Lloyd's Coffee House

Lloyd’s Coffee House stood in the City of London during the 17th and 18th centuries. Edward Lloyd opened it on Tower Street in 1686 for sailors, merchants and shipowners. The coffee house moved to Lombard Street in 1691 where Lloyd installed a pulpit for announcing auction prices and shipping news. Candle auctions were held there, often for ships and cargo. Edward Lloyd also published Lloyd’s News, a short-lived newspaper about maritime matters. After his death in 1713 the business passed to his head waiter William Newton and later to Newton’s brother-in-law Samuel Sheppard. In 1774 the members moved to the Royal Exchange and became the Society of Lloyd’s. The coffee house is remembered for shaping London’s insurance market. Lloyd’s of London, Lloyd’s Register and Lloyd’s List all trace their origins to these meetings. Eric Williams notes that advertisements for runaway slaves directed return to the coffee house. The business later became a leading insurer of slave ships in the Transatlantic trade. A surviving 17th-century shop frontage is kept by Lloyd’s of London and was displayed at the National Maritime Museum in 2011. A blue plaque on Lombard Street marks the site of the second coffee house, now beneath a Sainsbury’s supermarket. Visitors can see the original shop frontage on display at the National Maritime Museum. The blue plaque on Lombard Street recalls the coffee house’s second home. The site is now occupied by a supermarket at ground level. The story of the coffee house is also told in the 1936 film Lloyd’s of London. Organisations such as Lloyd’s of London, Lloyd’s Register and Lloyd’s List continue its legacy worldwide.