The Lloyd’s Register Building
A guide to the building’s heritage and design
Contents
1. Introduction
2. A brief history of the Lloyd’s Register Building
3. Lloyd’s Register and Fenchurch Street
4. Design in detail
5. Architects, artists and artisans of the Lloyd’s Register Building
6. Glossary of terms
The Lloyd’s Register Building
This is the story of the Lloyd’s Register Building; the 1901 vision of turn-of-the-century grandeur restored and reimagined for the 21st century.
This brochure takes you on a journey through the origins of the building at 71 Fenchurch Street, its intricate design and evolution into an accessible, sustainable and dynamic hub for Lloyd’s Register and Lloyd’s Register Foundation.
You will find out how the site has changed since the 1901 concept, how subsequent development of adjoining buildings shaped decades of growth, and how the 2025 refurbishment has reconnected the organisation with its historic headquarters. Along the way, archaeological discoveries beneath the foundations revealed traces of Roman life, medieval occupation and centuries of activity that have created this corner of London.
From visionary architecture to state-of-the-art archives, this is a building designed not just to be admired but to bring people together, support new ways of working and open its rich heritage to the world.
Who we are
Lloyd’s Register (LR) is a global professional services group specialising in marine engineering, technology and digital solutions. We were created more than 260 years ago as the world’s first marine classification society to improve and set standards for the safety of ships.
Today we are a leading provider of classification and compliance services to the marine and offshore industries, helping our clients design, construct and operate their assets to accepted levels of safety and environmental compliance.
Lloyd’s Register Foundation is an independent global safety charity with a mission to engineer a safer world. With our partnerships, and in harnessing over 260 years of maritime safety knowledge, the Foundation focuses on enhancing the safety of life and property through the development of standards and education.
The Foundation is also home to the Heritage Centre, which cares for and curates our library and archive collections. Open to researchers, visitors and the public, these resources are an unparalleled reserve of knowledge on the evolution of maritime safety and the complex factors that drive this process.
The Lloyd’s Register Building is a landmark, an office, an events venue, library and archive. It is a building restored so that it can become an active contributor to the Foundation’s mission, and a space in which our partners can come together. We also host public lectures, university groups and researchers, and encourage anyone interested in exploring our heritage spaces to get in touch.
All photography is © Lloyd’s Register unless otherwise stated.
A brief history of the Lloyd’s Register Building
The Lloyd’s Register Building at 71 Fenchurch Street stands at the heart of a story that stretches back to the bustling maritime economy of 18th century London.
Lloyd’s Register originated in Edward Lloyd’s 17th Coffee House house, where shipowners, captains, and merchants gathered to exchange intelligence about vessels and voyages. Established in 1760, the organisation that would become Lloyd’s Register took up residence at several places across the City of London over the following 140 years. The ever-increasing size and influence of the British merchant fleet, the rapidly evolving technology, and developing standards in safety and welfare meant the Register grew from strength to strength. By the end of the 19th century, it was decided Lloyd’s Register needed purpose built headquarters. In 1898 the organisation purchased land on Fenchurch Street, in an area that was at the time a mercantile hinterland bordering the smarter streets of the City.
The architect Thomas Edward Collcutt was commissioned to design a building to express the organisation’s importance as a fundamental part of Britain’s maritime system; it needed to exude prosperity, ambition, and permanence. What rose between 1899 and 1901 was a lavish Italianate palazzo in Portland stone, adorned with sculptural allegories of commerce, navigation and industry.
Over the 20th century the growing Lloyd’s Register expanded into buildings along Fenchurch Street and Lloyd’s Avenue, keeping and continually altering 71 Fenchurch Street. In 2000, the purpose-built Rogers Building at 70 Fenchurch Street was opened as the new headquarters, and the older building was altered again to suit it’s new, supporting role.
By 2019 the building at 71 Fenchurch Street was over a century old. Its internal qualities were characterised more by 20th-century piecemeal alterations and services than the surviving historic details, and it was in need of major works in order to be a sustainable city landmark.
Between 2019 and 2025 the Grade II* listed building was comprehensively refurbished and transformed. The ambitious programme involved carefully restoring historic spaces and introducing future-proofing new services into areas of lesser significance. The works created a new archive service and heritage centre, a home for both Lloyd’s Register and Lloyd’s Register Foundation, and coincided with the sale of the Rogers Building in 2026.
Today, the renamed Lloyd’s Register Building is once again the headquarters of Lloyd’s Register, and has also become a destination for those who share our vision. It is a space and platform where maritime innovation and history, evidence and insight, can be used to engineer a safer world.
Lloyd’s Register and Fenchurch Street
Following its foundation in 1760 at Edward Lloyd’s Coffee House, Lloyd’s Register occupied several different premises across the City of London; it was based at White Lion Court, off Cornhill, but by the late 19th century it was rapidly outgrowing its premises. A Building Subcommittee, led by John Corry, was tasked with the hunt for a new suitable site.
A General Committee member, James Dixon, offered to sell part of the land he owned in a deeply unfashionable area of the City; a 7,700 sq. ft plot on Fenchurch Street amid warehouses and mixed trades. Despite initial reservations, Dixon’s persistence paid off: the Committee purchased the site in February 1898 for £66,518.
This purchase, followed by the creation of Lloyd’s Avenue on land donated by Dixon to the City of London, transformed the fortunes of Fenchurch Street. What had been a distinctly mercantile district emerged as a prestigious institutional address, reshaping the character of the neighbourhood.
Finally, in October 1898, a design by the well-respected architect Thomas Edward Collcutt was agreed on.
