Royal Exchange — An Historic London Site Dedicated to Commerce

Based in Connecticut, Dennis John Olmstead is a tax lawyer and consultant with a focus on corporate growth and cost savings. Having worked in countries around the globe, Dennis Olmstead had the opportunity to reside in London while serving as global head of tax at UBS.

Reflecting London’s mercantile roots, one of the unique historical sites of England’s capital city is the Royal Exchange. Designed in the 1560s by Thomas Gresham, the Exchange took the place of informal meetings of merchants along Lombard Street. Its centralized layout was inspired by the Antwerp bourse. The commercial marketplace received the royal imprimatur in 1571 from Queen Elizabeth I and was expanded to include offices and shops, as well as a trading floor, around an open courtyard.

After the first Royal Exchange burned to the ground in the 1666 Great Fire of London, Charles II laid the first foundation stone for its successor, which subsequently burned down in 1838 The Exchange as it exists today was opened by Queen Victoria in 1841.

The cultural impact of the Royal Exchange has been immense, as it set the stage for a regulated stock market and also housed pioneering insurance brokers such as Lloyds of London. Today’s visitors are able to tour the historic building that ceased commercial trading in 1939, at the start of World War II. In its place is a luxury shopping center that features a glass ceiling hearkening back to the era before 1883, when the Exchange still had an open courtyard.