Richard Rogers.

Lloyds began in the 18th century as a number of people sitting in a coffee-house insuring cargoes coming From one country to another. This became the largest insurance group or company in the world, insuring now 51% of the world's insurance. The basis of this is still very much like a market or coffee-house. People meet in a large Room, buying and selling insurance. Since 50 years ago, Lloyd's decided they had to have a new large Room. In 1928, Sir Edwin Cooper built this Room which Maxwell Fry stated, 'should meet the needs of Lloyd's into the foreseeable future'. This foreseeable future lasted until the 1940's, when Lloyd's again built another building and had to move into that. Now in the 1970's Lloyd's has outgrown this Room and a new strategy had to be evolved.