The 1901 build
Collcutt’s vision blended Renaissance inspiration with bold artistic detail. He chose only the finest materials: Portland stone and carved Hopton Wood stone for the façades, and a rich interior palette of marble, mahogany and oak. Every element, from the stonemasonry to the sculptural work, was crafted by leading artists and master tradespeople of the era.
One of the City’s most distinctive architectural achievements.
Construction began in 1899, led by the renowned contractor Mowlems Ltd, whose exceptional stonework had already earned wide admiration. The building’s decorative richness meant progress was slow, and it took nearly three years to complete. The organisation took possession of the new headquarters in December 1901; a palazzo-like structure that still stands today as one of the City’s most distinctive architectural achievements.
Building plan for 71 Fenchurch Street, c.1900. LR/3/1/102.
Drawing of the Lloyd’s Register Building, c.1901.
Building plan for 71 Fenchurch Street, c. 1898. LR/3/1/66.
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Expansion into adjoining buildings |
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For decades following the construction of 71 Fenchurch Street, Lloyd’s Register’s London headquarters expanded to encompass several neighbouring buildings along both Fenchurch Street and Lloyd’s Avenue. Dixon’s company developed plots along the new Lloyd’s Avenue as the new headquarters took shape. One of these, Coronation House, was built in 1902. Designed by Barron Emanuel, with Collcutt as consultant, it was built in Ham stone and echoed the classical richness of 71 Fenchurch Street. Lloyd’s Register acquired Coronation House in 1960, occupying the building after a 1969 refurbishment; today only its façade remains. By 1908, Dixon, now Chairman of the General Committee, urged the purchase of Nos. 68–70. Unable to agree terms, Lloyd’s Register waited until 1925 to acquire the building. Soon after, the adjacent church of St Katherine Coleman (which officially closed in 1926) was bought and demolished for redevelopment. Collcutt’s partner, Stanley Hinge Hamp, proposed an ambitious scheme for the area, but Lloyd’s Register opted instead to lease the site to Edward Howard, who commissioned Ernest G. W. Souster to design Haddon House. Subsequently Hamp was brought in to enliven the design of the façade. The result still fell short of relating convincingly to the Fenchurch Street buildings or the preserved churchyard, but it was at least richly decorative. Lloyd’s Register reacquired Haddon House in 1956 and continued the expansion, purchasing nearby properties through the 1950s and 60s. |
The Rogers Building
By the 1990s, the organisation had outgrown its historic home and next-door buildings, with overflow offices scattered around Fenchurch Street. The solution was the Rogers Building, designed for Lloyd’s Register by the Richard Rogers Partnership and built on a site provided by the demolition of its adjoining buildings (Haddon House, Magpie House and most of Coronation House).
With 13 stories of glass and steel towers within a constrained plot set behind 71 Fenchurch Street, the building was a striking expression of contemporary ambitions that was at the same time designed to blend into the streetscape. It is set back from the street so that when viewed from Fenchurch Street from the east or west it is alternatively hidden from view or blends into the streetscape. The Rogers Building was completed in 2000 and opened by Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II.
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Left: The Rogers Building and courtyard.
Right: The Rogers Building situated behind the East India Arms.
The Rogers Building.
© Strat Mastoris
The archaeological excavation
When work began on the Rogers Building in the 1990s, it opened a rare opportunity for archaeologists to explore a large area of the eastern Roman and medieval city. Between 1996 and 1997, the Museum of London Archaeology (MOLA) carried out extensive excavations after the demolition work on the site.
The team hoped the site would help answer long-standing questions: How early did Romans settle in this part of the City? How far did their occupation spread? And when exactly did activity here decline? While some major landmarks of Roman London were already known, this corner of Fenchurch Street still held many secrets.
Post-excavation analysis has since offered many new insights into the area’s ancient history, findings significant enough to feature in a major academic publication.
The archaeological excavation underway in March 1997. Magpie House had stood in the west of the site (in the foreground), Haddon House to the left (out of shot) and Coronation House in the centre of the photograph.
© Museum of London Archaeology
Roman occupation uncovered
The excavations revealed that this site was far more significant in Roman London than previously understood. The earliest evidence came from boundary and drainage ditches dating to the first century, showing that the area was already being shaped and managed at the very beginning of Roman settlement.
Successive phases of buildings followed from the late first century onward. It had been thought the line of modern streets echoed the Roman roads but many of the buildings were aligned east–west – a striking clue to the original layout of the Roman city and matching the great basilica and forum beneath nearby Leadenhall Market. Some were substantial stone-built structures with shallow basements and surrounding timber outbuildings.
A small stream once flowed across the site, supplying fresh water and likely encouraging development. Its course was later filled as the city grew. Inside several Roman rooms, archaeologists found remarkable traces of interior decoration: plastered and painted walls in vivid colour, and an unusual ‘ribbon-pointing’ technique, thin red lines painted onto exposed stonework to imitate finer ashlar masonry. Some of these fragments have since been carefully reconstructed.
A bronze figurine depicting a seated sphinx, possibly used as decoration on a vessel lid. The sphinx is a classical symbol of death.
© Museum of London Archaeology
The western side of the site revealed a large second-century building, possibly public in function. Its debris contained clues to the high status of its occupants, including a bronze sphinx of near eastern origin, Balkan vessel glass and fragments of a shale table. This building may have been destroyed by fire, and by the late second century the area fell into decline, mirroring trends across Roman London’s edges.
