Lloyd's building

The first Lloyd's building (address 12 Leadenhall Street) had been built on this site in 1928 to the design of Sir Edwin Cooper.{{cite web |url=http://www.archiseek.com/2013/lloyds-leadenhall-st-london/ |title=1922 – Old Lloyd's Building, Leadenhall Street |author= |date= 19 June 2013|website=archiseek.com |access-date=9 March 2021 }} In 1958, due to expansion of the market, a new building was constructed across the road at 51 Lime Street (now the site of the Willis Building). Lloyd's now occupied the Heysham Building and the Cooper Building.

By the 1970s Lloyd's had again outgrown these two buildings and proposed to extend the Cooper Building. In 1978, the corporation ran an architectural competition which attracted designs from practices such as Foster Associates, Arup and Ioeh Ming Pei.{{cite web |title=English Heritage Listing Information |page=2 |url=http://www.english-heritage.org.uk/content/imported-docs/k-o/lloyds-list-entry.pdf |work=English Heritage |date=19 December 2011 |access-date=6 February 2013}} Lloyd's commissioned Richard Rogers to redevelop the site, and the original 1928 building on the western corner of Lime and Leadenhall Streets was demolished to make way for the present one, which was officially opened by Queen Elizabeth II on 18 November 1986. The 1928 building's entrance at 12 Leadenhall Street was preserved and forms a rather incongruous attachment to the 1986 structure. Demolition of the 1958 building commenced in 2004 to make way for the 26-storey Willis Building.

The building was previously owned by Dublin based real estate firm Shelbourne Development Group, who purchased it in 2004 from a German investment bank.{{cite news |date=10 January 2004 |title=Lloyd's Tower Purchased |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2004/01/10/business/world-business-briefing-europe-britain-lloyd-s-tower-purchased.html |access-date=14 July 2013 |work=The New York Times}} In July 2013 it was sold to the Chinese company Ping An Insurance in a £260 million deal.{{cite news |date=8 July 2013 |title=Lloyd's building sold to Chinese insurance group in £260m deal |url=https://www.theguardian.com/business/2013/jul/08/lloyds-building-sold-chinese-insurance-ping-an |access-date=14 July 2013 |work=The Guardian |location=London}}

In 2008 the Twentieth Century Society called for the building to be Grade I listed{{cite news |last=Thompson |first=Max |date=24 January 2008 |title=Call for 'urgent' Grade-I listing of Lloyd's building |url=https://www.architectsjournal.co.uk/news/call-for-urgent-grade-i-listing-of-lloyds-building/536377.article |access-date=26 August 2016 |work=Architects' Journal}} and in 2011 it was granted this status.{{Cite web |date=2011-12-19 |title=Lloyd's Building Gets Grade I Listed Status |url=https://londonist.com/2011/12/lloyds-building-gets-grade-i-listed-status |access-date=2024-11-22 |website=Londonist}}{{cite news |last=Waite |first=Richard |date=19 December 2011 |title=Rogers' Lloyd's becomes youngest Grade-I listed building |url=https://www.architectsjournal.co.uk/home/rogers-lloyds-becomes-youngest-grade-i-listed-building/8624035.article |access-date=26 August 2016 |work=Architects' Journal}}

File:Lloyd's building interior.jpg

The current Lloyd's building (address 1 Lime Street) was designed by the architect company Richard Rogers & Partners and built between 1978 and 1986. Bovis was the management contractor.[http://www.richardrogers.co.uk/Asp/uploadedFiles/Image/0170_lloyds/RSHP_A_JS_0170_L_E_GB.pdf Richard Rogers Partnership] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090706030011/http://www.richardrogers.co.uk/Asp/uploadedFiles/Image/0170_lloyds/RSHP_A_JS_0170_L_E_GB.pdf |date=6 July 2009 }} Like the Pompidou Centre in Paris (designed by Renzo Piano and Rogers), the building was innovative in having its services such as staircases, lifts, ductwork, electrical power conduits and water pipes on the outside, leaving an uncluttered space inside. The 12 glass lifts were the first of their kind in the United Kingdom. Like the Pompidou Centre, the building was highly influenced by the work of Archigram in the 1950s and 1960s.

