This is an accepted version of this page
120-671: DS Smith plc is a British multinational packaging business, headquartered in London. It is listed on the London Stock Exchange and is a constituent of the FTSE 100 Index . The business was founded by two cousins, David Gabriel Smith and David Solomon Smith in 1940, to manufacture cartons. It was first listed on the London Stock Exchange in the late 1950s. In 1986 the company acquired St Regis Paper Company and in 1988 Kemsley Paper Mill, both paper manufacturing businesses. In 1991
240-408: A V-2 rocket . Nonetheless, trading continued in the house's basement. After decades of uncertain if not turbulent times, stock market business boomed in the late 1950s. This spurred multiple officials to find new, more suitable accommodation. The work on the new Stock Exchange Tower began in 1967. The Exchange's new 321 feet (98 metres) high building had 26 storeys with council and administration at
360-599: A board of directors drawn from the Exchange's executive, customer, and user base; and the trading name became "The London Stock Exchange". The FTSE 100 Index (pronounced "Footsie 100") was launched by a partnership of the Financial Times and the Stock Exchange on 3 January 1984. This turned out to be one of the most useful indices of all, and tracked the movements of the 100 leading companies listed on
480-583: A clause preventing "unchartered" companies from forming. After the Seven Years' War (1756–1763), trade at Jonathan's Coffee House boomed again. In 1773, Jonathan, together with 150 other brokers, formed a club and opened a new and more formal "Stock Exchange" in Sweeting's Alley. This now had a set entrance fee, by which traders could enter the stock room and trade securities. It was, however, not an exclusive location for trading, as trading also occurred in
600-422: A few deaths, enumerating known deaths from hunger and exposure among survivors of the fire, "huddled in shacks or living among the ruins that had once been their homes" in the cold winter that followed. The dramatist James Shirley and his wife are believed to have died in this way. Hanson maintains that "it stretches credulity to believe that the only papists or foreigners being beaten to death or lynched were
720-515: A grid system, which became prevalent in the American urban landscape. If it had been rebuilt under some of these plans, London may have rivalled Paris in Baroque magnificence. According to archaeologist John Schofield, Wren's plan "would have probably encouraged the crystallisation of the social classes into separate areas", similar to Haussmann's renovation of Paris in the mid-1800s. Wren's plan
840-405: A hose to spray on a fire or fill buckets. Further, the site where the fire started was close to the river: all the lanes from the river up to the bakery and adjoining buildings should have been filled with double chains of firefighters passing buckets of water up to the fire and then back down to the river to be refilled. This did not happen, as inhabitants panicked and fled. The flames crept towards
960-522: A larger English fleet led by Thomas Allin . A special Fire Court was set up from February 1667 to December 1668, and again from 1670 to February 1676. The aim of the court, which was authorized by the Fire of London Disputes Act 1666 and the Rebuilding of London Act 1670 , was to deal with disputes between tenants and landlords and decide who should rebuild, based on ability to pay. Cases were heard and
1080-468: A long way, tended to arrive too late, and had limited reach, with spouts but no delivery hoses. On this occasion, an unknown number of fire engines were either wheeled or dragged through the streets. Firefighters tried to manoeuvre the engines to the river to fill their tanks, and several of the engines fell into the Thames. The heat from the flames by then was too great for the remaining engines to get within
1200-490: A proclamation that "all Cities and Towns whatsoever shall without any contradiction receive the said distressed persons and permit them the free exercise of their manual trades". Royal proclamations were issued to forbid people to "disquiet themselves with rumours of tumults", and to institute a national charitable collection to support fire victims. The official account of the fire in the London Gazette concluded that
1320-403: A regulated stock market, which had teething problems in the shape of unlicensed brokers. In order to regulate these, Parliament passed an Act in 1697 that levied heavy penalties, both financial and physical, on those brokering without a licence. It also set a fixed number of brokers (at 100), but this was later increased as the size of the trade grew. This limit led to several problems, one of which
SECTION 10
#17327719301571440-450: A safe refuge, with its thick stone walls and natural firebreak in the form of a wide empty surrounding plaza. It had been crammed full of rescued goods and its crypt filled with the tightly packed stocks of the printers and booksellers in adjoining Paternoster Row . However, the building was covered in wooden scaffolding, undergoing piecemeal restoration by Christopher Wren . The scaffolding caught fire on Tuesday night. Within half an hour,
1560-556: A ship in the North Sea, and had not arrived in London until two days after the fire started. A committee was established to investigate the cause of the Great Fire, chaired by Sir Robert Brooke . It received many submissions alleging a conspiracy of foreigners and Catholics to destroy London. The committee's report was presented to Parliament on 22 January 1667. Versions of the report that appeared in print concluded that Hubert
1680-462: A single day. The perception of a need to get beyond the walls took root only late on the Monday, and then there were near-panic scenes at the gates as distraught refugees tried to get out with their bundles, carts, horses, and wagons. The crucial factor which frustrated firefighting efforts was the narrowness of the streets. Even under normal circumstances, the mix of carts, wagons, and pedestrians in
1800-482: A thousand members quit the Exchange between 1914 and 1918. When peace returned in November 1918, the mood on the trading floor was generally cowed. In 1923, the Exchange received its own coat of arms , with the motto Dictum Meum Pactum , My Word is My Bond. In 1937, officials at the Exchange used their experiences from World War I to draw up plans for how to handle a new war. The main concerns included air raids and