Occupation resumed in the mid-third century with high-status houses, one featuring a hypocaust (underfloor heating). Nearby timber structures suggest commercial activity supported this prosperity. By the later fourth century, however, the site was abandoned, leaving behind only a single fifth-century pottery sherd, the last whisper of Roman life before the area fell into centuries of quiet ‘dark earth’.
The work undertaken on the site by the archaeologists from the Museum of London Archaeology in 1996/97.
© Museum of London Archaeology
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Medieval developments |
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In the medieval period, the site saw new activity as stone from earlier Roman buildings was reused and a patchwork of rubbish pits and wells developed behind properties that lined Fenchurch Street, some dating back to the 11th century. Archaeologists also uncovered the foundations of the medieval church of St. Katherine Coleman, along with 12 burials and traces of its brick-built structure. Nearby cesspits from the 16th and 17th centuries yielded remarkable finds, including the earliest known example of imported late-17th century Persian pottery. |
Top Left: Lloyd’s Register Foundation office space.
Top Middle: Lloyd’s Register office space.
Top Right: The redesigned fifth floor.
Centre: The reference library and reading rooms.
Bottom Left: The Auditorium.
Bottom Right: Lloyd’s Register boardroom.
The refurbishment
Between 2000 and 2025, Collcutt’s building and the Rogers Building functioned as a combined and much expanded headquarters; that changed in 2019, with plans to transform 71 Fenchurch Street and give it a renewed purpose.
The goal: to create “a destination for those in the broader industry and for our stakeholders to make a real impact.”
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The vision |
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The aim was to transform Collcutt’s building into a place where people – Lloyd’s Register employees and partner organisations – are encouraged to come together. The building had been purpose-built in 1901 to do just this, but alterations made over the following century had led, by the late 2010s, to awkward spaces and aging services ill-suited for modern working or the complex demands of the future, and increasingly unclear or languishing historic features. The project set out to create a sustainable, adaptable, accessible workplace and cultural hub for the 21st century, one set within Collcutt’s distinctly commercial and institutional 1901 plan. The refurbishment needed to separate the historic building from the Rogers building, and within the 6,500sqm footprint create new office, meeting, archive and event spaces. It needed to proactively adapt the Grade II* building so that its long-term viability could be secured, the heritage safeguarded for future generations, and return it into use as the organisation’s headquarters. |
The new Lloyd’s Register Building
To secure the future of 71 Fenchurch Street, the Grade II* listed building needed to be sustainable – the preservation of its heritage needed to be balanced by the demands of the future. This carefully managed evolution was achieved thanks to the collaborative work between heritage officers, planning consultants, architects, and Lloyd’s Register Foundation’s own heritage team, each working to secure the City of London’s buy-in to the ambitious scheme.
The General Committee Room.
The project began by seeking to understand the building’s original 1901 design and the activity that had shaped it since. Modern interventions could then fit into areas of least historic importance, and features most essential to understanding the building’s heritage could be restored or reinstated. The old could be carefully balanced with the new.
Modern office facilities, new event spaces, and environmental services were created across all five floors and two basement levels. At second, third, fourth and fifth floors this was less of a challenge as little to no original plan or features remained, but the ground and first floors had always been intended as the organisations’ ornate, public-facing spaces, and most important to the history of the building. Balancing the character of these spaces with the need to make them work, the refurbishment introduced an open plan office, kitchens and meeting rooms within the ground floor, alongside a new library and public reading room for the Heritage Centre, and a public exhibition space next to the entrance within the old library. At first floor, office and meeting rooms exist within the complex of former clerk offices and boardrooms, each restored and equipped with rich detailing and interpretation material, alongside modern lighting and environmental controls.
A cutting-edge archive facility was created within the tight constraints of the two basement floors. This created dense shelving storage and conservation facilities, as well as spacious public research and study rooms, a part of a new Heritage Centre complemented by the street-level library and exhibition spaces.
Lloyd’s Register Foundation kitchenette.
Accessibility has also been significantly enhanced, including a new Equality Act compliant lift, and step-free access created within the historically significant loggia entrance on Fenchurch Street. A new staircase was also designed to be sympathetic to the Rogers Building as it sits in the courtyard adjacent to that building.
The goal and result was to create an environment which could give employees a sense of pride and purpose, with modern and heritage spaces that champion the great stories of the past, present and future. The Lloyd’s Register Building now stands as both a working space and a place of inspiration: where history informs innovation, where learning is shared openly and where people come together to create meaningful impact. Whether through research, collaboration or public engagement, the building is once again ready to welcome the world and to help shape the next generation of maritime, engineering and safety excellence.
Design in detail
The exterior
The Fenchurch Street façade
The Fenchurch Street façade is where Collcutt’s architectural ambition shines most vividly.
Five bays wide and built from high-quality Portland stone, the front of the building follows a grand classical style, rising from the solid ground floor to the prominent first floor and roof level. Hopton Wood stone adds extra richness to the sculptures at street level, highlighting the craftsmanship seen throughout the building.
Exterior of the Lloyd’s Register building with a close up of the intricate façade and ornate wrought iron gates. Visitors enter through ornate wrought-iron gates that guard a central arched doorway. Each gate carries a repoussé copper shield showing the ‘Lloyd’s Register lady’ holding a ship and an anchor – a strong symbol of the organisation’s maritime heritage. The entrance loggia extends on both sides, with a vaulted ceiling stencilled with shells, seaweed, and fish by Shrigley & Hunt. Heavy mahogany doors with brass plates complete the impressive entrance.
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Exterior of the Lloyd’s Register building with a close up of the intricate façade and ornate wrought iron gates.
