The first Lloyd’s building at 12 Leadenhall Street had been built on this site in 1928. In 1958, due to a significant expansion of the market, a new building was constructed across the road at 51 Lime Street (now the site of the Willis Building. Lloyd’s now occupied the Heysham Building and the Cooper Building.
By the 1970s Lloyd’s had again outgrown these two buildings and proposed to extend the Cooper Building. In 1978, the corporation ran an architectural competition which attracted designs from various architects. Lloyd’s commissioned Richard Rogers to redevelop the site, and the original 1928 building on the western corner of Lime and Leadenhall Streets was demolished to make way for the present one which was officially opened by Queen Elisabeth II on 18 November 1986. The 1928 building’s entrance at 12 Leadenhall Street was preserved and forms an attachment to the 1986 structure. Demolition of the 1958 building commenced in 2004 to make way for the 26-storey Willis Building.
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