The Royal Exchange

Designed by Sir William Tite and opened by Queen Victoria on 28 October 1844 - though trading did not commence until 1 January 1845 - this was the third Royal Exchange to be built on the site, the second having been destroyed by fire in 1838. The building ceased to operate as a centre of commerce in 1939. Today it is a shopping centre. The equestrian statue of the Duke of Wellington in front of the portico was cast from French cannon captured during the Napoleonic War.

The building on the left is the Bank of England. Designed by Sir John Soane, it was demolished by Sir Herbert Baker, a rebuilding which Pevsner called 'the greatest architectural crime, in the City of London, of the twentieth century.'


Photographed by the London Stereoscopic Company.