Lloyd's of London

Known for being willing to insure anything, today we toured the Lloyd’s of London. Our tour guide Paul told us about the history of the institution dating back to 1688. Edward Lloyd decided to start renting space out of his coffee shop after realizing the key to insurance was information. For the first 200 years they only provided marine insurance. A worker would enter looking to insure their ship, and after working out the terms and conditions and paying the premium they would have insurance. Financial bankers, underwriters, brokers and other members would swarm the building discussing risks and trying to ensure their ships. It wasn’t until 1903 that they began insuring ships that navigated on land, a.k.a cars. The first aircraft they tried to insure crashed the next day.

An interesting fact we learned was that they also insured the Titanic and its sister ship Olympia. Considering it was supposed to be deemed unsinkable, they were excited about this business proposition until it sank putting a lot of insurers out of business. Surprisingly, the company raised the money in thirty days.

Another interesting part of the company is the book that is kept up to date with any ship that is lost in the world, whether it is insured by them or not. If a ship is lost, the bell sitting in the center will be rung once, and if it returns it is rung twice. This bell was also rang when Queen Elizabeth passed away, and twice when King Charles was crowned.

Some other facts I found interesting is the building took eight years to build, and currently takes two months to clean because it is polished by hand by four men. Women weren’t allowed to work there until 1972, and the famous captain Lord Nelson continued commanding his soldiers during the battle versus Napoleon even after getting his arm amputated with no anesthesia.

Overall, it was a nice experience learning about the structure of the market, how it operates, and how they are still preserving their history.