__NOTOC__ Leadenhall Street () is a street in the

City of London The City of London, also known as ''the City'', is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county and Districts of England, local government district with City status in the United Kingdom, city status in England. It is the Old town, his ...

. It is about and links Cornhill in the west to

Aldgate Aldgate () was a gate in the former defensive wall around the City of London. The gate gave its name to ''Aldgate High Street'', the first stretch of the A11 road, that takes that name as it passes through the ancient, extramural Portsoken ...

in the east. It was formerly the start of the A11 road from London to

Norwich Norwich () is a cathedral city and district of the county of Norfolk, England, of which it is the county town. It lies by the River Wensum, about north-east of London, north of Ipswich and east of Peterborough. The population of the Norwich ...

, but that route now starts further east at Aldgate. Leadenhall Street has always been a centre of commerce. It connected the medieval market of Leaden Hall with Aldgate, the eastern gate in the Roman city wall. The

East India Company The East India Company (EIC) was an English, and later British, joint-stock company that was founded in 1600 and dissolved in 1874. It was formed to Indian Ocean trade, trade in the Indian Ocean region, initially with the East Indies (South A ...

had its headquarters there, as later did P&O. By the mid 20th century, grand stone-faced offices lined the street. Today it is closely associated with the insurance industry and particularly the Lloyd's insurance market, with its dramatic building in the adjacent Lime Street. It forms part of a cluster of tall buildings including the 48-storey

122 Leadenhall Street 122 Leadenhall Street, also known as the Leadenhall Building, Leadenhall Tower or informally the Cheesegrater, is a skyscraper in central London. It opened in July 2014 and was designed by Rogers Stirk Harbour + Partners. The informal name ref ...

and the 38-storey

Scalpel A scalpel or bistoury is a small and extremely sharp bladed instrument used for surgery, anatomical dissection, podiatry and various handicrafts. A lancet is a double-edged scalpel. Scalpel blades are usually made of hardened and tempered ...

. Other buildings planned for the street include the 57-storey 100 Leadenhall, the 50-storey Prussian Blue and the 34-storey Gotham City. Older buildings like the medieval church of St Katherine Cree seem incongruous among these towers, but the medieval heritage is preserved in the narrow slightly curving street and dense commercial activity.

History

London Leadenhall Street geograph-3066370-by-Ben-Brooksbank

Although Leadenhall Street is within the walls of Roman

Londinium Londinium, also known as Roman London, was the capital of Roman Britain during most of the period of Roman rule. Most twenty-first century historians think that it was originally a settlement established shortly after the Roman conquest of Brit ...

, and a map published in 1897 showed it as a Roman street, this remains speculative. The

basilica In Ancient Roman architecture, a basilica (Greek Basiliké) was a large public building with multiple functions that was typically built alongside the town's forum. The basilica was in the Latin West equivalent to a stoa in the Greek Eas ...

, the largest building in Londinium, extended beneath the western end of Leadenhall Street. Roman remains have also been found on both sides of Leadenhall Street, beneath

East India House East India House was the London headquarters of the East India Company, from which much of Company rule in India, British India was governed until the British government took control of the company's possessions in India in 1858. It was locate ...

(now No 12) and the P&O Building (now St Helen’s Square). The street probably originated in the

medieval period In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the 5th to the late 15th centuries, similarly to the post-classical period of World history (field), global history. It began with the fall of the West ...

. It appears in a map of London in 1270, then named Cornhulle in the west and Alegatestrete in the east. The name derives from a lead-roofed mansion, first used as a poultry market in 1321. The street runs from this Leaden Hall towards Aldgate, the eastern gate of the city wall. The only remaining buildings from this period are the churches of St Katherine Cree and

St Andrew Undershaft St Andrew Undershaft is a Church of England church (building), church in the City of London, the historic nucleus and modern financial centre of London. It is located on St Mary Axe, within the Aldgate ward, and is a rare example of a City church ...

in the adjacent street of St Mary Axe. The name “Ledenhall Street” first appears on a map from 1658. In the