Above this, layers of classical details create drama. The first floor has tall sash windows framed by ionic columns and a blind balustrade. The floor above steps back slightly and features heavier blocked columns, adding weight and grandeur to the upper part of the façade.
The centrepiece of the façade is a remarkable tableau by sculptor George Frampton. At the centre, his raised keystone carving shows a Lloyd’s Register lady above a scroll with the motto ‘Lloyd’s Registry’, flanked by the arms of Glasgow and Newcastle. Around her, symbolic Arts and Crafts maidens carry ships, tools, and maritime plans.
A celebration of trade, industry, and navigation
The narrative continues across the tableau. On the left, Mercury, messenger of the gods, stands before a globe surrounded by ships and processions of gift bearing maidens. On the right, Hermes appears with a quadrant and tortoise shell used to make the first lyre. He symbolises travel, trade and ingenuity, again flanked by maidens and merchant ships.
Even the other keystones pay homage to Britain’s maritime cities: Liverpool’s liverbird to the left, and the City of London’s shield to the right. Together, they anchor the building not just in place, but in purpose.
The Lloyd's Register Ladybadge symbol originated in 1799. It showed a nymph standing beside an anchor with a large book bearing the address of the Society next to her.
Much of this design was retained in the badge adopted in 1834 by the reconstituted Lloyd's Register of British and Foreign Shipping.
The nymph became a goddess, holding in her right hand a caduceus, the winged staff of Mercury, borne by him as messenger of the gods. She wore a mural crown (in the form of a wall), indicating Lloyd's Register's foundation in the City of London.
The tourelles
The tourelles are one of Collcutt’s signature features – elegant corner towers that give the Lloyd’s Register Building its distinctive shape. He had used similar designs before, and here they help mark important corners and bring movement to the roofline.
A tourelle at the corner of Lloyd’s Avenue is a brass carrack-shaped weathervane by Hardman & Co.
At the corner with Lloyd’s Avenue, a tourelle starts as a polygonal tower like a Renaissance stair turret. One floor up, it becomes a smooth circular structure of blocked columns supporting a domed roof, softening the building’s outline. Inside the ring of columns, George Frampton’s bronze maidens circle a central figure of the Lloyd’s Register lady, who looks northeast along Fenchurch Street.
At the top sits a brass carrack-shaped weathervane by Hardman & Co. A second tourelle, facing Lloyd’s Avenue, once carried a copper-gilt steamship weathervane, also by Hardman & Co. The original was removed in 1910 and a replica modelled on the S.S. Envoy was added in 2000.
The Lloyd’s Avenue façade
Turning onto Lloyd’s Avenue shows a very different side of the building, highlighting Collcutt’s playful and creative use of classical architecture. Instead of one continuous frontage, the façade is made up of three linked ’palaces’, each with its own style.
The first palace mirrors the grandeur of the Fenchurch Street side, with classical details and sculptural decoration. Bronze maidens holding ships stand between two paired columns, and nearby carvings show the shields of Cardiff, Southampton and Newcastle. A side entrance sits beneath a stone porch, topped by a bull’s-eye window that adds visual interest. More carvings show maidens with galleys and a Lloyd’s Register lady between a steamship and a sailing vessel, symbolising both the organisation’s history and its role.
Exterior of the Lloyd’s Register Building façade on Lloyd’s Avenue.
The second palace has a more rugged Baroque look, with rough masonry and deep joints that give it a strong, almost fortress-like feel. It is simpler than the sections beside it and has no attic level.
The third palace steps back from the street and feels more like a refined townhouse, complete with iron railings. A round tower with a domed roof links it to the central block, adding to the varied rhythm of the façade.
This section also shows Collcutt at his most whimsical. The stonework is filled with playful sea-themed carvings – mermaids, nymphs, dolphins and sea monsters created by the stonemasons J. E. Taylerson.
The interior
Stepping inside the Lloyd’s Register Building reveals an interior designed as a grand architectural journey – a palazzo-inspired procession leading visitors from the entrance hall to the magnificent first-floor rooms. Collcutt conceived the hall, staircase and landing as a single flowing sequence, each space building anticipation for the richly decorated piano nobile above.
The marble work
The entrance hall sets the tone with black-and-white marble flooring, walls lined with grey-veined Torquay marble and a deeply coffered ceiling modelled by George Jackson & Co., the celebrated plaster craftsmen who once worked with Robert Adam.
The sweeping Sicilian marble staircase – with its rich mix of grey, red and black marbles – continues upward to the first-floor landing, where a dramatic arch, bronze frieze and dark marble surrounds reveal Collcutt’s love of Italian Baroque design.
The Grand Hall modelled by George Jackson & Co.
The Lions of Genoa
A pair of speckled grey marble lions guard the entrance hall. These sculptures were the gift of Francisco Schiaffino, the first Lloyd’s Register surveyor in Genoa, appointed in 1872. Genoa remains to this day one of the most important ports in Italy and the lion has long been associated with that city. These two Genoese lions are 19th century versions of a bronze group of 12 similar lions sculpted in 1651 by Matteo Bonicelli. Four of this group now guard the royal throne in the Palacio de Oriente in Madrid.
The Lions of Genoa, a gift of Francisco Schiaffino, the first Lloyd’s Register surveyor in Genoa.
It is recorded how a dissatisfied Lloyd’s Register client smashed one of the Genoa lions when he threw it down the entrance steps of White Lion Court, Lloyd’s Register’s former offices, before the move to Fenchurch Street. Fortunately, Signor Schiaffino’s generosity extended to a replacement lion.
