The Bank Job True Story: Real Life Robbery Explained

The Bank Job, a 2008 heist-thriller directed by Roger Donaldson, explores the real-life Lloyds bank robbery of 1971 which took place on Baker Street in London.  The value of the goods that were stolen during the heist is still unknown as the police only managed to retrieve a small sum. However, it is estimated the total amount stolen lies between £1.25 and £3 million. The true purpose of the Baker Street heist remains shrouded in mystery too and this robbery still has many unanswered questions, even fifty years after it happened.

Part of the reason why The Bank Job, which stars Jason Statham (The Expendables) and Saffron Burrows, was made is the producers wanted to reveal to the public some seemingly never-before known truths regarding the story of the robbery. The movie tells the events of the heist and its aftermath in a manner that is fictionalized in more ways than one, most notably regarding the character portrayed in the movie and how they compare to the real perpetrators. For instance, the individual who planned the Baker Street heist, Anthony Gavin, is not portrayed in the film. Instead, a fictional woman named Martine Love (Burrows) planned the heist and assembles the crew to carry it out.

Anthony Gavin was initially inspired to conduct the heist when he read The Red-Headed League, a short story written in 1891 by Sir Arthur Conan-Doyle about the famed detective Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson's attempt to foil burglars. Gavin and his crew broke into the Lloyds bank by tunneling from a nearby store they rented and used gelignite - known as a blasting jelly - to open a way up into the bank from the ground. While inside, they communicated via walkie-talkie with a lookout who was stationed on the roof. Unfortunately, the walkie-talkie's signal was picked up by Robert Rowlands, an amateur radio enthusiast, who called the police to make arrests. Initially, the police didn't believe Robert which gave Gavin and the crew enough time to leave with the stolen goods. It didn't take the police long to find some of the suspects but the money and gear were gone forever.

The Bank Job alludes to the method used by the original burglars but the movie version is almost entirely fictionalized. According to the film, compromising pictures of Princess Margaret - who was played by Vanessa Kirby on The Crown - were being held in one of the safety deposit boxes belonging to Trinidadian radical Michael X so MI5 set up the burglary to secure the photos. This might explain why the British Government issued a D-Notice which censored any press releases about the robbery after it occurred and newspapers about the robbery are still being held under embargo at the National Archives until 2071.

It seems odd the government would go to such lengths to cover up the details of the robbery. Whether it had something to do with Princess Margaret or someone else's personal life, whatever was inside the safety deposit boxes at Lloyd's bank in 1971 remains unknown to this day. The Bank Job's version of events serves to add fictionalized flavor to what really happened that night in Central London, and it will likely be many more years until the truth is unearthed.

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