edinburgh's quietest period for tourism.
The museum's six galleries are divided into the history of the bank; the history of the building; money; building societies; life assurance; and bank employees. These themes are used to look at topics such as trade, technology, design, crime and security.
The museum is designed to appeal to a wide range of visitors, from children to serious historians, but it might struggle to please such a diverse audience. Historians might have their appetite whetted for more research and there are three simple interactives for children.
Many kids will be drawn to one that allows them to get their hands on some chocolate money if they correctly answer three questions and carry out the fiddly task of opening a see-through safe. This might distract them long enough for older visitors to have a look at the displays.
There is no sound in the galleries, which avoids the need to provide induction loops or translations for non-English speakers, although this does give the museum a slightly low-key feel.
But the displays themselves - created by Edinburgh firm Studio SP - are busy and lively, without being cluttered or unclear.
The touchscreens are also well designed, with simple navigation and interesting subjects, such as one that allows visitors to print a life-assurance quote based on travel plans and 19th-century medical conditions.
The first room follows the history of the bank. It looks at the bank's heritage and how it relates to Scottish history through the development of the country's industries, such as shipbuilding and whisky production, and the role of significant historical figures.
These include the portrait painter Sir Henry Raeburn, whose application for a 'cash account', an early forerunner of the overdraft, provides a reference that will be familiar to many visitors.
The museum really gets going when it focuses on its core subject - money. The importance of cash is emphasised immediately in the Money Matters room by £1m in the form of 50,000 £20 notes (although they do have a big 'cancelled' stamp across them). It is in this area that many of the museum's liveliest stories are told.
In a feature called Red-Handed, the need to use red dye to stain notes if they are stolen while being transported is explained through the experience of William Begbie. In 1806, the British Linen Company porter was on foot and unarmed when he was robbed of £4,392 (now about £178,000). His assailant was not caught and the money never recovered.
After two rooms looking at building societies and life assurance, the museum concludes with a section about working in a bank. And to prove that bank staff can be as much fun as the rest of us, a touchscreen features various photographs of staff partying at the annual office do and even going away together after the bank introduced subsidised employee holidays in the 1920s.
One visitor who might return is the Edinburgh-based crime writer Ian Rankin, who opened the museum. With the National Museum of Scotland and the Museum of the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh featuring in his Inspector Rebus novels, the Museum on the Mound could be in line for some free publicity. It's difficult to say whether being the subject of a gritty crime novel is good publicity, but it's got to be better than Farepak.