The Old Library
The Old Library is one of the building’s most atmospheric historic rooms – a warm, richly crafted space that reflects a moment of transition in early 20th-century design. Mahogany bookcases inlaid with rosewood and fruitwoods line the room, their art nouveau floral motifs adding a touch of elegance and lightness.
The Old Library, now host to part of the library collection and a public exhibition space.
The upper shelves are delicately glazed, while the lower doors are solid and simply moulded, echoing the refined craftsmanship of Robert Adam’s late 18th-century style. Alexander Howard, who oversaw the woodwork, insisted on using West African mahogany that had been seasoned for a century, and resisted all requests to stain it darker, instead allowing the wood’s natural colour to shine.
Above, the barrel-vaulted ceiling glows with intricate stencilling in iron red, beige and green, created by Shrigley & Hunt. A white marble fireplace by Henry Pegram centres the room, complete with a raised keystone carved with sea horses supported by shipwrights, a quiet nod to Lloyd’s Register’s maritime heritage.
At the room’s centre, paired blue-grey Doric columns rise from a podium of bookcases, supporting the meeting point of the vaulted ceiling, a dramatic and memorable feature that defines the space.
The staircase
The great marble open-well staircase forms one of the most striking architectural features of the Lloyd’s Register Building. It rises in three graceful flights, guiding visitors from the entrance hall up to the richly decorated first-floor rooms and creating a strong sense of ceremony.
View of the grand staircase from the ground floor.
At the bottom of the stairs is a bronze sculpture and plaque by F. Arnold Wright, honouring Lloyd’s Register staff who died in the First World War. Just below the first-floor landing, a marble memorial by Esmond Burton commemorates those who died in the Second World War. Together, they create a moment of quiet reflection within the building’s grandeur.
Higher up, a round stained-glass window glows above the second flight. Designed by Gerald Moira and likely made by James Powell & Sons, it brings the symbols of the four nations of Great Britain together – the rose, thistle, leek and shamrock – filling the stairwell with colour and meaning.
Close up of the Rose Window, designed by Gerald Moira to symbolise the four nations of Great Britain.
At the top stands a marble bust of John Corry, Chairman of the Building Sub-Committee, whose vision shaped the project. Nearby is The Spirit of British Maritime Commerce, a dramatic bronze-and-marble sculpture by Frank Lynn Jenkins which captures the era’s blend of artistry, symbolism and industrial ambition.
The bronze War Memorial for employees lost in the First World War, designed by F Arnold Wright.
The Spirit of British Maritime Commerce
Poised at the top of the grand staircase, The Spirit of British Maritime Commerce commands attention, a dazzling fusion of sculpture, symbolism and late-Victorian imagination. This remarkable work by Frank Lynn Jenkins captures the confidence and ambition of an age shaped by seafaring, trade and industrial progress.
Carved from Carrara marble and wrapped in sweeping patinated bronze wings inlaid with mother-of-pearl, the figure embodies the elegance and dynamism of the era. She holds the caduceus, the ancient symbol of peace and prosperity, as she guides a barge laden with goods through sculpted bronze waves. A lion-headed prow leads the way, pulled forward by sea nymphs whose flowing forms give the entire composition a sense of movement and narrative power.
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Left and Right: The Spirit of British Maritime Commerce by Frank Lynn Jenkins.
This sculpture is a statement piece that captures how artistry and industry intertwined at the turn of the 20th century. Its companion piece, a marble seat with bronze barge-prow ends, reinforces the theme, turning the first-floor landing into a stage set for maritime storytelling.
The first-floor landing
A rich combination of Collcutt’s marble architecture and the art of Gerald Moira and Frank Lynn Jenkins appear on the first-floor landing.
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Left and Right: Close up of the sweeping bronze frieze by Frank Lynn Jenkins.
The first-floor landing is a striking, gallery-like space filled with colour, sculptures and symbolic maritime storytelling. A sweeping bronze frieze by Frank Lynn Jenkins surrounds the landing, depicting ships from Viking longboats to 19th century vessels, with elegant symbolic maidens representing ideas like safety, navigation, peace and justice.
Rich details catch the eye: mother-of-pearl highlights in the waves, silver accents and headdresses set with turquoise and coral. Above, Gerald Moira’s painted vault, decorated with tulips, roses, laurel and fruit, adds warmth and vibrancy. Stained glass, bronze panels and painted lunettes continue the maritime theme, many carrying the ‘LR’ monogram or symbolic scenes labelled ‘safety’ and ’watchfulness’.
Together, these elements create a dramatic and memorable space.
A vivid celebration of Lloyd’s Register’s heritage
The Classing Room
Once a Luncheon Room for Lloyd’s Register members, the Classing Room now offers a glimpse into the building’s early 20th century character. Originally decorated with clerestory windows, a stencilled ceiling by Shrigley & Hunt and nine richly gilded panels painted by Edwin J. Lambert, the room told the story of shipping up to the age of Nelson. Much of this decoration was hidden beneath a false ceiling in the 1960s, installed to house air-conditioning, but the room retains its historic charm.
The Classing Room, former luncheon room for Lloyd’s Register members.
A photograph of the ‘Committee Luncheon Room’ taken by S. B. Bolas & Co. in 1901. The room is set up for an executive dinner.
The surviving features include elegant bolection-moulded wall panels and an ornate fireplace fitted with decorated brass doors and Lloyd’s Register Foundation. beautiful William de Morgan tiles.
The Chairman’s Office
The Chairman’s Office, formerly the Classification Committee Room, showcases the elegance and craftsmanship that defined the 1901 building. Its walls are lined with beautifully executed oak panelling, complete with raised and fielded panels and Ionic pilasters, creating a warm and dignified atmosphere.
