Lombard Street, London - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

Lombard Street is a street in the City of London

City of London

The City of London is a small area within Greater London, England. It is the historic core of London around which the modern conurbation grew and has held city status since time immemorial. The City’s boundaries have remained almost unchanged since the Middle Ages, and it is now only a tiny part of...

.

It runs from the corner of the Bank of England

Bank of England

The Bank of England is the central bank of the United Kingdom and the model on which most modern central banks have been based. Established in 1694, it is the second oldest central bank in the world...

at its north-west end, where it meets a major junction including Poultry

Cheapside

Cheapside is a street in the City of London that links Newgate Street with the junction of Queen Victoria Street and Mansion House Street. To the east is Mansion House, the Bank of England, and the major road junction above Bank tube station. To the west is St. Paul's Cathedral, St...

, King William Street

King William Street (London)

King William Street is the name of a street in the City of London, England. It runs from a junction at the Bank of England, meeting Poultry, Lombard Street and Threadneedle Street, south-east, where it meets a junction with Gracechurch and Cannon Street. It continues south after this junction, and...

, and Threadneedle Street

Threadneedle Street

Threadneedle Street is a street in the City of London, leading from a junction with Poultry, Cornhill, King William Street and Lombard Street, to Bishopsgate....

, south-east to Gracechurch Street

Gracechurch Street

Gracechurch Street is a street in the City of London which forms part of the A10. It is home to a number of shops, restaurants, offices and Leadenhall Market....

.

It was a piece of land granted by Edward I of England

Edward I of England

Edward I , also known as Edward Longshanks and the Hammer of the Scots, was King of England from 1272 to 1307. The first son of Henry III, Edward was involved early in the political intrigues of his father's reign, which included an outright rebellion by the English barons...

to goldsmiths from a part of Northern Italy known as Lombardy

Lombardy

Lombardy is one of the 20 regions of Italy. The capital is Milan. One-sixth of Italy's population lives in Lombardy and about one fifth of Italy's GDP is produced in this region, making it the most populous and richest region in the country and one of the richest in the whole of Europe...

(larger than the modern Lombardy

Lombardy

region).

It is the site of the church of St Mary Woolnoth

St Mary Woolnoth

St. Mary Woolnoth is an Anglican church in the City of London, designed by Nicholas Hawksmoor, located on the corner of Lombard Street and King William Street near the Bank of England.- Early history :...

, and number 54 was the long-standing headquarters of Barclays Bank before they moved to One Churchill Place

One Churchill Place

One Churchill Place is a 156 m tall skyscraper with 32 floors, serving as the headquarters of Barclays Bank. It is in the Docklands area of London in Canary Wharf...

in Canary Wharf

Canary Wharf

Canary Wharf is a major business district located in London, United Kingdom. It is one of London's two main financial centres, alongside the traditional City of London, and contains many of the UK's tallest buildings, including the second-tallest , One Canada Square...

. Until the 1980s most UK-based banks had their head offices in Lombard Street and historically it has been the London home for money lenders.

The church of St Edmund the King and Martyr

St Edmund the King and Martyr

St Edmund, King and Martyr is an Anglican church in Lombard Street, in the City of London dedicated to St Edmund the Martyr.-History:In 1292, the church is first recorded as 'Saint Edmund towards Garcherche', and it reappears in 1348 as 'Saint Edmund in Lombardestrete'...

stands on the north side close to Gracechurch Street

Gracechurch Street

Gracechurch Street is a street in the City of London which forms part of the A10. It is home to a number of shops, restaurants, offices and Leadenhall Market....

. Destroyed during the Great Fire of London

Great Fire of London

The Great Fire of London was a major conflagration that swept through the central parts of the English city of London, from Sunday, 2 September to Wednesday, 5 September 1666. The fire gutted the medieval City of London inside the old Roman City Wall...

in 1666, the church was rebuilt during the 1670s by Sir Christopher Wren. It is no longer open for regular worship

Worship

Worship is an act of religious devotion usually directed towards a deity. The word is derived from the Old English worthscipe, meaning worthiness or worth-ship — to give, at its simplest, worth to something, for example, Christian worship.Evelyn Underhill defines worship thus: "The absolute...

and now performs service as the London Centre for Spirituality.

