Summer Visit to Lloyd's

On Friday, members of the YPG visited Lloyd's for the first time since the group was founded.

Lloyd's is the world's specialist insurance and reinsurance market with expertise that spans centuries. Lloyd's is the foundation of the insurance industy and the future of it. The YPG were lucky enough to take a tour of this iconic location.

The Lloyd's building at 1 Lime Street was designed by renowned British architect Lord Richard Rogers and was opened by Her Majesty The Queen in 1986. Famous for having all of the building services - staircases, lifts, lobbies toilets and waterpipes on the outside of the building leaving the interior dominated by the spectacular 60 metre high central atrium.

The tour conducted by Martin Leach talked us through the history of Lloyd's and its specialist market. He gave us an insight into the workings of the market place, and how negotiations between brokers and underwriters started and is still practiced in the same fashion to this day.

Lloyd's faces challenges of the modern world, and slowly is moving towards Electronic Placement Systems (PPL) across the board to keep up with a rapidly changing market. The hot topic of conversation was the impact of Brexit and what this means for such a historic practice with an internationally diverse portfolio of clients, the market is now moving in a new and exciting direction to overcome these challenges which could see a change in how the brokers and underwriters operate today.

One of the most iconic features of the building is the Lutine Bell, from HMS Lutine when the ship sank in 1799. The Lutine bell was salvaged 60 years later and returned to Lloyd's, where it now hangs in the Rostrum in the centre of the underwriting room. The bell only rang to signal when a ship was lost to the sea, but now is only rung on special occasions such as remembrance day.

Below the Lutine bell is the loss book recording all lost ships since 1774, entries are recorded every day using the traditional method of quill and ink.

In 1956 Lloyd's attended an auction at Bowood House Wiltshire with the intention of purchasing a marble fireplace for the chairman's office in Lime Street. When they left they had acquired the fireplace and the entire room surrounding it. Weighing 30 tonnes the room was cut into 1,500 pieces before being relocated to London and has since been relocated on three occasions.

Following the sucess of the tour we are looking to arrange another visit in the near future, so keep an eye out for more information.