Great Fire of London The Great Fire of London was a major conflagration that swept through central London from Sunday 2 September to Wednesday 5 September 1666, gutting the medieval City of London inside the old London Wall, Roman city wall, while also extendi ...

in 1666, the north-eastern edge of the damaged area reached Leadenhall Market, leaving Leadenhall Street itself intact. From 1729 to 1861 the largest building in the street was

, the headquarters of the

. In 1840 Leadenhall Street comprised mainly 4-storey stone buildings, as shown in a pictorial record by John Tallis. Its business directory lists 158 separate premises with a wide variety of trades and merchants. Apart from St Katherine Cree, there are no survivors from this period. The oldest is the former Leadenhall Press building (No 50) from 1868. In the

Victorian era In the history of the United Kingdom and the British Empire, the Victorian era was the reign of Queen Victoria, from 20 June 1837 until her death on 22 January 1901. Slightly different definitions are sometimes used. The era followed the ...

, merchants were progressively replaced by banks, typically sturdy 6-storey stone buildings. Notable survivors include

Lloyds Bank Lloyds Bank plc is a major British retail banking, retail and commercial bank with a significant presence across England and Wales. It has traditionally been regarded one of the "Big Four (banking)#England and Wales, Big Four" clearing house ...

(No 113), the former Bank of Adelaide (No 11), the former Grace & Co (No 147) and the Lutyens designed No 139. Bomb damage during

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

mainly affected the south side of Leadenhall Street to the east of Lime Street (No 26 to 49). Early post-war reconstruction matched the height of existing buildings, while introducing modern styles such as the former Scandinavian Bank (No 36) and the former Bank of Credit and Commerce International (No 100). In the late 1980s, the former

Midland Bank Midland Bank plc was one of the Big Four (banks)#United Kingdom, Big Four banking groups in the United Kingdom for most of the 20th century. It is now part of HSBC. The bank was founded as the Birmingham and Midland Bank in Union Street, Birming ...

(No 69) and the former Swiss Re House (No 77) introduced the

post-modern Postmodernism encompasses a variety of artistic, cultural, and philosophical movements that claim to mark a break from modernism Modernism was an early 20th-century movement in literature, visual arts, and music that emphasized experi ...

style. Today Leadenhall Street is closely associated with the insurance industry and particularly the Lloyd's insurance market, which occupied No 12 from 1928 to 1958, and has since been based in the adjacent Lime Street. The 14-storey

Lloyd's building The Lloyd's building (sometimes known as the Inside-Out Building) is the home of the insurance institution Lloyd's of London. It is located on the former site of East India House in Lime Street, London, Lime Street, in London's main financial d ...

, completed in 1986, started a trend for dramatic architecture in the area. Tall buildings on Leadenhall Street are constrained by the protected view of

St Paul's Cathedral St Paul's Cathedral, formally the Cathedral Church of St Paul the Apostle, is an Anglican cathedral in London, England, the seat of the Bishop of London. The cathedral serves as the mother church of the Diocese of London in the Church of Engl ...

from Fleet Street. To avoiding impinging on this view, the 48-storey Leadenhall Building (No 122) adopted a distinctive sloping profile, known as The Cheesegrater, while The Scalpel, a 38-storey building across the street (52 Lime Street), slopes in the opposite direction. Other buildings being developed, including the 57-storey 100 Leadenhall and the 50-storey Prussian Blue on the corner with Bishopsgate, will fill in the gaps in this cluster of buildings.

Buildings

South side

Starts at: Gracechurch Street One Leadenhall – a 36-storey office building, including a 5-storey base with a grid of pre-cast concrete and glass panels, and a recessed glass tower above, designed by Make Architects. Construction started in 2021. The site was part of the Roman basilica in the 2nd century, and was occupied by the original Leaden Hall, first recorded in 1309. Side street: Whittington Avenue leading to Leadenhall Market. 7-10 Leadenhall Street – a 6-storey office building, built in 1924–27. It was the head office of Friends Provident during 1929–57. It was occupied by the Iraqi Rafidain Bank until it went into liquidation in 2008. The building was acquired shortly after by the Iraqi Ministry of Foreign Affairs, initially used as a Commercial Attaché to its main embassy in Kensington. The Ministry still retains the freehold interest in the property, although the building has been vacant for a number of years. The building was briefly taken over by the Occupy London movement in January 2012. 11 Leadenhall Street - a 6-storey 3-bay office building, built in 1912 for the Bank of Adelaide. It was later occupied by the

National Westminster Bank National Westminster Bank, trading as NatWest, is a major retail and commercial bank in the United Kingdom based in London, England. It was established in 1968 by the merger of National Provincial Bank and Westminster Bank. In 2000, it becam ...

