Your saves are on this device only.
Your browser may clear them at any time. You won't be able to see them on other devices. Create a free account or sign in to keep them safe in the cloud.
A political history of Britain in the places where it happened: parliament and palace, courts and counting houses, and the streets where people pushed back.
London's most consequential vanished office: the company that ruled India from Leadenhall Street.
EmpireMoney & the CityFree to enter
From 1648 until 1862 the headquarters of the East India Company stood here. Chartered by Elizabeth I in 1600 simply to trade, it acquired forts, then armies, then tax revenues, then territory, until its directors in the City were governing more people than lived in Britain. The last building carried a sculpture of Britannia receiving the wealth of the East above its portico, which is an unusually frank statement of the arrangement. When the Crown took over direct rule after the rebellion of 1857 the Company's purpose ended, and the building was pulled down. Banks, churches and livery halls survive all around it; the corporation that did more than any of them to make the empire left nothing to look at, which is a fact in itself.
Submit a correction for this listing.
Data is compiled from public sources including OpenStreetMap, under the ODbL. Hours change often, so check before making a journey.