1920-492: A useful distance. A fire broke out at Thomas Farriner 's bakery in Pudding Lane a little after midnight on Sunday 2 September. The family was trapped upstairs but managed to climb from an upstairs window to the house next door, except for a maidservant who was too frightened to try, thus becoming the first victim. The neighbours tried to help douse the fire; after an hour, the parish constables arrived and judged that
2040-480: A verdict usually given within a day; without the Fire Court, lengthy legal proceedings would have seriously delayed the rebuilding which was necessary if London was to recover. Radical rebuilding schemes poured in for the gutted City and were encouraged by Charles. Apart from Wren and Evelyn, it is known that Robert Hooke , Valentine Knight , and Richard Newcourt proposed rebuilding plans. All were based on
2160-520: A €13 million investment to enhance the production capacity of its Margarethen am Moos and Kalsdorf bei Graz facilities in Austria by up to 20%, as part of its growth strategy in Eastern Europe and commitment to the sustainable packaging market. In March 2024, the company's board indicated that it had agreed a takeover offer worth £5.1 billion from packaging business, Mondi . In April,
2280-679: Is a stock exchange based in London , England. As of August 2023, the total market value of all companies trading on the LSE stood at $ 3.18 trillion. Its current premises are situated in Paternoster Square close to St Paul's Cathedral . Since 2007, it has been part of the London Stock Exchange Group (LSEG, which the exchange also lists (ticker symbol LSEG)). Despite a post- Brexit exodus of stock listings from
2400-555: Is classified as a Multilateral Trading Facility (MTF) under the 2004 MiFID directive, and as such it is a flexible market with a simpler admission process for companies wanting to be publicly listed. The securities available for trading on LSE: Through the Exchange's Italian arm, Borsa Italiana , the London Stock Exchange Group as a whole offers clearing and settlement services for trades through CC&G (Cassa di Compensazione e Garanzia) and Monte Titoli.
2520-685: Is the Groups Central Counterparty and covers multiple asset classes throughout the Italian equity, derivatives and bond markets. CC&G also clears Turquoise derivatives. Monte Titoli is the pre-settlement, settlement, custody and asset services provider of the Group. Monte Titoli operates both on-exchange and OTC trades with over 400 banks and brokers. The LSE's trading platform is its own Linux -based edition named Millennium Exchange . Their previous trading platform TradElect
SECTION 20
#17327719301572640-400: The Baroque magnificence of Paris in 1659, called it a "wooden, northern, and inartificial congestion of Houses". By "inartificial", Evelyn meant unplanned and makeshift, the result of organic growth and unregulated urban sprawl . London had been a Roman settlement for four centuries and had become progressively more crowded inside its defensive city wall. It had also pushed outwards beyond
2760-819: The Royal Exchange , the Custom House , St Paul's Cathedral, the Bridewell Palace and other City prisons, the General Letter Office , and the three western city gates— Ludgate , Newgate , and Aldersgate . The monetary value of the loss was estimated at around 9–10 million pounds (equivalent to £2.13 billion in 2023). François Colsoni says that the lost books alone were valued at £150,000. Evelyn believed that he saw as many as "200,000 people of all ranks and stations dispersed, and lying along their heaps of what they could save" in
2880-453: The lead roof was melting, and the books and papers in the crypt were burning. The cathedral was quickly a ruin. The wind dropped on Tuesday evening, and the firebreaks created by the garrison finally began to take effect on Wednesday, 5 September. Pepys climbed the steeple of Barking Church , from which he viewed the destroyed City, "the saddest sight of desolation that I ever saw". There were many separate fires still burning, but
3000-401: The "Spanish panic" hit the markets, followed by a second one two years later. By June 1853, both participating members and brokers were taking up so much space that the Exchange was now uncomfortably crowded, and continual expansion plans were taking place. Having already been extended west, east, and northwards, it was then decided the Exchange needed an entire new establishment. Thomas Allason
3120-810: The City and the Crown was often tense. The City of London had been a stronghold of republicanism during the English Civil War (1642–1651), and the wealthy and economically dynamic capital still had the potential to be a threat to Charles II, as had been demonstrated by several republican uprisings in London in the early 1660s. The City magistrates were of the generation that had fought in the Civil War, and could remember how Charles I 's grab for absolute power had led to that national trauma. They were determined to thwart any similar tendencies in his son, and when
3240-473: The City, and so he did not see the early stages of the disaster. He went by coach to Southwark on Monday, joining many other upper-class people, to see the view which Pepys had seen the day before of the burning City across the river. The conflagration was much larger now: "the whole City in dreadful flames near the water-side; all the houses from the Bridge, all Thames-street, and upwards towards Cheapside, down to
3360-711: The Electronic Trading Service (SETS) was launched, bringing greater speed and efficiency to the market. Next, the CREST settlement service was launched. In 2000, the LSE's shareholders voted to become a public limited company, London Stock Exchange plc. The LSE also transferred its role as the United Kingdom's listing authority to the Financial Services Authority . EDX London , an international equity derivatives business,
3480-450: The Exchange was progressively becoming an accepted part of the financial life in the city. In spite of continuous criticism from newspapers and the public, the government used the Exchange's organised market (and would most likely not have managed without it) to raise the enormous amount of money required for the wars against Napoleon. After the war and facing a booming world economy, foreign lending to countries such as Brazil, Peru and Chile
3600-591: The Exchange. On 20 July 1990, a bomb planted by the Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA) exploded in the men's toilets behind the visitors' gallery. The area had already been evacuated and nobody was injured. About 30 minutes before the blast at 8:49 a.m., a man who said he was a member of the IRA told Reuters that a bomb had been placed at the exchange and was about to explode. Police officials said that if there had been no warning,
