The Ground Floor and Galleries 1 and 2 have reopened and we welcome 13 additional managing agents to the Ground Floor of the Underwriting Room.
Our popular tours will recommence from 25 September.
We would like to thank everyone for their support over the Summer refurbishment and we look forward to you settling back into the Room.
Explore the new Ground Floor, G1 and G2 plans once the works are complete.
10 Aug 2023
Hear from Bruce Carnegie-Brown, Chairman at Lloyd's about his experience of the work being done on our Underwriting Room.
The Underwriting Room has been at the heart of our iconic marketplace for hundreds of years. The increasing trends for more flexible working and digitalisation, accelerated by the Covid-19 pandemic, has led us to look at our ways of working and the significant role of the Underwriting Room to ensure it remains a relevant and vibrant space that brings the Lloyd’s market together in person, sharing risk to create a braver world.
In 2021, we undertook an extensive consultation with the market including 60+ interviews with senior leaders and targeted focus groups to gather in-depth insights about the long-term requirements of the Underwriting Room and supporting spaces in the Lloyd’s building. The outcomes from that consultation showed an in-person trading environment is still seen as critical; to succeed it must foster vibrancy, enable progress, and create a sense of belonging.
It is clear the Underwriting Room thrives on achieving a critical mass and high density of market participants engaged in commercial activity. It is this critical mass of people working together and face to face trading that delivers added intangible benefits which also need to be supported and leveraged e.g., serendipitous encounters, market intelligence gathering and nurturing talent.
To ensure we have a consistent critical mass of colleagues working together in the Room, we’re planning to make changes to the way space on the Ground Floor will be distributed. We’re working with the Lloyd’s Market Association (LMA) to achieve an equitable distribution of underwriters and syndicates working from the Ground Floor. It is expected 44 managing agents will now have a presence on the Ground Floor; a big uplift from the 31 who are currently in this space.
In 2022 we held a competition to select an architect partner to realise our vision and design work has been underway to make the Room fit for the future. Creating a modern workspace which respects our Grade 1 listed home and builds on Lloyd’s traditions is both a daunting and exciting opportunity. We are both proud and protective of the legacy Richard Rogers left us, however, we also believe he would never have taken offence to the building evolving, only to time standing still - flexibility was always at the heart of his vision.
Our starting points have been respect for the aesthetics of the Room and creating a human scale workplace within a vast space. Investment in quality design and upgraded infrastructure has been central to the creative vision, we will be working with numerous suppliers and experts to not only to upgrade IT systems but also to make the Ground Floor an attractive and comfortable workplace, supporting more face-to-face business and a thriving market. From reimagining the box to improving our service offer it’s an exciting time, we look forward to welcoming everyone back in September to see the changes.
Read the key insights from our market consultation and explore the design vision.
| Q1 2021 | Extensive market wide consultation |
| Apr 2021 | Early vision shared for feedback with market stakeholders |
| Q2 2021 | Final vision shared |
| 2021/2022 | Pause in programme as a result of ongoing lease negotiations |
| Q4 2022 | Architects appointed to develop future designs |
| Q1 2023 | Market consultation about equitable allocation of space on the Ground Floor |
| Q2 2023 | Design vision and new Underwriting Room plan shared |
| Q3 2023 | 10 July to September temporary closure of the Underwriting Room for refurbishment |
| Aug 2023 | Return pack and instructions will be sent to all managing agents |
| Early Sept 2023 | Room reopens to market participants |
| Sept 2023 | Room reopens to visitors and the public |
Download the Room Guide
Download Ground Floor plan
Read the full story