Lloyd's Coffee House, which eventually became Lloyd's of London

Lloyd's of London

Lloyd's, also known as Lloyd's of London, is a British insurance and reinsurance market. It serves as a partially mutualised marketplace where multiple financial backers, underwriters, or members, whether individuals or corporations, come together to pool and spread risk...

, moved to Lombard Street near the General Post Office from Tower Street in 1691. Lloyd's is now located in Lime Street

Lime Street, London

Lime Street is a street in the City of London between Fenchurch Street to the south and Leadenhall Street to the north.The northern portion of the street is pedestrianised...

, where its new headquarters building

Lloyd's building

The Lloyd's building is the home of the insurance institution Lloyd's of London, and is located at 1, Lime Street, in the City of London, England.-Design:...

was completed in 1986.

The closest tube stations are Bank and Monument

Bank and Monument stations

Bank and Monument are interlinked London Underground and Docklands Light Railway stations that form a public transport complex spanning the length of King William Street in the City of London. Bank station, named after the Bank of England, opened in 1900 and is served by the Central, Northern and...

.

Gregory de Rokesley, eight times Lord Mayor of the City of London from 1274 to 1281 and in 1285, lived in a building on the site of what is now number 72 Lombard Street and Pope's Head Alley. Alexander Pope

Alexander Pope

Alexander Pope was an 18th-century English poet, best known for his satirical verse and for his translation of Homer. He is the third-most frequently quoted writer in The Oxford Dictionary of Quotations, after Shakespeare and Tennyson...

, poet, was born at number 32 Lombard Street in 1688.

Language and literature

In literature it is generally written as "Lombard-street". The spacing and the capitalisation of Street were not common until well into the second half of the 20th century. For example, Harold Pinter

Harold Pinter

Harold Pinter, CH, CBE was a Nobel Prize–winning English playwright and screenwriter. One of the most influential modern British dramatists, his writing career spanned more than 50 years. His best-known plays include The Birthday Party , The Homecoming , and Betrayal , each of which he adapted to...

has a scene about people attempting to get to (or from) Bolsover-street

Bolsover Street

Bolsover Street is in the Parish of St Marylebone in London’s West End. In administrative terms it lies within the City of Westminster's Marylebone High Street Ward and is partly in the Harley Street Conservation Area whilst also sitting on the edges of the Regents Park and East Marylebone...

, and Betjeman's poem Early Electric calls it Oxford-street

Oxford Street

Oxford Street is a major thoroughfare in the City of Westminster in the West End of London, United Kingdom. It is Europe's busiest shopping street, as well as its most dense, and currently has approximately 300 shops. The street was formerly part of the London-Oxford road which began at Newgate,...

(which earlier was Oxford Road, and is the source of the A4

A4 road

The A4 is a major road in England, portions of which are known as the Great West Road and Bath Road. It runs from London to Avonmouth, near Bristol. Historically the road was the main route from London to the west of England, and has formed the second main western artery from London, after...

, Great Western Road).

'Lombard-street to a China orange' is an old-fashioned idiom meaning very heavily weighted odds; Lombard-street signifying wealth and a China orange poverty.
Lombard Street, A Description of the Money Market
Lombard Street, A Description of the Money Market
Lombard Street: A Description of the Money Market is an influential book by Walter Bagehot. Bagehot was one of the first writers to describe and explain the world of international and corporate finance, banking, and money in understandable language....

is a book by the economics philosopher Walter Bagehot

Walter Bagehot

Walter Bagehot was an English businessman, essayist, and journalist who wrote extensively about literature, government, and economic affairs.-Early years:...

, published in 1873. Bagehot was one of the first writers to describe and explain the world of international and corporate finance

Corporate finance

Corporate finance is the area of finance dealing with monetary decisions that business enterprises make and the tools and analysis used to make these decisions. The primary goal of corporate finance is to maximize shareholder value while managing the firm's financial risks...

, banking, and money

Money

Money is any object or record that is generally accepted as payment for goods and services and repayment of debts in a given country or socio-economic context. The main functions of money are distinguished as: a medium of exchange; a unit of account; a store of value; and, occasionally in the past,...

in understandable language. The book was in part a reaction to the 1866 collapse of Overend, Gurney and Company

Overend, Gurney and Company

Overend, Gurney & Company was a London wholesale discount bank, known as "the bankers' bank", which collapsed in 1866 owing about 11 million pounds, equivalent to £981 million at 2008 prices.-Early years:...

, located at 65 Lombard Street, from which the title draws its name.

Language and literature

See also