Commercial Union plc was a large insurance business based in

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

. It merged with

General Accident General Accident plc was a large insurance business based in Perth, Scotland. It merged with Commercial Union in 1998 to form CGU plc. History The Norie-Miller years The Employers' liability act of 1880 opened a new area of insurance and one ...

in 1998 to form

CGU plc CGU plc was a large insurance group, created by the merger of Commercial Union and General Accident in 1998. The company was listed on the London Stock Exchange. It merged with Norwich Union in 2000 to form CGNU plc, later renamed Aviva plc. ...

History

Commercial Union was established following a conflagration near

London Bridge Several bridges named London Bridge have spanned the River Thames between the City of London and Southwark, in central London. The current crossing, which opened to traffic in 1973, is a box girder bridge built from concrete and steel. It r ...

in 1861, known as the Great Tooley Street Fire, which destroyed a number of warehouses and wharves along the

River Thames The River Thames ( ), known alternatively in parts as the The Isis, River Isis, is a river that flows through southern England including London. At , it is the longest river entirely in England and the Longest rivers of the United Kingdom, se ...

as a result of which the fire insurance companies were hit by a series of massive claims. Consequently, they increased their fire insurance rates so dramatically that a group of local merchants and brokers decided to form their own company. This became known as the Commercial Union Assurance Company.Liveing, Edward. '' A Century of Insurance: The Commercial Union Assurance Group 1861 - 1961''. London: H F & G Witherby, 1961 The company established its head office at 24-26 Cornhill in London in 1897. It purchased the

Hand in Hand Fire & Life Insurance Society The Hand in Hand Fire & Life Insurance Society was one of the oldest British insurance companies. History The company was founded in 1696 at Tom's Coffee House in St Martin's Lane in London London is the capital and List of urban areas in ...

, the world's oldest fire insurance company, in 1905 and The Ocean Accident and Guarantee Corporation in 1910 and it continued to grow by further acquisitions. The acquisition of the British General Insurance Company followed in 1926. Then, after completing the acquisition of

North British and Mercantile Insurance The North British and Mercantile Insurance Company was a British-based company founded in 1809 in Edinburgh and absorbed as a subsidiary of Commercial Union in 1959. The company was also known as the North British Insurance Company, North British F ...

, which had significant operations in the United States, in 1959, Commercial Union moved to larger and more modern facilities at St. Helen's in London in 1969. With the intention of expanding its activities in continental Europe, it acquired the Dutch insurance business,

Delta Lloyd Group Delta Lloyd Group was a Dutch insurer with operations in the Netherlands, Belgium and Germany. It consisted of Delta Lloyd, OHRA, ABN AMRO Verzekeringen and a few minor banks. The company was the sixth-largest insurer in the Netherlands, with a ...

, in 1973 and the French insurance business, L'Epargne de France in 1984. The company merged with

to form

in 1998.

References

{{Authority control Aviva Financial services companies established in 1861 Insurance companies of the United Kingdom Companies formerly listed on the London Stock Exchange 1861 establishments in the United Kingdom Financial services companies disestablished in 1998 1998 disestablishments in the United Kingdom