3720-526: The Fire in its early stages... there was little [he] could have done" given the state of firefighting expertise and the sociopolitical implications of antifire action at that time. Samuel Pepys ascended the Tower of London on Sunday morning to view the fire from the battlements. He recorded in his diary that the eastern gale had turned it into a conflagration. It had burned down an estimated 300 houses and reached
DS Smith - Misplaced Pages Continue
3840-484: The Fleet and outflanked them, driven by the unabated easterly gale, forcing them to run for it. By mid-morning the fire had breached the wide affluent luxury shopping street of Cheapside . James's firefighters created a large firebreak to the north of the conflagration, although it was breached at multiple points. Through the day, the flames began to move eastward from the neighbourhood of Pudding Lane, straight against
3960-511: The Great Fire threatened the City, they refused the offers that Charles made of soldiers and other resources. Even in such an emergency, the idea of having the unpopular royal troops ordered into the City was political dynamite. By the time that Charles took over command from the ineffectual Lord Mayor, the fire was already out of control. The city was essentially medieval in its street plan, an overcrowded warren of narrow, winding, cobbled alleys. It had experienced several major fires before 1666,
4080-611: The Great Fire was over. It took some time until the last traces were put out: coal was still burning in cellars two months later. In Moorfields , a large public park immediately north of the City, there was a great encampment of homeless refugees. Evelyn was horrified at the numbers of distressed people filling it, some under tents, others in makeshift shacks: "Many [were] without a rag or any necessary utensils, bed or board ... reduced to extremest misery and poverty." Most refugees camped in any nearby available unburned area to see if they could salvage anything from their homes. The mood
4200-546: The King commanded me to go to my Lord Mayor from him and command him to spare no houses, but to pull down before the fire every way." Charles' brother James, Duke of York , offered the use of the Royal Life Guards to help fight the fire. The fire spread quickly in the high wind and, by mid-morning on Sunday, people abandoned attempts at extinguishing it and fled. The moving human mass and their bundles and carts made
4320-408: The King put his brother James, Duke of York, in charge of operations. James set up command posts on the perimeter of the fire. Three courtiers were put in charge of each post, with authority from Charles himself to order demolitions. James and his life guards rode up and down the streets all Monday, "rescuing foreigners from the mob" and attempting to keep order. "The Duke of York hath won the hearts of
4440-448: The LSE merged with Borsa Italiana , creating London Stock Exchange Group (LSEG). The Group's headquarters are in Paternoster Square . Paternoster Square was the initial target for the protesters of Occupy London on 15 October 2011. Attempts to occupy the square were thwarted by police. Police sealed off the entrance to the square as it is private property, a High Court injunction having previously been granted against public access to
4560-691: The LSE: the main market and the alternative investment market. The main market is home to over 1,300 large companies from 60 countries. The FTSE 100 Index ("footsie") is the main share index of the 100 most highly capitalised British companies listed on the Main Market. The Alternative Investment Market is LSE's international market for smaller companies. A wide range of businesses including early-stage, venture capital -backed, as well as more-established companies join AIM seeking access to growth capital. The AIM
4680-630: The London Stock Exchange, the LSE was the most valued stock exchange in Europe as of 2023. According to the 2020 Office for National Statistics report, approximately 12% of UK-resident individuals reported having investments in stocks and shares. According to a 2020 Financial Conduct Authority report, approximately 15% of British adults reported having investments in stocks and shares. The Royal Exchange had been founded by English financier Thomas Gresham and Sir Richard Clough on
4800-507: The Rotunda of the Bank of England. Fraud was also rife during these times and in order to deter such dealings, it was suggested that users of the stock room pay an increased fee. This was not met well and ultimately, the solution came in the form of annual fees and turning the Exchange into a Subscription room. The Subscription room created in 1801 was the first regulated exchange in London, but
4920-501: The Three Cranes, were now consumed". In the evening, Evelyn reported that the river was covered with barges and boats making their escape piled with goods. He observed a great exodus of carts and pedestrians through the bottleneck City gates, making for the open fields to the north and east, "which for many miles were strewed with moveables of all sorts, and tents erecting to shelter both people and what goods they could get away. Oh,
DS Smith - Misplaced Pages Continue
5040-627: The Trained Bands, troops of Life Guards, and members of the court. The light turned out to be a flareup east of Inner Temple, large sections of which burned despite an effort to halt the fire by blowing up Paper House. Only a few deaths from the fire are officially recorded, and deaths are traditionally believed to have been few. Porter gives the figure as eight and Tinniswood as "in single figures", although he adds that some deaths must have gone unrecorded and that, besides direct deaths from burning and smoke inhalation , refugees also perished in
5160-416: The adjoining houses had better be demolished to prevent further spread. The householders protested, and Lord Mayor Sir Thomas Bloodworth was summoned to give his permission. When Bloodworth arrived, the flames were consuming the adjoining houses and creeping towards the warehouses and flammable stores on the riverfront. The more experienced firemen were clamouring for demolition, but Bloodworth refused on
5280-425: The air current, such as the constricted space between jettied buildings , and this left a vacuum at ground level. The resulting strong inward winds fueled the flames. The fire pushed towards the city's centre "in a broad, bow-shaped arc". By Sunday evening it "was already the most damaging fire to strike London in living memory", having travelled 500 metres (1,600 ft) west along the river. Throughout Monday,
