A 19th-century drawing of Lloyd's Coffee House Lloyd's Coffee House was a significant meeting place in London in the 17th and 18th centuries. It was opened by Edward Lloyd (c. 1648 – 15 February 1713) on

Tower Street Tower Street is the name of: * Great Tower Street, originally named "Tower Street", in the City of London * Tower Street, Covent Garden, in London * Tower Street (York), in England See also * Tower Street Adult Correctional Centre __NOTOC__ To ...

in 1686. The establishment was a popular place for sailors, merchants and shipowners, and Lloyd catered to them by providing reliable shipping news. The shipping industry community frequented the place to discuss maritime

insurance Insurance is a means of protection from financial loss in which, in exchange for a fee, a party agrees to compensate another party in the event of a certain loss, damage, or injury. It is a form of risk management, primarily used to hedge ...

, shipbroking and foreign trade. The dealings that took place led to the establishment of the insurance market Lloyd's of London,

Lloyd's Register Lloyd's Register Group Limited (LR) is a technical and professional services organisation and a maritime classification society, wholly owned by the Lloyd’s Register Foundation, a UK charity dedicated to research and education in science and ...

and several related shipping and insurance businesses. The coffee shop relocated to Lombard Street in December 1691. Lloyd had a

pulpit A pulpit is a raised stand for preachers in a Christian church. The origin of the word is the Latin ''pulpitum'' (platform or staging). The traditional pulpit is raised well above the surrounding floor for audibility and visibility, acces ...

installed in the new premises, from which maritime auction prices and shipping news were announced.

Candle auction A candle auction, or auction by the candle, is a variation on the typical English auction that became popular in the 17th and 18th centuries.R.W. Patten. "Tatworth Candle Auction." ''Folklore'' 81, No. 2 (Summer 1970), 132-135 In a candle auction, ...

s were held in the establishment, with lots frequently involving ships and shipping. From 16961697 Lloyd also experimented with publishing a newspaper, ''Lloyd's News'', reporting on shipping schedules and insurance agreements reached in the coffee house. In 1713, the year of Edward Lloyd's death, he modified his will to assign the lease of the coffee house to his head waiter, William Newton, who then married one of Lloyd's daughters, Handy. Newton died the following year and Handy subsequently married Samuel Sheppard. She died in 1720 and Sheppard died in 1727, leaving the coffee house to his sister Elizabeth and her husband, Thomas Jemson. Jemson founded the ''

Lloyd's List ''Lloyd's List'' is one of the world's oldest continuously running journals, having provided weekly shipping news in London as early as 1734. It was published daily until 2013 (when the final print issue, number 60,850, was published), and is ...

'' newspaper in 1734, similar to the previous ''Lloyd's News''. Merchants continued to discuss insurance matters there until 1774, when the participating members of the insurance arrangement formed a committee and moved to the Royal Exchange on Cornhill as the Society of Lloyd's.

Traces of the coffee house

The 17th century original shop frontage of Lloyd's Coffee House is owned by Lloyd's of London and in 2011 was temporarily re-erected on display at the National Maritime Museum. A

blue plaque A blue plaque is a permanent sign installed in a public place in the United Kingdom and elsewhere to commemorate a link between that location and a famous person, event, or former building on the site, serving as a historical marker. The term ...

in Lombard Street commemorates the coffee house's second location (now occupied at ground level by Sainsbury's supermarket). It was fictionalized in the 1936 film ''Lloyd's of London''.

Organisations named after the coffee house

The following is a list of organisations named after Lloyd's Coffee House: *Austrian Lloyd: **

Österreichischer Lloyd ''Österreichischer Lloyd'' ( it, Lloyd Austriaco, en, Austrian Lloyd) was the largest Austro-Hungarian shipping company. It was founded in 1833. It was based at Trieste in the Austrian Littoral, the main port of the Cisleithanian (Austrian ...

: an Austrian, major mediterranean shipping company founded in 1833, which after World War I became Lloyd Triestino **

Austrian Lloyd Ship Management Austrian Lloyd Ship Management is a shipping company based in Limassol, Cyprus with shipping emphasis on bulk carriers, car carriers, container ships and reefers. It is the flagship company of the Österreichischer Lloyd Group founded in 1991 b ...

