New Court (also known as The Rothschild Headquarters) is a collection of proximate buildings 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 ...

having served as the global headquarters of the Rothschild investment bank since 1809. The current building is the fourth incarnation of the Rothschild offices at the same street address. Until 2004, the world price of gold was fixed daily at this building.

1809 to 1868: First incarnation and early history

After leaving

Frankfurt Frankfurt, officially Frankfurt am Main (; Hessian: , "Frank ford on the Main"), is the most populous city in the German state of Hesse. Its 791,000 inhabitants as of 2022 make it the fifth-most populous city in Germany. Located on its na ...

Nathan Mayer Rothschild Nathan Mayer Rothschild (16 September 1777 – 28 July 1836) was an English-German banker, businessman and financier. Born in Frankfurt am Main in Germany, he was the third of the five sons of Gutle (Schnapper) and Mayer Amschel Rothschild, an ...

needed a location where he could build his banking business and continue his merchant activities as well as house his family. Rothschild acquired a lease at No. 2 New Court Street, St Swithin's Lane in 1809. In 1824 at New Court, Nathan Mayer Rothschild and company formed

Alliance Assurance The Alliance Assurance was formed in 1824. It merged with Sun Insurance in 1959 to form Sun Alliance Insurance. History The Alliance was formed by Sir Moses Montefiore and Nathan Mayer Rothschild (married to sisters) with the intention of crea ...

(later becoming

Royal & Sun Alliance RSA Insurance Group Limited ( trading as RSA, formerly RSA Insurance Group plc and Royal and Sun Alliance) is a British multinational general insurance company headquartered in London, England. RSA has major operations in the United Kingdom, Ir ...

, and today known as

RSA Insurance Group RSA Insurance Group Limited (doing business as, trading as RSA, formerly RSA Insurance Group plc and Royal and Sun Alliance) is a British Multinational corporation, multinational general insurance company headquartered in London, England. RSA has ...

)."

1868 to 1962: Second incarnation

Lionel de Rothschild Baron Lionel Nathan de Rothschild (22 November 1808 – 3 June 1879) was a British Jewish banker, politician and philanthropist who was a member of the prominent Rothschild banking family of England. He became the first practising Jew to sit a ...

(who had succeeded his father Nathan in 1838 as head of the firm) hired architect

Thomas Marsh Nelson Thomas Marsh Nelson (c. 1817 - 24 February 1884) was an English architect who worked principally in London. He was particularly active in the development of Westbourne Terrace in the 1840s on behalf of the builder William Kingdom. Early life and ...

to design a building in the

Italianate style The Italianate style was a distinct 19th-century phase in the history of Classical architecture. Like Palladianism and Neoclassicism, the Italianate style drew its inspiration from the models and architectural vocabulary of 16th-century Italian R ...

which was completed in 1868.

Beginning of gold fixing

On 12 September 1919, New Court became the location where the global price of gold was fixed.

Second World War

During

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

, The Rothschild bank moved much of its staff to the Rothschild estate at

Tring Park Tring Park is a public open space in Tring, owned by Dacorum Borough Council and managed by the Woodland Trust. It is part of the Chilterns Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. Half of the is undulating grassland, grazed by cattle. Part of the park ...

. In a 1941

Nazi Nazism ( ; german: Nazismus), the common name in English for National Socialism (german: Nationalsozialismus, ), is the far-right totalitarian political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in ...

air raid, St Swithin's Lane was struck with many buildings being damaged.

1962 to 2011: Third incarnation

As the firm continued to see growth, it again outgrew New Court. Although the idea of extending the buildings vertically was posed, the Rothschild family ultimately decided to develop a new office. Rothschild chose

Fitzroy Robinson & Partners Fitzroy Robinson & Partners was one of the UK's largest firms of architects. It was based at Devonshire Street in London. History The firm was established by Herbert Fitzroy Robinson in 1956. Public buildings designed by the firm included 102 Pet ...

as architects for a building which was completed in 1962.

2011 to present: Fourth incarnation

By the early twenty-first century, the Rothschild Bank had again outgrown the buildings. Architect

Rem Koolhaas Remment Lucas Koolhaas (; born 17 November 1944) is a Dutch architect, architectural theorist, urbanist and Professor in Practice of Architecture and Urban Design at the Graduate School of Design at Harvard University. He is often cited as a re ...

of OMA was selected to design the new headquarters for Rothschild which was completed in 2011.

References

{{Reflist Office buildings in London Office buildings completed in 2011