Inside out: The making of the Lloyd’s building, according to those who where there

By Daniel Gayne2026-11-10T06:00:00

Source: Clockwise from top-left: Shutterstock, August Fischer, public domain, David Castor

On 18 November, the City of London’s most unusual building turns 40. To mark the occasion, we dug through the archives and interviewed those who worked on Lloyd’s as young architects, to tell the story of how the project was won, how it was designed and how it was built

The story of the Lloyd’s building begins inauspiciously – for its architect, at least.

1977 had seen the completion of the Centre Pompidou in Paris, but also the end of the partnership that had brought its visionary design to life. With Renzo Piano returning to Italy, Richard Rogers established his new partnership in an England riven by industrial conflict and wounded by the recent IMF bail-out.

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