The architecture is by Charles Mewes and Arthur Davies – best known

The architecture is by Charles Mewes and Arthur Davies – best known for the Ritz Hotel in Piccadilly, the RAC Club in Pall Mall, and the Cunard Building in Leadenhall Street. Appropriately, it’s in High Italian Renaissance style, dating from 1932: lofty Ionic columns of cream Subiaco marble supporting a glazed roof. The court was a banking hall until business was transferred 15 months ago to nearby Lombard Street, home of the Lombardy money-changers who came to England with William the Conqueror. The first show, of some 50 paintings hung from simple, moveable screens, has been culled from the office walls of bank executives ensconced in NatWest’s major post-war monuments. In fact, the NatWest is not the only bank to own hidden art collections: Hambros, for example, has pieces by Sir Jacob Epstein, Augustus John and Joseph Wright of Derby (“Edwin”), and Barings has works by Duncan Grant and Wilson Steer. But, unlike the pair of Canalettos and 22 other Old Masters sold this month by the British Rail Pension Fund, none of the NatWest collection was acquired as an investment, insists Rosemary Harris, curator of the gallery.

Its function was simply to brighten regimental headquarters.Harris, who previously worked at the Tate Gallery, has had a free hand in shaping the first new public gallery in the City of London for more than 20 years. At a time when high street banks are presenting a stony face to many small investors, David Edmonds, managing director of NatWest’s Central Services, who is in charge of the Lothbury, expresses pride in the collection – “and, in any case, returns on investment don’t come much better than this”.To begin with, the gallery will only be open on weekdays, a reflection of the City’s age-old aversion to weekends. For decades, the “Square Mile” has been the world’s most magnificent ghost town between close of play on Friday and tills opening on Monday morning Change, however, is quietly underway. NatWest itself has been encouraging and investing in new homes within the boundary of the old City walls. There is plenty of space for flats in the upper floors of the City’s marble and Portland stone palazzos, while the area leading north of the City through Smithfield Market to Clerkenwell is re-populating at a quite remarkable rate; remarkable, that is, for a quarter which appeared condemned to urban wasteland just a few years ago.”When the demand is there,” says Edmonds, “we will happily open the gallery to the public at weekends.

We hope that shops will follow.” Such measures would bring tourists in their wake, although the Lothbury Gallery’s Christ Driving the Photographers from King’s College Chapel (Elisabeth Vellacott, 1981) appears to hint at the City’s intolerance of curiosity seekers.In the meantime, Harris will be free to buy and sell paintings as she sees fit. In recent years, the bank has been buying the work of young artists such as Lewis, Innes, Francis and Antoni Malinowski, and continues to sponsor the NatWest Art Prize, which this year will pay out a total of pounds 36,000 to winning entrants.The Lothbury mitigates the relentless blandness of modern bank interiors, and puts private art on public show. Put your cheque books away; even if you can afford Victor Pasmore’s Linear Image No IV or Gilbert & George’s Nature Queens, they are not for sale. By banker’s order.Lothbury Gallery, 41 Lothbury, London EC210am-4pm (last admission 3.30pm), Monday to Friday, starting 12 February Admission free. Despite being a self-affirmed tomboy for much of my childhood, I never understood my brother’s passion for military toys.

Twenty years on I’m no wiser, and so embarked on a trip to the Fleet Air Arm naval aviation museum at Yeovilton without great enthusiasm. But with three young sons to entertain, it’s any port in a storm. I was in for a pleasant surprise: the six-acre museum, with its 40 aircraft and 250 model planes and ships, has enough to entertain anyone. Its pounds 1.6m flagship Carrier exhibition is an impressive and extensive simulation of an aircraft carrier, complete with a juddering helicopter “ride” out to the ship, an eerily convincing mock-up of a busy flight deck and the painstaking re-creation of the ship’s interior. The sound and computer graphics of the Experience Chamber bring off the illusion of a flight deck in full operation.
The rest of the museum is a cornucopia of naval and aircraft history, with detailed and informative displays on the world wars and more recent conflicts in the Falklands, the Gulf and Bosnia, backed up by uniforms, historical documents and photographs. You can trace the evolution of the jump jet in the Harrier exhibition, explore a prototype of Concorde, or make yourself queasy in the Super X Flight Simulator.

And for a bit of live action, the visitor gallery offers a panoramic view of RNAS Yeovilton going about its daily business.The visitorsEmma Haughton is a free-lance writer, while Joff Rees combines child care with teaching. They took their three sons, Joshua, six, Nathaniel, four, and Zachary, two.Josh: The Super X simulator was great. It moved around and made me feel dizzy, but it was a lot of fun. I was impressed because it really felt like we were in a helicopter, but I don’t know for certain because I’ve never been in one. The Carrier bit was really good because the pretend people sounded like they were really talking The flight desk was exciting and very noisy. I also liked the Concorde – it had loads of machines with dials and buttons so they could test it when it was flying.There was one place which was like the inside of a boat where the men lived, and it had triple bunk beds I’ve never seen those before.