5400-429: The area of London came to share in these opportunities, the carts jostling at the narrow gates with the panicked inhabitants trying to get out. The chaos at the gates was such that the magistrates briefly ordered the gates shut, in the hope of turning the inhabitants' attention from safeguarding their own possessions to fighting the fire: "that, no hopes of saving any things left, they might have more desperately endeavoured
5520-464: The business bought Kaysersberg Packaging, a leading packaging business, and in 1993 it bought Spicers , an office products wholesaler. In 1996 it acquired John Dickinson , an envelope manufacturer, and in 2004 it completed the purchase of Linpac Containers , a corrugated packaging manufacturer. The company sold Spicers, its office products wholesaling business, for £200 million, in July 2011 and acquired
5640-463: The committee and Parliament , respectively. The Stock Exchange ended up being closed from the end of July until the New Year, causing street business to be introduced again, as well as the "challenge system". The Exchange was set to open again on 4 January 1915 under tedious restrictions: transactions were to be in cash only. Due to the limitations and challenges on trading brought by the war, almost
5760-504: The company agreed to a larger £5.8 billion ($ 7.2 billion) all stock deal from the U.S. paper and pulp company, International Paper . DS Smith is a leading provider of sustainable fibre-based packaging in Europe and the United States, with recycling and papermaking operations. The company manufactures packaging that is 100% recyclable, and has sites in 37 countries. London Stock Exchange The London Stock Exchange ( LSE )
5880-461: The concerns for air raids were greater than ever. Eventually, on the night of 29 December 1940, one of the greatest fires in London's history took place. The Exchange's floor was hit by a clutch of incendiary bombs , which were extinguished quickly. Trading on the floor was now drastically low and most was done over the phone to reduce the possibility of injuries. The Exchange was only closed for one more day during wartime, in 1945 due to damage from
6000-584: The days of the English Civil War. Five to six hundred tons of powder was stored in the Tower of London . The high Roman wall enclosing the city impeded escape from the inferno, restricting exit to eight narrow gates. During the first couple of days, few people had any notion of fleeing the burning city altogether. They would remove what they could carry of their belongings to a safer area; some moved their belongings and themselves "four and five times" in
6120-522: The dispossessed refugees. Various schemes for rebuilding the city were proposed, some of them very radical. After the fire, London was reconstructed on essentially the same medieval street plan, which still exists today. By the 1660s, London was by far the largest city in Britain and the third largest in the Western world, estimated at 300,000 to 400,000 inhabitants. John Evelyn , contrasting London to
SECTION 50
#17327719301576240-465: The earliest evidence of organised trading in marketable securities in London. After Gresham's Royal Exchange building was destroyed in the Great Fire of London , it was rebuilt and re-established in 1669. This was a move away from coffee houses and a step towards the modern model of stock exchange. The Royal Exchange housed not only brokers but also merchants and merchandise. This was the birth of
6360-601: The entire country, burned down early on Monday morning. The London Gazette just managed to put out its Monday issue before the printer's premises went up in flames. Suspicions rose to panic and collective paranoia on Monday, and both the Trained Bands and the Coldstream Guards focused less on fire fighting and more on rounding up foreigners and anyone else appearing suspicious, arresting them, rescuing them from mobs, or both. The inhabitants, especially
6480-480: The fields towards Islington and Highgate . The fire destroyed approximately 15 percent of the city's housing. The Court of Aldermen sought to quickly begin clearing debris and re-establish food supplies. By the Saturday after the fire "the markets were operating well enough to supply the people" at Moorfields. Charles II encouraged the homeless to move away from London and settle elsewhere, immediately issuing
6600-518: The financial industry "and the corrosive impacts of the ... sector on the world we live in" and activists also blocked entrances to HM Treasury and the Goldman Sachs office on Fleet Street . On 3 March 2022 the LSE declared it would suspend trading in GDR securities for Russian firms, subsequent to the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine . There are two main markets on which companies trade on
6720-613: The financial markets in the UK in 1986. The phrase "Big Bang" was coined to describe measures, including abolition of fixed commission charges and of the distinction between stockjobbers and stockbrokers on the London Stock Exchange, as well as the change from an open outcry to electronic, screen-based trading . In 1995, the Exchange launched the Alternative Investment Market , the AIM, to allow growing companies to expand into international markets. Two years later,
6840-406: The fire is considered to have been won by two key factors: the strong east wind dropped, and the Tower of London garrison used gunpowder to create effective firebreaks, halting further spread eastward. The social and economic problems created by the disaster were overwhelming. Flight from London and settlement elsewhere were strongly encouraged by Charles II, who feared a London rebellion amongst
6960-593: The fire is the acceptance of the confession of a simple-minded French watchmaker named Robert Hubert , who claimed that he was a member of a gang that had started the Great Fire in Westminster. He later changed his story to say that he had started the fire at the bakery in Pudding Lane. Hubert was convicted, despite some misgivings about his fitness to plead , and hanged at Tyburn on 29 October 1666. After his death, it became apparent that he had been on board
7080-426: The fire spread to the west and north. The spread to the south was mostly halted by the river, but it had torched the houses on London Bridge and was threatening to cross the bridge and endanger the borough of Southwark on the south bank of the river. London Bridge, the only physical connection between the City and the south side of the river Thames, had been noted as a deathtrap in the fire of 1633. However, Southwark
