Lime Street is a minor road in the

City of London The City of London is a city, ceremonial county and local government district that contains the historic centre and constitutes, alongside Canary Wharf, the primary central business district (CBD) of London. It constituted most of London fr ...

between

Fenchurch Street Fenchurch Street is a street in London linking Aldgate at its eastern end with Lombard Street and Gracechurch Street in the west. It is a well-known thoroughfare in the City of London financial district and is the site of many corporate office ...

to the south and Leadenhall Street to the north. Its name comes from the

lime Lime commonly refers to: * Lime (fruit), a green citrus fruit * Lime (material), inorganic materials containing calcium, usually calcium oxide or calcium hydroxide * Lime (color), a color between yellow and green Lime may also refer to: Botany ...

burners who once sold lime from there for use in construction. It is perhaps best known as the current home of the world's largest insurance market,

Lloyd's of London Lloyd's of London, generally known simply as Lloyd's, is an insurance and reinsurance market located in London, England. Unlike most of its competitors in the industry, it is not an insurance company; rather, Lloyd's is a corporate body gov ...

, since its newest building was opened on the street in 1986. Opposite Lloyd's, the Willis Building is the global headquarters of insurance broker Willis. A 35-storey building stands at 52-54 Lime Street as the European headquarters of global insurer W. R. Berkley. The northern portion of the street is

pedestrianised Pedestrian zones (also known as auto-free zones and car-free zones, as pedestrian precincts in British English, and as pedestrian malls in the United States and Australia) are areas of a city or town reserved for pedestrian-only use and in whi ...

. Vehicular through-access to Leadenhall Street is prevented by a firegate, forcing drivers to bear right onto Fenchurch Avenue, from which a left turn onto Billiter Street returns vehicles to Leadenhall Street. Nearby is the

Norman Foster Norman or Normans may refer to: Ethnic and cultural identity * The Normans, a people partly descended from Norse Vikings who settled in the territory of Normandy in France in the 10th and 11th centuries ** People or things connected with the Nor ...

-designed and gherkin-shaped skyscraper

30 St Mary Axe 30 St Mary Axe (previously known as the Swiss Re Building and informally known as the Gherkin) is a commercial skyscraper in London's primary financial district, the City of London. It was completed in December 2003 and opened in April 2004. W ...

, and the

Leadenhall Building 122 Leadenhall Street, which is also known as the Leadenhall Building, is a skyscraper in central London. It opened in July 2014 and was designed by the Rogers Stirk Harbour + Partners; it is known informally as The Cheesegrater because of it ...

. Leadenhall Market is on Lime Street's western side, adjacent to Lloyd's. According to scholars,

Charles Dickens Charles John Huffam Dickens (; 7 February 1812 – 9 June 1870) was an English writer and social critic. He created some of the world's best-known fictional characters and is regarded by many as the greatest novelist of the Victorian e ...

placed the residence of

Ebenezer Scrooge Ebenezer Scrooge () is the protagonist of Charles Dickens's 1843 novella ''A Christmas Carol''. At the beginning of the novella, Scrooge is a cold-hearted miser who despises Christmas. The tale of his redemption by three spirits (the Ghost of ...

in a now-demolished house on the site of the current Lloyd's building at the corner of Lime and Leadenhall Streets. The southern portion of the street formed part of the marathon course for the 2012 Olympic Games. The women's marathon took place on 5 August and the men's on 12 August 2012. The nearest

London Underground The London Underground (also known simply as the Underground or by its nickname the Tube) is a rapid transit system serving Greater London and some parts of the adjacent ceremonial counties of England, counties of Buckinghamshire, Essex and He ...

stations are

Monument A monument is a type of structure that was explicitly created to commemorate a person or event, or which has become relevant to a social group as a part of their remembrance of historic times or cultural heritage, due to its artistic, his ...

and

Aldgate Aldgate () was a gate in the former defensive wall around the City of London. It gives its name to Aldgate High Street, the first stretch of the A11 road, which included the site of the former gate. The area of Aldgate, the most common use of ...

and the closest mainline railway stations are Liverpool Street,

Cannon Street Cannon Street is a road in the City of London, the historic nucleus of London and its modern financial centre. It runs roughly parallel with the River Thames, about north of it, in the south of the City. It is the site of the ancient London ...

and

References

{{coord, 51.511834, N, 0.083876, W, display=title Streets in the City of London