: a Cypriot company founded in 1991 *

Germanischer Lloyd The Germanischer Lloyd SE was a classification society based in the city of Hamburg, Germany. It ceased to exist as an independent entity in September 2013 as a result of its merger with Norway's DNV (Det Norske Veritas) to become DNV GL. Befo ...

, Germany *

Hapag-Lloyd Hapag-Lloyd AG is a German international shipping and container transportation company. Hapag-Lloyd was formed in 1970 through a merger of Hamburg-American Line (HAPAG) and North German Lloyd. History The company was formed on September 1, 1 ...

, transportation, Germany * Hapag-Lloyd Express, airline, Germany *

Hapag-Lloyd Flug Hapag-Lloyd Flug (between 2005 and 2007 also marketed as ''Hapagfly'') was a German leisure airline headquartered in Langenhagen, Lower Saxony that was originally founded by Hapag-Lloyd and later became a subsidiary of TUI Group. It operated sc ...

, airline, Germany *

Lloyd Aéreo Boliviano Lloyd Aéreo Boliviano S.A.M. (abbreviated LAB and internationally known as LAB Airlines), was the flag carrier and principal airline of Bolivia from 1925 until it ceased operations in 2010. Before its demise it was headquartered in Cochabamba ...

, airline, Bolivia *

and

Lloyd's List Intelligence Lloyd's List Intelligence-''(formerly Lloyd's MIU)-LLc. Is now a'' specialist business incorporated with information service dedicated to the global maritime community. It is Beast-Worldof the publicly quoted group Informa plc and forms part of th ...

(formerly Lloyd's MIU), shipping news, London * Lloyd's of London, insurance, London, and the

Lloyd's Agency Network The Lloyd's Agency Network was established in August 1811 by the then Committee of Lloyd's of London. They ''resolved that it is highly important to the interests of Underwriters, that a regular and universal system of intelligence and superinte ...

they created *

, risk assessment and mitigation services and management systems certification (originally maritime), London *

Norddeutscher Lloyd Norddeutscher Lloyd (NDL; North German Lloyd) was a German shipping company. It was founded by Hermann Henrich Meier and Eduard Crüsemann in Bremen on 20 February 1857. It developed into one of the most important German shipping companies of ...

, shipping, Germany, and the

Lloyd (car) Lloyd Motoren Werke G.m.b.H. (Lloyd Engine Works) was a German automobile manufacturer, created in 1908 and owned by the Norddeutscher Lloyd shipping company. The factory was in Bremen. The company operated under a variety of different names thr ...

created by a subsidiary, and the

Lloyd Werft Lloyd Werft Bremerhaven GmbH is a dockyard in Bremerhaven. It was founded in 1863 by the shipping company Norddeutscher Lloyd, first mainly used as a repair workshop for the company’s own merchant fleet. This new yard was established ...

dockyard they also own * P&O Nedlloyd (incorporating Nedlloyd shipping) * Delta Lloyd Group (incorporating ''Nedlloyd'' insurance founded 1854)

Lloyds Bank Lloyds Bank plc is a British retail and commercial bank with branches across England and Wales. It has traditionally been considered one of the " Big Four" clearing banks. Lloyds Bank is the largest retail bank in Britain, and has an exte ...

and its related organisations are not named after the London coffee house; the bank was founded in

Birmingham Birmingham ( ) is a city and metropolitan borough in the metropolitan county of West Midlands in England. It is the second-largest city in the United Kingdom with a population of 1.145 million in the city proper, 2.92 million in the We ...

by Sampson Lloyd.

References

{{Reflist, refs= {{cite web , url=http://www.portcities.org.uk/london/server/show/conMediaFile.1129/Lloyds-Coffee-House-frontage-On-loan-from-Lloyds-of-London.html , title=Lloyd's Coffee House frontage. On loan from Lloyd's of London , publisher=portcities.org.uk , accessdate=9 June 2011 Coffeehouses and cafés in London 1688 establishments in England History of the City of London 17th century in London 18th century in London