If you have any paper £20 or £50 notes tucked away you)d better send some early Christmas cards to deserving people in UK to spend them, or bank them!
The plastified ones are fine, it’s just the paper ones.
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The “check your drawers” reminded me of times in UK, when we were really hard up and would delve under the cushions and down the sides of the armchairs to find any coins which had fallen out of pockets and lay hidden… sometimes we found quite a decent sum. 
Been there and done that too and currently its handbags where I have thrown a handful of change into a compartment and I need some for buying a stamp or baguette. My OH was terrible for change, wonder how his jeans stayed up sometimes and we ended up with a huge jar of centimes which every so often I would count out and the boulangerie would swap for a note or too.
Am I right in thinking that even when ther are no longer legal tender, you can exchange them at a UK bank? It certainly seems to apply for coins since I did just that on my brief trip to the UK in July
Way back when… notes which had been withdrawn were sent to the Bank of England for exchange (by your local Bank) and your account would be credited only when the BofE had done their bit…
could still be like that these days…
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I got an immediate credit for the ancient pound coins I had, but perhaps notes are different!
For notes, it’ll depend on the “cut-off date”… if I recall correctly. It’s many years since I worked in a Bank and things obviously change a bit here and there…
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Maybe not so easy these days. I was in London 4 or so years ago on The Strand and thought I could easily walk into any bank and exchange old notes for new. So I went into the nearest bank. Sorry, cannot exchange, money laundering rules. Second bank, sorry we have no access to cash these days (!). Third bank - only for our customers. Fourth bank (by this time I’d walked a good way and my feet were hurting from the unfamiliar feel of London pavements). By now I’d reached HSBC (my own bank, but I didn’t tell them) Of course, no problem, how much do you want to change? HSBC notorious for money laundering practices. 
This year we were fortunate - OH knew about this and asked our English gite guests if they would be prepared to take their security deposit in old £20 notes before they left us. They were.
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I must admit, the bank I went to was a branch of (one of) mine so they paid it all straight into my account.
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Incidentally, just a slight detour…
when last in UK I did acquire some of the new notes.
Within hours I was horrified to discover that the notes slipped out of my pockets, rather than stayed folded and safely tucked down…
I surely can’t be the only person who has discovered this flaw/disadvantage in having plastic rather than paper “plastic doesn’t do as it’s told!” … ah well, no plans for a visit so no problems for me now.
Bank of England only I believe.
So definitely not the same as for coins then!
We went to plastic notes many years ago in Oz. I remember going out to the pub at 18 or so and tucking my new 20 bucks in my back pocket as usual. By the time I got to the bar it was gone 
Does the moneysavingexpert know how to stop money sliding up and out of ones pockets?? 
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If he does I wish he’d been at ‘The Standard’ in Orange NSW sometime early/mid 90s
BoE has reassured customers that there is no deadline for exchanging the notes.
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