7200-504: The fire was an accident: "it stressed the role of God in starting the flames and of the king in helping to stem them". Despite this, residents were inclined to put the blame for the fire on foreigners, particularly Catholics, the French, and the Dutch. Trained bands were put on guard and foreigners arrested in locations throughout England. An example of the urge to identify scapegoats for
7320-464: The fire-fighting efforts and near to collapse, "like a fainting woman", crying out plaintively in response to the King's message that he was pulling down houses: "But the fire overtakes us faster than we can do it." Holding on to his "dignity and civic authority", he refused James's offer of more soldiers and then went home to bed. King Charles II sailed down from Whitehall in the Royal barge to inspect
SECTION 60
#17327719301577440-540: The floor. Second, in March the London Stock Exchange formally merged with the eleven British and Irish regional exchanges, including the Scottish Stock Exchange . This expansion led to the creation of a new position of chief executive officer ; after an extensive search this post was given to Robert Fell. There were more governance changes in 1991, when the governing Council of the Exchange was replaced by
7560-515: The grounds that most premises were rented and the owners could not be found. Bloodworth is generally thought to have been appointed to the office of Lord Mayor as a yes man , rather than by possessing requisite capabilities for the job. He panicked when faced with a sudden emergency and, when pressed, made the oft-quoted remark, "A woman might piss it out", and left. Jacob Field notes that although Bloodworth "is frequently held culpable by contemporaries (as well as some later historians) for not stopping
7680-492: The homeless focused on the French and Dutch, England's enemies in the ongoing Second Anglo-Dutch War ; these substantial immigrant groups became victims of street violence. On Tuesday, the fire spread over nearly the whole city, destroying St Paul's Cathedral and leaping the River Fleet to threaten Charles II 's court at Whitehall . Coordinated firefighting efforts were simultaneously getting underway. The battle to put out
7800-490: The human toll would have been very high. The explosion ripped a hole in the 23-storey building in Threadneedle Street and sent a shower of glass and concrete onto the street. The long-term trend towards electronic trading platforms reduced the Exchange's attraction to visitors, and although the gallery reopened, it was closed permanently in 1992. The biggest event of the 1980s was the sudden de-regulation of
7920-414: The impromptu camps. Field argues that the number "may have been higher than the traditional figure of six, but it is likely it did not run into the hundreds": he notes that the London Gazette "did not record a single fatality" and that had there been a significant death toll it would have been reflected in polemical accounts and petitions for charity. Hanson takes issue with the idea that there were only
8040-465: The lack of efforts to save the wealthy, fashionable districts which were now menaced by the flames, such as the Royal Exchange —combined bourse and shopping centre —and the opulent consumer goods shops in Cheapside . The Royal Exchange caught fire in the late afternoon, and was a "smoking shell" within a few hours. John Evelyn , courtier and diarist, wrote: The conflagration was so universal, and
8160-409: The lanes impassable for firemen and carriages. Pepys took a coach back into the city from Whitehall, but reached only St Paul's Cathedral before he had to get out and walk. Pedestrians with handcarts and goods were still on the move away from the fire, heavily weighed down. They deposited their valuables in parish churches away from the direct threat of fire. Pepys found Bloodworth trying to coordinate
8280-420: The long-term strategies of the joint company is to expand Borsa Italiana's efficient clearing services to other European markets. In 2007, after Borsa Italiana announced that it was exercising its call option to acquire full control of MBE Holdings; thus the combined Group would now control Mercato dei Titoli di Stato, or MTS. This merger of Borsa Italiana and MTS with LSE's existing bond-listing business enhanced
8400-434: The miserable and calamitous spectacle!" Suspicion soon arose in the threatened city that the fire was no accident. The swirling winds carried sparks and burning flakes long distances to lodge on thatched roofs and in wooden gutters , causing seemingly unrelated house fires to break out far from their source and giving rise to rumours that fresh fires were being set on purpose. Foreigners were immediately suspected because of
8520-601: The model of the Antwerp Bourse . It was opened by Elizabeth I of England in 1571. During the 17th century, stockbrokers were not allowed in the Royal Exchange due to their perceived rude manners. They had to operate from other establishments in the vicinity, notably Jonathan's Coffee-House . At that coffee house, a broker named John Castaing started listing the prices of a few commodities including salt, coal, paper, and exchange rates in 1698. Originally, this
8640-406: The most recent in 1633. Building with wood and roofing with thatch had been prohibited for centuries, but these cheap materials continued to be used. The only major area built with brick or stone was the wealthy centre of the city, where the mansions of the merchants and brokers stood on spacious lots, surrounded by an inner ring of overcrowded poorer parishes, in which all available building space
8760-456: The necessary orders. The use of water to extinguish the fire was frustrated. In principle, water was available from a system of elm pipes which supplied 30,000 houses via a high water tower at Cornhill , filled from the river at high tide, and also via a reservoir of Hertfordshire spring water in Islington . It was often possible to open a pipe near a burning building and connect it to
8880-557: The ones rescued by the Duke of York", that official figures say very little about the fate of the undocumented poor, and that the heat at the heart of the firestorms was far greater than an ordinary house fire, and was enough to consume bodies fully or leave only a few skeletal fragments, producing a death toll not of eight, but of "several hundred and quite possibly several thousand." The material destruction has been computed at 13,200–13,500 houses, 86 or 87 parish churches, 44 Company Halls,