. 12 Leadenhall Street - a stone arch is all that remains of the former Lloyd’s Building, which was built in 1928 and demolished in 1979. The arch was designed by Sir Edwin Cooper in 1922 as a war memorial for the Lloyd’s Rooms at the Royal Exchange, and moved to Leadenhall Street in 1928. From 1729 to 1861 this site was occupied by

. Lloyd’s of London, 1 Lime Street - a 14-storey office building designed by Richard Rogers Partnership and built in 1978-86 for the insurance market, Lloyd’s of London. The building exemplifies the high-tech style, and is distinctive in having services such as staircases, lifts, ducts, electrical conduits and water pipes on the outside, with the aim of creating a flexible uncluttered space inside. It was the youngest structure to obtain Grade I listing. Side street: Lime Street The Scalpel, 52 Lime Street - a 38-storey office building designed by Kohn Pedersen Fox and built in 2013-18 as the European headquarters of the insurance company W R Berkley. The building consists of a series of triangular planes of partially reflective glass with bright metallic fold lines. 36-38 Leadenhall Street - a 9-storey office building designed by Yorke, Rosenberg & Mardall and built in 1970-73 for the Scandinavian Bank. It was built in a

Chicago Chicago is the List of municipalities in Illinois, most populous city in the U.S. state of Illinois and in the Midwestern United States. With a population of 2,746,388, as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, it is the List of Unite ...

-derived flush-fronted style, with uniform floors and piers of polished yellow-brown stone, flush smoked-glass bands, and sharp mitred glass joints on the Billiter Street corner. Side street: Billiter Street 40 Leadenhall Street - a 34-storey office and retail development, designed by Make Architects and built in 2020-23. The site between Leadenhall Street and Fenchurch Street, surrounding the Grade II listed 19-21 Billiter Street, comprises a series of vertical slices from 14 to 34 storeys, nicknamed “Gotham City”. The north façade has floor to ceiling glazing with flush back-painted glass panels across the floor slabs, creating a smooth wall of glass, within a perimeter metal frame. The site was previously occupied by the Institute of London Underwriters. 50 Leadenhall Street - a 3-bay, 5-storey office building. From 1868 to 1905 it was the home of the Leadenhall Press. Hallmark Building, 52-56 Leadenhall Street - a 12-bay, 7-storey office building in the Beaux-Arts style designed by M.E. Collins & L.S. Sullivan and built in 1919–21. It was previously known as Furness House, and occupied by the

London Metal Exchange The London Metal Exchange (LME) is a futures and forwards exchange in London, United Kingdom with the world's largest market in standardised forward contracts, futures contracts and options on base metals. The exchange also offers contracts on ...

. The site was occupied by the Tylers’ and Bricklayers’ Hall from 1538 to 1833. 65 Leadenhall Street - a 5-bay, 7-storey office building designed by A.H. Kersey and Richardson & Gill and built in 1922 in yellow sandstone. Landmark House, 69 Leadenhall Street and 94-95 Fenchurch Street - a 7-storey office building in the

style designed by Terry Farrell Partnership and built in 1986-87 for the Midland Bank. The corner location is emphasised by a drum entrance and a glazed turret above containing a boardroom. The side elevations are in coloured granite with alternating layers on the lower floors. In front of Landmark House is the Aldgate Pump, a Grade-II listed 18th Century water pump. Ends at:

Fenchurch Street Fenchurch Street is a street in London, England, linking Aldgate at its eastern end with Lombard Street and Gracechurch Street in the west. It is a well-known thoroughfare in the City of London financial district and is the site of many cor ...