Rogers selects primarily concrete and some steel for the structure, utilizing materials appropriate to the site's local logistics.{{Cite web |date=2022-01-12 |title="We were attacked by everybody" on Lloyd's building recalls Richard Rogers |url=https://www.dezeen.com/2022/01/12/richard-rogers-interview-lloyds-london/ |access-date=2024-11-22 |website=Dezeen |language=en}} Additionally, Rogers emphasizes that contemporary buildings incorporate both current and historical technologies.

The building consists of three main towers and three service towers around a central, rectangular space. Its core is the large Underwriting Room on the ground floor, which houses the Lutine Bell within the Rostrum. Also on the first floor is the loss book which for 300 years has had entries of significant losses entered by quill.{{cite web |url=http://www.propertycasualty360.com/2016/10/06/heres-what-lloyds-of-london-looks-like-on-the-insi?eNL=57f64dde150ba07a1a23f218&page=3 |title=Here's what Lloyd's of London looks like on the inside |last1=Moynihan |first1=Shawn |date=6 October 2016 |website=Property Casualty 360 |publisher=ALM Media |access-date=6 October 2016 }} The Underwriting Room (often simply called "the Room") is overlooked by galleries, forming a {{convert|60|m|ft|0}} high atrium lit naturally through a huge barrel-vaulted glass roof. The first four galleries open onto the atrium space, and are connected by escalators through the middle of the structure. The higher floors are glassed in and can only be reached via the exterior lifts.

The 11th floor houses the Committee Room (also known as the Adam Room), an 18th-century dining room designed for the 2nd Earl of Shelburne by Robert Adam in 1763; it was transferred piece by piece from the previous (1958) Lloyd's building across the road at 51 Lime Street.

The Lloyd's building is {{convert|88|m|ft|0}} to the roof, with 14 floors.[http://www.skyscrapernews.com/buildings.php?id=642&idi=Lloyds+Building&data=all Skyscrapernews]

On top of each service core stand the cleaning cranes, increasing the overall height to {{convert|95.10|m|ft|0}}. Modular in plan, each floor can be altered by addition or removal of partitions and walls.File:Lloyds_Building_massing_model.svg

Prince Charles and others initially criticized the design of Lloyd's Building, similar to the backlash of Centre Pompidou. Rogers stated that, "Lloyds said they wanted two things: they wanted a building that would last into the next century – we made that one – and they wanted a building that would meet their changing needs." One of those changing needs relates to the much-vaunted design innovation of having the service pipes, ducts, and stairwells outside the walls led to such costs caused by weathering and maintenance that Lloyds considered vacating the building in 2014.

Lloyd's former chief executive Richard Ward stated: "There is a fundamental problem with this building. Everything is exposed to the elements, and that makes it very costly."{{Cite web|url=https://www.dezeen.com/2014/06/01/lloyds-of-london-may-quit-richard-rogers-building-over-design-frustrations/#|title = Lloyd's of London may quit Rogers building over design "frustrations"|date = June 2014}}

{{Portal|London|Architecture}}

• EPM Intelligent Building – a Medellin building inspired by the Lloyd's building
• Willis Building, opposite at 51 Lime Street, on the site of a former Lloyd's building
• 30 St Mary Axe – Norman Foster's gherkin-shaped skyscraper nearby
• 122 Leadenhall Street – a skyscraper opposite on the northern side of Leadenhall Street
• 52–54 Lime Street – 'The Scalpel' skyscraper opposite
• List of tallest buildings and structures in London
• World Architecture Survey

{{Reflist}}

{{Commons category|Lloyd's building}}

• [http://www.galinsky.com/buildings/lloyds/index.htm Galinsky: Lloyd's building]
• [https://web.archive.org/web/20051230092213/http://www.lloyds.com/About_Us/The_Lloyds_building/ Lloyd's official website]
• [https://web.archive.org/web/20080514020634/http://www.0lll.com/lud/pages/architecture/archgallery/rogers_lloyds/index.htm 0lll Architecture Gallery: Lloyd's building (images)]

{{City of London}}

{{London landmarks}}

{{Authority control}}

Category:Office buildings completed in 1986

Category:Office buildings in London

Category:Skyscrapers in the City of London

Category:Richard Rogers buildings

Category:Grade I listed buildings in the City of London

Category:Grade I listed office buildings

Category:Skyscraper office buildings in London

Category:1986 establishments in England