9000-468: The ongoing Second Anglo-Dutch War . Fear and suspicion hardened into certainty on Monday, as reports circulated of imminent invasion and of foreign undercover agents seen casting "fireballs" into houses, or caught with hand grenades or matches. There was a wave of street violence. The fears of terrorism received an extra boost from the disruption of communications and news. The General Letter Office in Threadneedle Street , through which post passed for
9120-664: The packaging division of Svenska Cellulosa Aktiebolaget for a net consideration of approximately €1.6 billion (c. £1.3 billion) in July 2012. It went on to complete the acquisition of Duropack for approximately €300m (c. £220m) in May 2015 and became a constituent of the FTSE 100 Index in December 2017. In August 2023, it was announced DS Smith had acquired the Valjevo -based packaging company, Bosis doo. On 19 February 2024, DS Smith announced
9240-454: The people so astonished, that from the beginning, I know not by what despondency or fate, they hardly stirred to quench it, so that there was nothing heard or seen but crying out and lamentation, running about like distracted creatures without at all attempting to save even their goods, such a strange consternation there was upon them. Evelyn lived in Deptford , four miles (6 km) outside
9360-431: The people with his continual and indefatigable pains day and night in helping to quench the Fire," wrote a witness in a letter on 8 September. On Monday evening, hopes were dashed that the massive stone walls of Baynard's Castle , Blackfriars would stay the course of the flames, the western counterpart of the Tower of London . This historic royal palace was completely consumed, burning all night. Tuesday, 4 September
9480-595: The plight of Londoners, yet he made no secret that he regarded "the fire of London as a stroke of good fortune for him" as it reduced the risk of French ships crossing the English Channel being taken or sunk by the English fleet. Louis tried to take advantage but an attempt by a Franco-Dutch fleet to combine with a larger Dutch fleet ended in failure on 17 September at the Battle of Dungeness when they encountered
9600-402: The prevailing east wind and towards the Tower of London with its gunpowder stores. The garrison at the Tower took matters into their own hands after waiting all day for requested help from James's official firemen, who were busy in the west. They created firebreaks by blowing up houses on a large scale in the vicinity, halting the advance of the fire. Everybody had thought St. Paul's Cathedral
9720-400: The quenching of the fire." Monday marked the beginning of organised action, even as order broke down in the streets, especially at the gates, and the fire raged unchecked. Bloodworth was responsible as Lord Mayor for coordinating the firefighting, but he had apparently left the City; his name is not mentioned in any contemporaneous accounts of the Monday's events. In this state of emergency,
9840-416: The range of covered European fixed income markets. London Stock Exchange Group acquired Turquoise , a Pan-European MTF, in 2009. Great Fire of London The Great Fire of London was a major conflagration that swept through central London from Sunday 2 September to Thursday 6 September 1666, gutting the medieval City of London inside the old Roman city wall , while also extending past
9960-535: The rest of Great Britain also benefited from the economic boom. Two other cities in particular showed great business development: Liverpool and Manchester. Consequently, in 1836 both the Manchester and Liverpool stock exchanges were opened. Some stock prices sometimes rose by 10%, 20% or even 30% in a week. These were times when stockbroking was considered a real business profession, and such attracted many entrepreneurs. Nevertheless, with booms came busts, and in 1835
10080-468: The riverfront and set alight the water wheels under London Bridge , eliminating the supply of piped water. London possessed advanced fire-fighting technology in the form of fire engines , which had been used in earlier large-scale fires. However, unlike the useful firehooks, these large pumps had rarely proved flexible or functional enough to make much difference. Only some of them had wheels; others were mounted on wheelless sleds. They had to be brought
10200-441: The riverfront. The houses on London Bridge were burning. He took a boat to inspect the destruction around Pudding Lane at close range and describes a "lamentable" fire, "everybody endeavouring to remove their goods, and flinging into the river or bringing them into lighters that lay off; poor people staying in their houses as long as till the very fire touched them, and then running into boats, or clambering from one pair of stairs by
10320-426: The scene. He found that houses were still not being pulled down, in spite of Bloodworth's assurances to Pepys, and daringly overrode the authority of Bloodworth to order wholesale demolitions west of the fire zone. By Sunday afternoon, the fire had become a raging firestorm that created its own weather. A tremendous uprush of hot air above the flames was driven by the chimney effect wherever constrictions narrowed
10440-532: The square. The protesters moved nearby to occupy the space in front of St Paul's Cathedral . The protests were part of the global Occupy movement . On 25 April 2019, the final day of the Extinction Rebellion disruption in London, 13 activists glued themselves together in a chain, blocking the entrances of the LSE. The protesters were all later arrested on suspicion of aggravated trespass. Extinction Rebellion had said its protesters would target
10560-406: The streets and authorised both imprisonment of recalcitrant builders and demolition of dangerous buildings. It too had little impact. The riverfront was important in the development of the Great Fire. The Thames offered water for firefighting and the chance of escape by boat, but the poorer districts along the riverfront had stores and cellars of combustibles which increased the fire risk. All along
10680-681: The streets at night watched for fire as one of their duties. Self-reliant community procedures were in place for dealing with fires, and they were usually effective. "Public-spirited citizens" would be alerted to a dangerous house fire by muffled peals on the church bells, and would congregate hastily to fight the fire. The firefighting methods relied on demolition and water. By law, every parish church had to hold equipment for these efforts: long ladders, leather buckets, axes, and "firehooks" for pulling down buildings. Sometimes buildings were levelled quickly and effectively by means of controlled gunpowder explosions. This drastic method of creating firebreaks