North side

Starts at: Mitre Street 77 Leadenhall Street - a 7-storey office building in the

style designed by

GMW Architects GMW Architects was an architectural practice based in the United Kingdom. In August 2015, the firm was taken over by Scott Brownrigg. History The practice was established in 1947 by Frank Gollins (1910–1999), James Melvin (1912–2012) and Ed ...

and built in 1986-87 for Swiss Re. The site was once part of the Holy Trinity Priory, Aldgate, which was dissolved in 1532 and mainly demolished, although a fragment remains inside the modern building. 78 Leadenhall Street - a 7-storey office building in the

style designed by Ley, Colbeck & Partners and built in 1989–91. 80 Leadenhall Street - a 7-storey office building designed by Hamilton Associates and built in 1988–90. St Katherine Cree - an Anglican church, founded in 1280. The tower is from c1504, with a cupola and doorcase from 1776. The church itself was built in 1628–31, using squared ragstone on the foundations of the previous building, still visible on the south wall facing Leadenhall Street. The church is Grade 1 listed. Side street: Creechurch Lane 88 Leadenhall Street - a 7-storey office building designed by Fitzroy Robinson & Partners and completed in 1999. It is clad in limestone, granite and brick. The design references the

art deco Art Deco, short for the French (), is a style of visual arts, architecture, and product design that first Art Deco in Paris, appeared in Paris in the 1910s just before World War I and flourished in the United States and Europe during the 1920 ...

style Cunard House, built on the site in the 1930s. 100 Leadenhall Street - a 7-storey office building designed by Fitzroy Robinson & Partners and built in 1971–75. It was the UK headquarters of the Bank of Credit and Commerce International, which was liquidated in 1991 after widespread fraud and money laundering. The building was reclad in glass and stone in 2002 as part of a refurbishment programme designed by Rolfe Judd Architects. It will be redeveloped as a 57-storey building designed by SOM. It will have an angled façade with diamond pattern glazing, and has been nicknamed “The Diamond”. 106 Leadenhall Street - a 6-storey office building in the

style designed by Joseph Architects and Surveyors and built in 1924. It has 3 giant bronze-spandrelled windows framed by Portland stone

pilasters In architecture, a pilaster is both a load-bearing section of thickened wall or column integrated into a wall, and a purely decorative element in classical architecture which gives the appearance of a supporting column and articulates an ext ...

, with a projecting stone

cornice In architecture, a cornice (from the Italian ''cornice'' meaning "ledge") is generally any horizontal decorative Moulding (decorative), moulding that crowns a building or furniture element—for example, the cornice over a door or window, ar ...

above. It will be demolished as part of the 100 Leadenhall Street redevelopment. Bankside House, 107 Leadenhall Street - a 7-storey office building built in 1931 by Bankside Investment Trust. It is built in Portland stone with deeply modelled classical features, in two sections stepping down towards

church. It will be demolished as part of the 100 Leadenhall Street redevelopment. Lloyd’s Bank, 113-116 Leadenhall Street - a 5-storey Victorian bank designed by E. B. Ellis and built in 1891. Side street: St Mary Axe St Helen’s Square - a public space at the junction of Leadenhall Street and St Mary Axe, between the Leadenhall Building and

, named after nearby St Helen’s church. The piazza was created in 1963 by the demolition of the P&O building (No 122), to enable the construction of the 10-storey Indosuez House and the 28-storey Commercial Union building. The piazza was refurbished in 2019. Leadenhall Building,

- a 48-storey office building designed by Rogers Stirk Harbour + Partners, built during 2011–14, and known as “The Cheesegrater”. The steel ladder frame is visible through the glass façade and exposed in the atrium at the base. 122 Leadenhall Street was formerly the Kings Arms Inn and Hotel. It became the head office of P&O in 1848. P&O demolished adjacent residential properties at 123-125 Leadenhall Street to create a new office in 1854 . A new 10-storey P&O tower (later Indosuez House), was completed in 1969. The building was damaged by an IRA bomb in 1992 and demolished in 2007. A relic of the P&O building, a sculpture of Navigation, is now sited on the east wall of No 139-144. 139-144 Leadenhall Street - a 7-bay 5-storey bank with an elevation by Lutyens on a building designed by Whinney, Son & Austen Hall, built in 1929–31, now Grade II listed. The Portland stone front includes an arcaded ground floor that opens to a vaulted lobby, a

mezzanine A mezzanine (; or in Italian, a ''mezzanino'') is an intermediate floor in a building which is partly open to the double-height ceilinged floor below, or which does not extend over the whole floorspace of the building, a loft with non-sloped ...

