In 1570 Thomas Gresham’s newly built Exchange received a visit from Queen Elizabeth I who commanded it be named the Royal Exchange.

Before that time, the City of London did not have a sheltered place where traders could meet to do business. In 1565 Gresham made an extraordinary offer to the City. He would build a bourse modelled on the one in Antwerp with his own money if the City Corporation would provide a site. The City agreed, financing the purchase of land with funds provided by 20 livery companies and over 700 individuals.

The new Exchange was built around a courtyard with over 100 shops on the first floor overlooking it. In January 1570 Queen Elizabeth I visited it after dining in Thomas Gresham’s house in Bishopsgate. The Queen was impressed and commanded it to be called the Royal Exchange. With the Queen’s seal of approval and Gresham’s grasshopper symbol on its weather vane, the Royal Exchange was an important centre of business and a London landmark.

Thomas Gresham died in 1579 leaving his widow, Alice, a lifetime interest in the rental income. Following her death in 1596, according to the terms of his will, the Royal Exchange came into the joint management of the City of London and Mercers’ Company. They set up the Joint Grand Gresham Committee in 1596/7 which was made of 24 members; 12 from the Corporation of London and 12 from the Mercers’ Company. The Joint Grand Gresham Committee still manages the Gresham Estate today.

The Second Royal Exchange

The Royal Exchange remained in constant use for shops and trade until it was destroyed in the Great Fire of London in 1666. Samuel Pepys wrote in his diary on 5 September 1666: The Exchange a sad sight, nothing standing up, all of the statues or pillars but Sir Thomas Gresham’s Picture in the corner.

King Charles II laid the first stone of the new Royal Exchange on 20 September 1667. Built on the same arcaded plan as the old one, it opened quietly on 28 September 1669. Traders from all over the world met in the new Royal Exchange to conduct business. Each nation and trade had its own space on the floor. The new Exchange also attracted publishers and booksellers displaced from the area around St Paul’s Cathedral by the Great Fire.

During the 18th century many of the fashionable shops began to move to the expanding West End of London. The space they left was taken up by new kinds of business. The newly formed Royal Exchange Assurance Corporation (founded in 1720), the earliest corporate body to be in the business of marine insurance, moved into the Exchange and, in 1774, Lloyd’s of London, also moved in.

The Third Royal Exchange

1844

On 10 January 1838, only a few years after refurbishment work had been completed, a fire broke out in the rooms of Lloyd’s Insurance. It went undetected until it was too late and the building was completely destroyed. After a competition, the architect William Tite was selected to build the third Royal Exchange, the building that can be seen today. The foundation stone was laid by HRH Prince Albert on 17 January 1842. More land was acquired so the site could be expanded and the corner between Cornhill and Threadneedle St was opened up. The porticoed facade, which was based on the Pantheon in Rome, now faced directly west towards Cheapside. The opening of the third Royal Exchange by Queen Victoria on 28 October 1844 was a magnificent state occasion.

The Royal Exchange remained relatively undamaged during World War II. At the end of the War it provided space for a number of displaced organisations including the forerunner of the Mermaid Theatre and the Guildhall Museum. During the 1980s the Royal Exchange was refurbished and extended with a new steel and glass roof covering the inner courtyard.