Lloyd's Building
1 Lime Street, London EC3

Lloyd's of London, one of the world's main insurers, was established in the 1680s. 

The organisation takes its name from Edward Lloyd's coffee house in Tower Street, where underwriters and shipowners used to meet to arrange marine insurance contacts. 

Lloyd's is a remarkable organisation; underwriters, Names, that accepts all insurance risks for personal risk or gain. 

Until recently being a 'Name' virtually guaranteed financial success but in the 1990s a series of disasters caused Lloyd's to suffer record losses.  As a result many 'Names' were personally ruined and the system was brought to the edge of collapse, and the Names formed companies.. 

The present Lloyd's Building on Lime Street, a futuristic glass and steel structure, is an icon of modern architecture. Designed by Richard Rogers, it was built in 1986. 

The building's basic form is a large atrium surmounted by a steel and glass arched roof, surrounded by galleries.  To create the maximum amount of space and flexibility in the building, all the services, including lifts and tubes for electrical wiring, plumbing and drainage, are built on the outside of the structure. 

This exaggerated use of stainless steel piping and ducts echoes the Pompidou Centre in Paris, also designed by Rogers, but the Lloyd's Building is far more elegant. 

One of London's most interesting modern buildings, it is breathtaking when illuminated at night.

Part of the façade of the old 1928 Lloyd's building can still be seen in Leadenhall Street.

Not open to the public