with arched windows with curved sills, a second floor with

pediment Pediments are a form of gable in classical architecture, usually of a triangular shape. Pediments are placed above the horizontal structure of the cornice (an elaborated lintel), or entablature if supported by columns.Summerson, 130 In an ...

ed windows, two plain storeys above, and end-pavilions in front of a two-storeyed attic. St Andrews House, 145-146 Leadenhall Street - a 3-bay 5-storey bank designed by William Nimmo & Partners, built in 1989–92. It copies proportions and details from No 139-144 next door. Grace Hall, 147-148 Leadenhall Street - a 3-bay 4-storey bank building designed by J W O’Connor and built in 1926-27 for the New York bank Grace & Co. It is now a Grade II listed private events venue. It is built in Portland stone, with a

ed entrance to the banking hall, and an arch that extends into the

floor. Above are 3 floors with recessed

sash window A sash window or hung sash window is made of one or more movable panels, or "sashes". The individual sashes are traditionally paned windows, but can now contain an individual sheet (or sheets, in the case of double glazing) of glass. History ...

s with original wood frames and glazing bars. 6-8 Bishopsgate - this site, which includes the former 150 Leadenhall Street, will be a 50-storey mixed-use tower designed by

WilkinsonEyre WilkinsonEyre is an international architecture practice based in London, England. In 1983 Chris Wilkinson (architect), Chris Wilkinson founded Chris Wilkinson Architects, he partnered with Jim Eyre (architect), Jim Eyre in 1987 and the practice ...

, originally known as “Prussian Blue”. The design comprises a series of stacked blocks, differentiated by variations in glazing and aluminium fins, and by cantilevering the upper block. The corner building will be an 11-storey stone-clad block with deeply recessed openings. Ends at:

Bishopsgate Bishopsgate was one of the eastern gates in London's former defensive wall. The gate's name is traditionally attributed to Earconwald, who was Bishop of London in the 7th century. It was first built in Roman times and marked the beginning o ...

Cultural references

The Leadenhall Street Mosaic is a

Romano-British The Romano-British culture arose in Britain under the Roman Empire following the Roman conquest in AD 43 and the creation of the province of Britannia. It arose as a fusion of the imported Roman culture with that of the indigenous Britons, ...

mosaic A mosaic () is a pattern or image made of small regular or irregular pieces of colored stone, glass or ceramic, held in place by plaster/Mortar (masonry), mortar, and covering a surface. Mosaics are often used as floor and wall decoration, and ...

pavement from the first or second century depicting

Bacchus In ancient Greek religion and myth, Dionysus (; ) is the god of wine-making, orchards and fruit, vegetation, fertility, festivity, insanity, ritual madness, religious ecstasy, and theatre. He was also known as Bacchus ( or ; ) by the Gre ...

astride a tigress. It was discovered during building work on

. The surviving pieces have been in the

British Museum The British Museum is a Museum, public museum dedicated to human history, art and culture located in the Bloomsbury area of London. Its permanent collection of eight million works is the largest in the world. It documents the story of human cu ...

since 1880. One of the first telephone exchanges in London was installed at 101 Leadenhall Street in 1879. The Leadenhall Building (No. 122) is used as the venue for the

BBC The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) is a British public service broadcaster headquartered at Broadcasting House in London, England. Originally established in 1922 as the British Broadcasting Company, it evolved into its current sta ...

's '' The Apprentice'' interviews.

References

External links

* {{Coord, 51.51346, N, 0.081, W, type:landmark_region:GB, display=title, format=dms Streets in the City of London