“Be it therefore declared and enacted, that any body politic or corporate, or society, or company, or partnership, although consisting of more than six persons, may carry on the trade or business of banking in London, or within sixty-five miles thereof, provided that such body politic or corporate, or society, or company, or partnership, do not borrow, owe, or take up in England, any sum or sums of money on their bills or notes payable on demand, or at any less time than six months from the borrowing thereof, during the continuance of the privileges granted by this Act to the said Governor and Company of the Bank of England.” It may be noted that this Act of 1833 constituted Bank of England notes a legal tender, except by the Bank itself or its branches. When the Bank of England first commenced business in 1694, it was located in the Hall of the Grocers’ Company, in which building it continued to conduct its operations until the year 1732. A slight dispute then arising with the Grocers’ Company as to a renewal of the lease of their hall, it was decided by the authorities of the Bank to acquire a building of their own. Accordingly premises were obtained in Threadneedle Street upon a portion of the present site, and Lawson in his _History of the Bank of England_ gives the following details as to the same:— “The original extent of the Bank comprehends the site of the house and garden belonging to Sir J. Houblon, one of the first directors. It was a comparatively small building, invisible from the street, and surrounded by other buildings, one being the church of St. Christopher le Stocks, and the others consisting of five inns and twenty private houses. As the business and importance of the Bank grew, the surrounding premises were acquired from time to time and demolished, and the present building was gradually erected. Although the church of St. Christopher shared a similar fate with the surrounding buildings, the churchyard was preserved, and now forms what is known as the ‘Garden’ of the Bank.”