10800-418: The subsequent bombing of the Exchange's perimeters, and one suggestion was a move to Denham , Buckinghamshire. This however never took place. On the first day of September 1939, the Exchange closed its doors "until further notice" and two days later World War II was declared. Unlike in the prior war, the Exchange opened its doors again six days later, on 7 September. As the war escalated into its second year,
10920-495: The top, and middle floors let out to affiliate companies. Queen Elizabeth II opened the building on 8 November 1972; it was a new City landmark, with its 23,000 sq ft (2,100 m ) trading floor. 1973 marked a year of changes for the Stock Exchange. First, two trading prohibitions were abolished. A report from the Monopolies and Mergers Commission recommended the admittance of both women and foreign-born members on
11040-446: The transformation was not welcomed by all parties. On the first day of trading, non-members had to be expelled by a constable. In spite of the disorder, a new and bigger building was planned, at Capel Court. William Hammond laid the first foundation stone for the new building on 18 May. It was finished on 30 December when "The Stock Exchange" was incised on the entrance. In the Exchange's first operating years, on several occasions there
11160-407: The undersized alleys was subject to frequent gridlock and accidents. Refugees escaping outwards, away from the centre of destruction, were blocked by soldiers trying to keep the streets clear for firefighters, causing further panic. Fires were common in the crowded wood-built city with its open fireplaces, candles, ovens, and stores of combustibles. A thousand watchmen or "bellmen" who patrolled
11280-477: The upper class, were growing desperate to remove their belongings from the City. This provided a source of income for the able-bodied poor, who hired out as porters (sometimes simply making off with the goods), being especially profitable for the owners of carts and boats. Hiring a cart had cost a couple of shillings the week before the fire; on Monday, it rose to as much as £40, a fortune equivalent to roughly £133,000 in 2021. Seemingly every cart and boat owner in
11400-722: The wall into extramural settlements such as Shoreditch , Holborn , Cripplegate , Clerkenwell and Southwark , and the Inns of Court . To the West it reached along Strand to the Royal Palace and Abbey at Westminster . By the late 17th century, the City proper—the area bounded by the city wall and the River Thames —was only a part of London, covering some 700 acres (2.8 km ; 1.1 sq mi), and home to about 80,000 people, or one quarter of London's inhabitants. The City
11520-402: The wall to the west. The death toll is generally thought to have been relatively small, although some historians have challenged this belief. The fire started in a bakery in Pudding Lane shortly after midnight on Sunday 2 September, and spread rapidly. The use of the major firefighting technique of the time, the creation of firebreaks by means of removing structures in the fire's path,
11640-409: The water-side to another." Pepys continued westward on the river to the court at Whitehall , "where people come about me, and did give them an account dismayed them all, and the word was carried into the King. So I was called for, and did tell the King and Duke of Yorke what I saw, and that unless His Majesty did command houses to be pulled down nothing could stop the fire. They seemed much troubled, and
11760-423: The wharves, the rickety wooden tenements and tar paper shacks of the poor were shoehorned amongst "old paper buildings and the most combustible matter of tarr, pitch, hemp, rosen, and flax which was all layd up thereabouts". London was also full of black powder , especially along the riverfront where ship chandlers filled wooden barrels with their stocks. Much of it was left in the homes of private citizens from
11880-471: The world, both the City and the Stock Exchange were hit hard by the outbreak of World War I in 1914. Due to fears that borrowed money was to be called in and that foreign banks would demand their loans or raise interest, prices surged at first. The decision to close the Exchange for improved breathing space and to extend the August Bank Holiday to prohibit a run on banks, was hurried through by
12000-476: Was a growing market. Notably, the Foreign Market at the Exchange allowed for merchants and traders to participate, and the Royal Exchange hosted all transactions where foreign parties were involved. The constant increase in overseas business eventually meant that dealing in foreign securities had to be allowed within all of the Exchange's premises. Just as London enjoyed growth through international trade,
12120-582: Was announced that the LSE would merge with the Deutsche Börse ; however this fell through. On 23 June 2007, the LSE announced that it had agreed on the terms of a recommended offer to the shareholders of the Borsa Italiana S.p.A. The merger of the two companies created a leading diversified exchange group in Europe. The combined group was named the London Stock Exchange Group, but still remained two separate legal and regulatory entities. One of
12240-482: Was appointed as the main architect, and in March 1854, the new brick building inspired from the Great Exhibition stood ready. This was a huge improvement in both surroundings and space, with twice the floor space available. By the late 1800s, the telephone, ticker tape , and the telegraph had been invented. Those new technologies led to a revolution in the work of the Exchange. As the financial centre of
12360-484: Was based on Microsoft's .NET Framework , and was developed by Microsoft and Accenture. Despite TradElect only being in use for about two years, after suffering multiple periods of extended downtime and unreliability the LSE announced in 2009 that it was planning to switch to Linux in 2010. The main market migration to MillenniumIT technology was successfully completed in February 2011. The previous system, SETS,
12480-474: Was created in 2003 in partnership with OM Group. The Exchange also acquired Proquote Limited, a new generation supplier of real-time market data and trading systems. The old Stock Exchange Tower became largely redundant with Big Bang, which deregulated many of the LSE's activities: computerised systems and dealing rooms replaced face-to-face trading. In 2004, the LSE moved to a brand-new headquarters in Paternoster Square , close to St Paul's Cathedral . In 2007,
12600-473: Was critically delayed due to the indecisiveness of the Lord Mayor , Sir Thomas Bloodworth . By the time large-scale demolitions were ordered on Sunday night, the wind had already fanned the bakery fire into a firestorm which defeated such measures. The fire pushed north on Monday into the heart of the City. Order in the streets broke down as rumours arose of suspicious foreigners setting fires. The fears of