The ceiling is a careful 1990s restoration and reproduction of the room’s original decorative scheme – 1960s works to install air-conditioning had removed or damaged much of the original work. What we see today includes the carefully renewal of Shrigley & Hunt’s stencilled ceiling, which was guided by historic watercolour renderings.
A highlight of the room is the oak chimneypiece, topped with a moulded overmantle that frames The Visit of Queen Elizabeth to Sir Francis Drake at Deptford, a striking canvas by Sir Frank Brangwyn. This piece is one of the works by Brangwyn owned by Lloyd’s Register, some of which were specially commissioned for committee rooms in the building.
The Chairman's Office was a room designed to impress, and one that still reflects the organisation's long tradition of craftsmanship and leadership.
The Chairman's Office, after the refurbishment in 2025. It is currently the CEO office for Lloyd's Register Foundation.
The Board Room
The Board Room sits opposite the Chairman’s Office, off the Chairman’s corridor, its long, horizontal layout echoing the wardrooms of great capital ships. Much of the room’s character comes from features relocated from the third-floor Smoking Room during the late-1990s restoration. These elements, including an elegant oak parquet floor, a marble neo-classical chimneypiece and a richly moulded 17th-century-style plaster ceiling, bring warmth and grandeur to the space.
At its centre stands the original 1901 table supplied by Maples & Co. for the first Luncheon Room. Remarkably, when additional leaves were needed over 90 years later, Maples could still provide timber from the same stock. The room also displays several notable artworks, including a painting of the Lizzie Leslie, one of the first ships to be classed +100A1, painted by John Scott.
The Board Room, with ceiling and other features from the Smoking Room previously on the third floor.
The General Committee Room
The General Committee Room has a barrel-vaulted ceiling with side and end lunette panels.
This is the architectural showpiece of the 1901 design, a grand, classical saloon designed to impress.
Entered through double mahogany doors, the General Committee Room opens into a soaring, barrel-vaulted space four bays long, framed by coupled Ionic columns with richly coloured Numidian marble shafts and gilded capitals.
High above, a frieze displays the names Watt, Newton, and Cook, along with Psalm 107 v. 23 & 24 celebrating those who ‘go down to the sea in ships’, reinforcing themes of exploration, science and safety.
‘They that go down to the sea in ships, that do business in great waters; These see the works of the Lord and his wonders in the deep’.
The walls are lined with mahogany panels inlaid with rosewood and fruitwood, and tapestry hangings based on originals now in the Victoria & Albert Museum. The original 1901 carpet, chosen by Collcutt, still covers the oak floor. At each end, elaborate carved chimneypieces add further grandeur. The room is on occasion furnished with neo-Georgian mahogany pieces made by Maples & Co. to fit the room, stored elsewhere when large events are hosted in the space.
Gerald Moira’s paintings
Gerald Moira’s paintings transform the General Committee Room. Inspired by Michelangelo’s Sistine Chapel, Moira filled the barrel-vaulted ceiling and surrounding panels with scenes that celebrate the natural elements, the cosmos and the rhythms of day and night.
At the centre of the ceiling, four dramatic panels depict water, fire, air and earth, each echoing Renaissance composition while bringing a dynamic energy to the room. Alongside them, zodiac symbols appear in softer tones, ensuring the main scenes take visual precedence.
The General Committee Room ceiling, which took Gerald Moira two years to paint.
In the lunettes cut into the vaulted ceiling, Moira painted celestial figures that represent seasons, heavenly bodies and divisions of the day, continuing the room’s theme of creation, movement and wonder. Above the west chimney, a radiant panel shows a globe framed by the coats of arms of England, Scotland, Ireland and Wales, supported by musical sirens. Opposite it, Aurora, goddess of the dawn, sweeps across the east end, carried through the waves by sea horses and accompanied by sea nymphs.
Together, these paintings create a spectacular visual canopy, one that brings colour, symbolism and a sense of storytelling to one of the building’s most impressive historic interiors.
The entrance lunette
Above the double doors of the General Committee Room sits a striking bronze lunette by Frank Lynn Jenkins. Two sea-maidens support a central clock, its face shimmering with mother-of-pearl. One figure holds a register book and gently lifts her veil, while the other carries a steamship and Rule book, symbols of Lloyd’s Register’s long-standing commitment to maritime knowledge, regulation and safety.
Frank Lynn Jenkins’ bronze maidens support the pediment clock over the inlaid mahogany doors of the General Committee Room.
The chimneypieces
The General Committee Room has two impressive chimneypieces that highlight the building’s mix of craftsmanship and maritime symbolism.
On the west wall, a large Numidian marble header with mantel shelf streches over the fireplace, decorated with carved dolphins. Above it, matching marble Ionic columns frame a Carrara marble relief of the Lloyd’s Register lady by Bertram Pegram. The columns support a detailed curved pediment. The fireplace itself is richly decorated with a brass hood decorated with sea-creature designs and William de Morgan tiles, along with finely made Renaissance-style andirons.
The chimneypiece on the eastern wall follows a similar style but is simpler. It features sea-horse carvings between raised stones, and the iron grate includes the Lloyd’s Register monogram in its casting.
The chimneypiece on the west end wall. A Moira painting is framed by a semicircular cambered pediment. The white relief, by Bertram Pegram, was hidden behind a Brangwyn painting for many years as the Committee in the early 1900s disliked the chill pallor of the marble.
The furniture of the General Committee Room
When laid out as originally designed, the General Committee Room is completed by a suite of neo-Georgian mahogany furniture created by Maples & Co. Ever conscious of cost, the Building Sub-Committee chose not to commission bespoke designs from Collcutt, a decision that must have stung the architect who began his career as a furniture designer.
