one of these home? Prince Charles is shown Bank of England's vaults where 400,000 gold bars worth £100BILLION are stored

By Rebecca English Royal Correspondent 19:21 GMT 07 Dec 2016, updated 22:23 GMT 07 Dec 2016

• Prince Charles looked thoroughly impressed by the vastness of the vault
• This is the prince's first visit back to the Bank since 2002
• Each bar weighs around 13kg and is worth £366,501 at today's price 
• The aim of the visit was to 'recognise and celebrate the Bank's mission to promote the good of the people of the UK 

As jokes go it probably wasn't the most tactful, but at least it tickled Prince Charles.

On a royal visit to the Bank of England today, Governor Mark Carney told the heir to throne as he sat down with a group of deputies in his historic office for a private briefing: 'A tremendous amount of mistakes have been made at this table!'

The prince's tour came at the personal invitation of Mr Carney, who visited him at Clarence House in February.

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Prince Charles is shown around the gold vaults at the Bank of England. The chambers hold around 400,000 bars of gold worth more than £100 billion

This is the prince's first visit back to the bank since 2002. Each gold bar weighs around 13kg and is worth £366,501 at today's price

The aim of the visit was, ostensibly, to 'recognise and celebrate the Bank's mission to promote the good of the people of the UK by maintaining monetary and financial stability'.

During his tour of the building Charles was given a private viewing of more than £100 billion worth of gold.

The underground vault at the bank contains around 400,000 gold bars, each weighing around 13kg and worth £366,501 at today's price.

Prince Charles visits Mark Carney at The Bank of England

The vaults provide safe keeping for the gold reserves of the country and overseas central banks  

The prince toured the Bank of England to recognise and celebrate the central Bank's mission to promote the good of the people of the UK by maintaining monetary and financial stability

A group of schoolchildren from Virginia Primary School in Tower Hamlets, East London, were attempting to lift one of the bars on display.

Charles asked them: 'So, are you going to have to write an essay about this?'

Before he left the Prince went into his private briefing from bank staff on issues including house price inflation, cyber security and the system used by the Bank of England for settling high-value payments in real time. 

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