East India House was the

London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, 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 dow ...

headquarters of the

East India Company The East India Company (EIC) was an English, and later British, joint-stock company founded in 1600 and dissolved in 1874. It was formed to trade in the Indian Ocean region, initially with the East Indies (the Indian subcontinent and Sou ...

, from which much of

British India The provinces of India, earlier presidencies of British India and still earlier, presidency towns, were the administrative divisions of British governance on the Indian subcontinent. Collectively, they have been called British India. In one ...

was governed until the British government took control of the Company's possessions in India in 1858. It was located in

Leadenhall Street __NOTOC__ Leadenhall Street () is a street in the City of London. It is about and links Cornhill in the west to Aldgate in the east. It was formerly the start of the A11 road from London to Norwich, but that route now starts further east at ...

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 f ...

. The first East India House on the site was an Elizabethan mansion, previously known as Craven House, which the Company first occupied in 1648. This was completely rebuilt in 1726–29; and further remodelled and extended in 1796–1800. It was demolished in 1861. The

Lloyd's building The Lloyd's building (sometimes known as the Inside-Out Building) is the home of the insurance institution Lloyd's of London. It is located on the former site of East India House in Lime Street, in London's main financial district, the City o ...

, headquarters for

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 gove ...

, was built on the site of the former East India House.

"Old" East India House

The East India Company was founded in 1600. Until 1621, it occupied rooms in the mansion of its Governor, Sir Thomas Smythe, in

Philpot Lane Philpot Lane is a short street in London, United Kingdom, running from Eastcheap in the south to Fenchurch Street in the north. It is named after Sir John Philpot, Lord Mayor of London from 1378 to 1379. It is the site of London's smallest pub ...

, Fenchurch Street; and from 1621 to 1638 it was housed in Crosby Hall,

Bishopsgate Bishopsgate was one of the eastern gates in London's former defensive wall. The gate gave its name to the Bishopsgate Ward of the City of London. The ward is traditionally divided into ''Bishopsgate Within'', inside the line wall, and ''Bisho ...

. In 1638 it moved into the house of its new Governor, Sir

Christopher Clitherow Sir Christopher Clitherow (10 January 1578 – 11 November 1641) was an English merchant and politician who sat in the House of Commons from 1628 to 1629. He was Lord Mayor of London in 1635. Clitherow was the son of Henry Clitherow and his wife ...

, in Leadenhall Street. Clitherow died in 1641, and although the Company remained in occupation it found the premises increasingly cramped. In 1648, therefore, it took a lease on the adjoining property, Craven House, a late

Elizabethan The Elizabethan era is the epoch in the Tudor period of the history of England during the reign of Queen Elizabeth I (1558–1603). Historians often depict it as the golden age in English history. The symbol of Britannia (a female personific ...

mansion built by Sir Robert Lee,

Lord Mayor of London The Lord Mayor of London is the mayor of the City of London and the leader of the City of London Corporation. Within the City, the Lord Mayor is accorded precedence over all individuals except the sovereign and retains various traditional pow ...

, and named after one of his successors, Sir William Craven, who had occupied it at a later date. By 1661 the building was known as East India House. In that year, the frontage was given an ornamental wooden superstructure decorated with paintings of some of the Company's ships, and surmounted by a wooden sculpture of a

seaman Seaman may refer to: * Sailor, a member of a marine watercraft's crew * Seaman (rank), a military rank in some navies * Seaman (name) (including a list of people with the name) * ''Seaman'' (video game), a 1999 simulation video game for the Seg ...

. Over the years following, various improvements and extensions were made to the premises; and in 1710 a contract was signed for the Company to buy the property from Lord Craven (although the purchase was not in fact completed until 1733). Further extensions were made, but by the mid 1720s the mansion was considered to be in such poor condition, and the Company's need for additional space so pressing, as to justify complete rebuilding. To allow this to take place, the Company moved into temporary premises in Fenchurch Street early in 1726.

"New" East India House

The new building was designed by the merchant and amateur architect Theodore Jacobsen. The professional architect on site was John James. Construction was completed by June 1729, when the Company was able to hold its Midsummer General Court in its new home. Although the main front remained on Leadenhall Street, the premises extended a considerable distance to the rear, and included

warehouse A warehouse is a building for storing goods. Warehouses are used by manufacturers, importers, exporters, wholesalers, transport businesses, customs, etc. They are usually large plain buildings in industrial parks on the outskirts of citie ...

s which could be reached from Lime Street. Further warehouses and other facilities were erected by William Jones in 1753. E India House

The frontage as Jacobsen originally designed it is known from engravings, and from a detailed wash drawing by

Samuel Wale Samuel Wale (1721? – 1786) was an English historical painter and book illustrator. Life He is said to have been born at Great Yarmouth, Norfolk, possibly on 25 April 1721, to Samuel and Margaret Wale, though some sources indicate he was bor ...

of c.1760. Its five bays were three storeys high, with an attic storey disguised behind the cornice balustrade. A giant order of Doric pilasters under an academically correct frieze of

triglyph Triglyph is an architectural term for the vertically channeled tablets of the Doric frieze in classical architecture, so called because of the angular channels in them. The rectangular recessed spaces between the triglyphs on a Doric frieze are ...

s demonstrated the East India Company's soundness and seriousness of purpose: the Directors' "aim was resolutely down to earth – to inspire confidence and impress the shareholders." The structure was unexpectedly deep, affording large meeting rooms and Directors' offices, as well as a hall, a courtyard and a garden, all of which could serve for receptions. The Directors' Court Room featured a marble chimneypiece with bearded term figures that supported the mantel shelf and an overmantel bas-relief panel, ''Britannia Receiving the Riches of the East'', under a pediment, the work of Michael Rysbrack (1728–30). In the Directors' Court Room, six canvases by George Lambert appropriately illustrated the East India Company's main "factories": St. Helena,

Cape Town Cape Town ( af, Kaapstad; , xh, iKapa) is one of South Africa's three capital cities, serving as the seat of the Parliament of South Africa. It is the legislative capital of the country, the oldest city in the country, and the second largest ...

