rewarding secrets. The Drapers’ Company
received its charter in 1364 and bought the site
of its present hall in 1543 from Henry VIII. Its
original hall was mostly destroyed in the Great
Fire and rebuilt in 1667—work hidden behind
later Georgian- and Victorian-era alterations.
Drapers’ Hall is unusual in standing on its own
private, gated road, Throgmorton Avenue, built
in the 1870s and complete with a quiet garden.
6 | 1881 | LEADENHALL MARKET
Public Life and Commerce
Tucked behind the futuristic Lloyd’s building,
Leadenhall Market is one of London’s most
attractive remaining bits of Victoriana.
The buildings date from 1881, but there has
been a general market on this site since 1445.
Courtesy of Sir Horace Jones, the designer
of Tower Bridge, cast-iron columns support
glazed roofs above small shops and restaurants. Leadenhall Market occupies a historic
site on the summit of one of the t wo low hills
of Londinium; beneath it lie remains of the
Roman forum, including the lower courses
of an arch that can be seen in the basement
of Nicholson & Gri;n’s barbershop on the
corner of Gracechurch Street.
7 | 1922 | TEN TRINIT Y SQUARE
Connection to the World
The Port of London Authority was formed
in 1909 to run all the docks of London, then
the largest seaport in the world,
and to be responsible for the
River Thames from Teddington
to the ocean. Its splendid
headquarters—today home
to the new Four Seasons Hotel
London at Ten Trinity Square
and Ten Trinity Square, The
Residences at Four Seasons—was
designed by Sir Edwin Cooper
and built bet ween 1912 and 1922.
A Grade II* landmark on the
Statutory List of Buildings of
Special Architectural or Historic
Interest, the building’s great
tower features a statue of Old
Father Thames, who points
downriver to the source of
London’s trade. The reception
for the first general assembly
of the United Nations, held in
1946, was hosted here in what is
now known as the UN Ballroom,
Faisal of Saudi Arabia and U. S. first lady
Eleanor Roosevelt.
8 | 1969 | THE BARBICAN
Rubble and Reinvention
December 29, 1940, was one of the worst nights
of the London Blitz. In 1958, the City Corporation bought 35 acres that had been destroyed
that night, and commissioned Chamberlin,
Powell and Bon to design a massive complex:
more than 2,000 apartments in residential
blocks and three 40-storey towers. The
Brutalist concrete style divided critics even
before its completion. Though many considered
it overbearing, and its layout ba;es first-time
visitors, it has acquired fans, as well as a noteworthy performing arts centre, finished in
1982—the largest of its kind in Europe—and is
now one of London’s most desirable addresses.
9 | 1986 | THE LLOYD’S BUILDING
Business and Innovation
Starting small at Edward Lloyd’s co;ee house
in the 1680s, London’s maritime insurance
market gradually evolved into the giant Lloyd’s
of London. In 1986 it moved into its fourth
and largest building, designed by architect
Richard Rogers using a modular system for
future flexibility. All the services hang on the
outside—lifts, toilet “pods,” drainage, wiring
and refuse ducts included. This inside-out
approach, with a concrete frame clad in glass
and stainless steel, was revolutionary. In 2011
it became the youngest building ever to be given
Grade I status, putting it on a list of protected
monuments that includes St Paul’s Cathedral.
10 | 2020 | BLOOMBERG LONDON
Past and Future in Harmony
Michael Bloomberg’s empire has grown quickly
since its first London o;ce opened in 1987, with
38 sta;. Its European headquarters, begun in
2010 and set to open by 2020, will have 4,600
desk spaces and cover 3. 2 acres. Designed by
Sir Norman Foster + Partners, t wo 10-storey
blocks are separated by an internal street that
follows the line of a Roman road. The massive
structure is supported by thousands of piles
and clad in English sandstone and innovative
polished bronze fins that shade the windows
and channel fresh air inside. Underneath lie the
remains of a Roman temple, circa AD 240, to be
reconstructed in the basement on its original
site, putting one of London’s oldest buildings
inside one of its newest—and bringing our
story almost back to where it began. ;
London-based writer Christopher Stocks contributed
to the new Uncommon London guide and has been a
features editor at House & Garden and a contributing
editor at Wallpaper*.
“Underneath Bloomberg London lie the remains of
a Roman temple, circa AD
240, to be reconstructed in
the basement, putting one
of London’s oldest buildings
inside one of its newest. ”
TEN IN ONE | City of London Today
Illustration Ole Häntzschel
The Barbican
London Bridge
Drapers’ Hall
The Monument
Tower of
London
The Lloyd’s Building
Leadenhall Market
Roman
Amphitheatre
Bloomberg
London
St Bartholomew the Great
Four Seasons
Hotel London at
Ten Trinity Square