12720-498: Was increasingly used towards the end of the Great Fire, and modern historians believe that this in combination with the wind dying down was what finally won the struggle. Demolishing the houses downwind of a dangerous fire was often an effective way of containing the destruction by means of firehooks or explosives. This time, however, demolition was fatally delayed for hours by the Lord Mayor's lack of leadership and failure to give
12840-626: Was introduced in October 1997 and used until 2007. The London Market Information Link, a COBOL application running on a HP Tandem server was used to disseminate market data to terminals before being replaced by Infolect. The LSE facilitates stock listings in a currency other than its "home currency". Most stocks are quoted in GBP but some are quoted in EUR while others are quoted in USD. On 3 May 2000, it
12960-585: Was no clear set of regulations or fundamental laws for the Capel Court trading. In February 1812, the General Purpose Committee confirmed a set of recommendations, which later became the foundation of the first codified rule book of the Exchange. Even though the document was not a complex one, topics such as settlement and default were, in fact, quite comprehensive. With its new governmental commandments and increasing trading volume,
13080-411: Was not a daily list and was only published a few days of the week. This list and activity was later moved to Garraway's coffee house. Public auctions during this period were conducted for the duration that a length of tallow candle could burn; these were known as "by inch of candle" auctions. As stocks grew, with new companies joining to raise capital, the royal court also raised some monies. These are
13200-426: Was now so volatile that Charles feared a full-scale London rebellion against the monarchy. Food production and distribution had been disrupted to the point of non-existence; Charles announced that supplies of bread would be brought into the City every day, and markets set up round the perimeter. Fears of foreign terrorists and of a French and Dutch invasion were as high as ever among the traumatised fire victims. There
13320-535: Was one of a number of Catholic plotters responsible for starting the fire. Abroad in the Netherlands, the Great Fire of London was seen as a divine retribution for Holmes's Bonfire , the burning by the English of a Dutch town during the Second Anglo-Dutch War. In Italy, a pamphlet circulated comparing London "to Lucifer in its proud arrogance and its spectacular fall". In Spain, the fire
13440-401: Was panic on Wednesday night in the encampments at Parliament Hill , Moorfields, and Islington: a light in the sky over Fleet Street started a story that 50,000 French and Dutch immigrants had risen, and were marching towards Moorfields to murder and pillage. Surging into the streets, the frightened mob fell on any foreigners whom they happened to encounter, and were pushed back into the fields by
13560-450: Was particularly challenging to implement because of the need to redefine property titles. The Crown and the City authorities attempted to negotiate compensation for the large-scale remodelling that these plans entailed, but that unrealistic idea had to be abandoned. Exhortations to bring workmen and measure the plots on which the houses had stood were mostly ignored by people worried about day-to-day survival, as well as by those who had left
13680-503: Was preserved by an open space between buildings on the bridge which acted as a firebreak. The fire's spread to the north reached "the financial heart of the City". The houses of the bankers in Lombard Street began to burn on Monday afternoon, prompting a rush to rescue their stacks of gold coins before they melted. Several observers emphasise the despair and helplessness which seemed to seize Londoners on this second day, and
13800-702: Was seen as a "parable of Protestant wickedness". On 5 October, Marc Antonio Giustinian, Venetian Ambassador in France, reported to the Doge of Venice and the Senate, that Louis XIV announced that he would not "have any rejoicings about it, being such a deplorable accident involving injury to so many unhappy people". Louis had made an offer to his aunt, the British Queen Henrietta Maria , to send food and whatever goods might be of aid in alleviating
13920-544: Was surrounded by a ring of inner suburbs where most Londoners lived. The City was then, as now, the commercial heart of the capital, and was the largest market and busiest port in England, dominated by the trading and manufacturing classes. The City was traffic-clogged, polluted, and unhealthy, especially after it was hit by a devastating outbreak of bubonic plague in the Plague Year of 1665. The relationship between
14040-600: Was that traders began leaving the Royal Exchange, either by their own decision or through expulsion, and started dealing in the streets of London. The street in which they were now dealing was known as ' Exchange Alley ', or 'Change Alley'; it was suitably placed close to the Bank of England . Parliament tried to regulate this and ban the unofficial traders from the Change streets. Traders became weary of "bubbles" when companies rose quickly and fell, so they persuaded Parliament to pass
14160-519: Was the day of greatest destruction. The Duke of York's command post at Temple Bar , where Strand meets Fleet Street , was supposed to stop the fire's westward advance towards the Palace of Whitehall. He hoped that the River Fleet would form a natural firebreak, making a stand with his firemen from the Fleet Bridge and down to the Thames. However, early on Tuesday morning, the flames jumped over
14280-422: Was used to accommodate the rapidly growing population. The human habitations were crowded, and their design increased the fire risk. The typical multistorey timbered London tenement houses had " jetties " (projecting upper floors). They had a narrow footprint at ground level, but maximised their use of land by "encroaching" on the street with the gradually increasing size of their upper storeys. The fire hazard
14400-403: Was well perceived when the top jetties all but met across the narrow alleys—"as it does facilitate a conflagration, so does it also hinder the remedy", wrote one observer. In 1661, Charles II issued a proclamation forbidding overhanging windows and jetties, but this was largely ignored by the local government. Charles's next, sharper message in 1665 warned of the risk of fire from the narrowness of
#156843