Despite this, the furniture remains beautifully made. Subtle art nouveau touches appear in the rosewood inlay, while the imposing mahogany Chairman’s chair features a finely crafted depiction of a Lloyd’s Register lady. The room’s electroliers, believed to have been designed by Collcutt himself, add to the sense of craftsmanship and period character.
The General Committee Room, 1972.
Architects, artists and artisans of the Lloyd’s Register Building
The Art Workers’ Guild
The artists that Collcutt chose to decorate his building shared his beliefs forged in the office of the Gothic revivalist, G. E. Street. Art must complement architecture and be designed to respect the structure of the building.
The Art Workers’ Guild was founded in 1884 to encourage the practice of art in architecture. It sought to make artists craftsmen and craftsmen artists as, supposedly, had been the case in the Middle Ages.
Not surprisingly, many of the artists employed on the decoration of Collcutt’s building were enthusiastic members of the Art Workers’ Guild.
Sir Frank Brangwyn (1867-1956)
Born in Belgium, Frank Brangwyn was christened Francois Guillaume Brangwyn. He started work as a tapestry cartoonist for William Morris but ran off to become a cabin boy. He never lost his affinity for the sea and is always associated with nautical painting and murals, frequently choosing as his subject matter early navigators and the romance of the sea. This led to many commissions from shipowners and he was a natural choice for the decoration at 71 Fenchurch Street. His early devotion to the swirls of art nouveau can be detected in his vigorous use of paint. Brangwyn’s flamboyant style led him to be somewhat cavalier with painterly technique, and some of his work has failed to survive. He was elected to the Royal Academy in 1919 and knighted in 1941.
Thomas Edward Collcutt FRIBA (1840-1924)
Collcutt began his architectural training in London with R. W. Armstrong and later worked for Mills & Murgatroyd. He then joined the office of leading Gothic revival architect George Edmund Street. Street’s commitment to architecture, and his design of the Law Courts in the Strand, left a lasting influence on Collcutt.
In 1867, Collcutt entered the office of Brighton’s borough surveyor and contributed to the conversion of the Brighton Pavilion stables into The Dome. He started out in independent practice in 1869. In the 1870s he gained international recognition for his black ebonised furniture for Collinson & Lock.
His career advanced rapidly after he and H. Woodzell won the 1872 competition for the design of Blackburn’s public library and museum, followed by his 1877 competition success with Wakefield Town Hall – both now listed buildings. The Wakefield design was a robust Gothic scheme clearly aimed at the design assessor G. E. Street. However the building was completed by Collcutt in the much lighter Queen Anne Revival style that he came to favour.
Around the end of the century, Collcutt designed public rooms for Peninsular & Oriental Steam Navigation Co. (P&O) liners. The first class music rooms, dining areas and lounges were richly designed with oak or mahogany interiors complemented with stained glass, fine plaster work and murals.
Collcutt’s major professional breakthrough came with first prize for the Imperial Institute in South Kensington, built between 1887 and 1891 as an exhibition centre for the British Empire. The building was a considerable architectural achievement but now only its bell tower survives. Its materials and craftsmanship – Portland stone, marble interiors, sculptures by George Frampton and Henry Pegram, and oak panelling from Great Dunmow – anticipated those later used in the Lloyd’s Register building at 71 Fenchurch Street.
William Frend de Morgan (1839-1917)
William de Morgan was the greatest Arts and Crafts potter and ceramicist of the late 19th century. He pioneered the rediscovery of the brilliant blue and green glazes of Persian tiles and the luminous iron reds of lustre ware.
During his long association with Collcutt, he provided tile decoration for many of Collcutt’s P&O liner interiors. His fame was such that he provided tiles for His Imperial Royal Highness, the Tsar of Russia’s steam yacht Livadia. In later years, he began writing novels which became so lucrative that in the end he abandoned art.
Sir George Frampton RA (1860 1928)
A pupil of the sculptor William Silver Frith, Frampton went on to win a gold medal at the RoyaI Academy Schools. Frampton had a long successful career as a memorial and figure sculptor. He had an interest in symbolism and use of exotic colour in sculpture. In 1902, he became Master of the Art Workers’ Guild. He was knighted for his work in 1908. His best-known work is the bronze of Peter Pan in Kensington Gardens (1912).
Stanley Hinge Hamp (1877-1968)
Architect Stanley Hinge Hamp was the son of Thomas Hamp, who had engaged Collcutt in the late 1880s to design a church in Alperton, London. From 1906, Stanley Hamp entered into partnership with Collcutt, although they were in practice together from c.1904. He carried on the practice of Collcutt & Hamp for many years after the death of Collcutt.
Hardman & Co. (Birmingham) (1838-2008)
Hardman & Co. was renowned for its stained glass and metalwork, and produced many brass lecterns, screens and altar rails for Victorian cathedral restorations. It was a favourite choice of Augustus Welby Pugin, doyen of Gothic revival architects.
Edwin J Lambert
A somewhat shadowy figure, Edwin Lambert’s work in the original Luncheon Room no longer remains. It is believed he was Edwin Jether Lambert (1856-1932) who, among other works, designed a set of ceiling paintings for St. Pauls Girls School that featured in Academy Architecture and Architectural Review 1904.
Frank Lynn Jenkins (1870-1927)
Frank Lynn Jenkins. © Internet Archive and the University of Toronto. “F. Lynn Jenkins” by Laurence Koe
Frank Lynn Jenkins studied under the sculptor William Silver Frith at Lambeth School of Art, going on to the Royal Academy Schools.
A member of the Art Workers’ Guild, he was born in Torquay, Devon, source of the marble for the entrance hall of Collcutt’s building. Indeed, it was probably his family firm of Jenkins & Co. that laid the black and white marble floor at 25 shillings per yard.
Lynn Jenkins worked on a number of commissions for Collcutt and with Gerald Moira. His work is distinguished by a luminous medieval quality, showing a Pre Raphaelite influence. He achieved exotic effects through the use of precious stones and electro-plated metals. His compositions have a strong art nouveau feel with sinewy maidens in flowing robes.
Professor Gerald Edward Moira (1867-1959)
Gerald Moira, born in Portugal, trained at the Royal Academy Schools from 1888 and became well regarded as an oil and water landscape painter and a muralist. He admired the earthy colours of the paintings of Puvis de Chavannes and Paul Gauguin; he was influenced too by Michelangelo. Working for Collcutt on many P&O commissions, he produced classical, allegorical scenes to grace the richly decorated public areas of the ocean liners.
As a member of the Art Workers’ Guild, Moira was interested in reviving techniques such as tempera painting, an almost forgotten Renaissance form of mural decoration using paint made from egg whites, glue, pigments and water.
Moira was professor of Decorative and Mural Painting at the Royal College of Art (1900-22) and principal of Edinburgh College of Art (1924-31).
A Bertram Pegram (1873-1941)
Educated at the Royal Academy Schools, where he won a number of prizes. Bertram Pegram subsequently worked as a sculptor and medallist. He also worked for Thomas Collcutt at the Savoy Hotel, London.
Henry Alfred Pegram (1862-1937)
Henry Alfred Pegram, c.1903. © Elliott & Fry, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
Another sculptor from the Royal Academy Schools, Henry Pegram was assistant to the important sculptor Sir Hamo Thornycroft between 1887-91. Pegram designed the bronze candelabra in St Paul’s Cathedral. There is no evidence to show whether the two Pegram’s were related.
Shrigley & Hunt (c1874-1982)
The Gothic revival and the Arts and Crafts movement spawned many companies who produced craft decoration to clients’ requirements. Shrigley & Hunt generally did ecclesiastical work such as stained glass and stencilled wall decoration.
John Edward Taylerson (1855–c.1942)
J. E. Taylersen was a highly skilled British ecclesiastical sculptor, wood carver and stonemason. Heavily associated with Victorian and Edwardian architecture, his finest works are found in London.
Glossary of terms
Andiron: metal stand on a hearth originally for logs or a spit
Art Nouveau: decorative, flowing, curvilinear style of the late 19th/early 20th century with natural forms, for example, plants and waves
Arts and Crafts: late 19th/early 20th century movement in architecture and furnishing, based on the revival of traditional crafts and the use of natural materials
Baroque: highly ornate style of the 17th and 18th centuries
Bay: division of an elevation or interior space by regular vertical features such as columns
Blind balustrade: one applied to the wall surface
Blocked column: column interrupted by regular projecting blocks
Bolection: convex decorative moulding covering the joins around the panel
Capital: head of a column
Classical: architecture influenced by ancient Greek or Roman forms
Clerestory: top storey of a church or high-level windows in secular buildings
Coffer: ornamental sunken panels in a ceiling
Doric: the first and simplest style of classical architecture and decoration
Electrolier: a fixture usually hung from the ceiling for electric lamps
Frieze: band of decoration especially at the top of a wall
Gothic revival: 1800s revival of the 12th to 16th century Gothic style, characterised by pointed arches, ribbed vaults and elaborate window openings
Hopton Wood Stone: cream or grey limestone from Derbyshire
Ionic: second classical style, characterised by columns with scroll-shapes on either side at the top
Keystone: central locking stone of an arch
Loggia: covered open-sided veranda
Lunette: semi-circular aperture in a wall or concave ceiling
Palazzo: Italian classical palace
Pediment: classical form of corniced gable used over openings
Piano nobile: most important floor with larger rooms
Pilaster: a rectangular column projecting slightly from the wall
Portland stone: a pale, almost white, oolitic limestone of very good quality and capable of producing large blocks
Queen Anne revival: a late Victorian revival of an 18th century style typified by irregular and unsymmetrical facades and prominent gables
Raised and fielded: where the central flat area within panelling projects slightly beyond the framing
Renaissance: rebirth, a largely Italian cultural movement of the late 1300s to early 1600s, introducing the classical architecture of the ancient Greek and Romans
Repoussé: metal work hammered into relief from behind
Symbolism: artistic movement using symbols to express ideas and emotions
Tableau: scene depicted by a group of people
Tourelle: weight-bearing turret projecting from a wall
The Lloyd’s Register Building
71 Fenchurch Street
London
EC3M 4BS
Lloyd’s Register Foundation thanks the following for the use of photographs and pictures: Museum of London Archaeology, Lloyd’s Register, Strat Mastoris, Timonthy Soar and Lloyd’s Register Foundation Heritage Centre.
Editors: Kathy Davis, Sarah Mott, Louise Sanger and Tatiana Guinness
Designed by: Kapusniak Design
Printed by: Capital Print and Display
Produced in 2026
Lloyd’s Register Foundation is an independent global charity with a unique structure and an important mission: engineering a safer world. Lloyd’s Register Foundation is a registered charity (reg. no. 1145988) and limited company (reg. no. 7905861) registered in England and Wales. Registered office: 71 Fenchurch Street, London EC3M 4BS, UK
Built with Shorthand