, Fort William, Calcutta,

Bombay Mumbai (, ; also known as Bombay — List of renamed Indian cities and states#Maharashtra, the official name until 1995) is the capital city of the Indian States and union territories of India, state of Maharashtra and the ''de facto'' fin ...

Madras Chennai (, ), formerly known as Madras ( the official name until 1996), is the capital city of Tamil Nadu, the southernmost Indian state. The largest city of the state in area and population, Chennai is located on the Coromandel Coast of th ...

and

Tellicherry Thalassery (), formerly Tellicherry, is a municipality, Commercial City on the Malabar Coast in Kannur district, in the state of Kerala, India, bordered by the districts of Mahé (Pondicherry), Kozhikode, Wayanad, Kasaragod and Kodagu (Karnat ...

;

East Indiamen East Indiaman was a general name for any sailing ship operating under charter or licence to any of the East India trading companies of the major European trading powers of the 17th through the 19th centuries. The term is used to refer to vesse ...

in the foregrounds were painted by the marine artist Samuel Scott. Carvings in the interiors were carried out by

John Boson John Boson was a cabinet maker and carver whose work is associated with that of William Kent. It is said that if he had not died at such a relatively young age then his place would have been assured in the history of furniture making in the Unit ...

Microcosm of London Plate 045 - India House, the Sale Room

An oval ceiling painting for the Revenue Committee Room, ''The East Offering Its Riches To Britannia'', was painted by a little-known Greek artist

Spiridione Roma Spiridione Roma ( – 15 June 1786), also known as Spiridon or Spyridon Romas ( el, Σπυρίδων Ρώμας), was a Greek painter from Corfu. He was a prominent member of the Heptanese School (painting), Heptanese School. His contemp ...

in 1778.

With the growth of the Company, additional space was required, and in the 1790s adjoining structures to either side of East India House were purchased and pulled down. Designs to extend and reface the building were commissioned, after some canvassing among

John Soane Sir John Soane (; né Soan; 10 September 1753 – 20 January 1837) was an English architect who specialised in the Neo-Classical style. The son of a bricklayer, he rose to the top of his profession, becoming professor of architecture at the R ...

and George Dance, from Henry Holland – though even then the Company's Surveyor, architect

Richard Jupp Richard Jupp (1728 – 17 April 1799) was an 18th-century English architect, particularly associated with buildings in and around London. He served for many years (c. 1755 – 1799) as surveyor to the British East India Company. Works His wo ...

, insisted on overseeing construction. Work on the new building began in 1796. After Jupp's sudden death in April 1799, it was completed by Holland. The Company's museum was housed in one extension, the library in the other. The essayist

Charles Lamb Charles Lamb (10 February 1775 – 27 December 1834) was an English essayist, poet, and antiquarian, best known for his '' Essays of Elia'' and for the children's book '' Tales from Shakespeare'', co-authored with his sister, Mary Lamb (1764� ...

worked as a clerk in East India House from 1792 to 1825. A portrait of Lamb by Henry Hoppner Meyer in 1826 shows him seated with East India House in the background. In his essay, "The Superannuated Man", he describes the "light excluding, pent-up offices, where candles for one-half the year supplied the place of the sun's light", and refers to Fish Street Hill, Fenchurch Street and Mincing Lane, which formed part of his walking route to work in Leadenhall Street. The East India Company was wound up in 1858, when its assets passed to the government; and the building became the

India Office The India Office was a British government department established in London in 1858 to oversee the administration, through a Viceroy and other officials, of the Provinces of India. These territories comprised most of the modern-day nations of I ...

. This, however, was only a temporary arrangement, as a new India Office building was already being planned for

Whitehall Whitehall is a road and area in the City of Westminster, Central London. The road forms the first part of the A3212 road from Trafalgar Square to Chelsea. It is the main thoroughfare running south from Trafalgar Square towards Parliament Sq ...

. East India House was vacated in 1860, and the following year was sold for redevelopment and demolished.

Legacy

The site of East India House is now occupied by the

. Many of the old building's fittings, art collection and furniture were saved. Some are now to be found in

India House India House was a student residence that existed between 1905 and 1910 at Cromwell Avenue in Highgate, North London. With the patronage of lawyer Shyamji Krishna Varma, it was opened to promote nationalist views among Indian students in Britai ...

, the seat of the Indian High Commission in London.Archer 1965, p. 409. Other items are held by the

British Library The British Library is the national library of the United Kingdom and is one of the largest libraries in the world. It is estimated to contain between 170 and 200 million items from many countries. As a legal deposit library, the Briti ...

as part of its

Asia, Pacific and Africa Collections The Asia, Pacific and Africa Collections previously called the Oriental and India Office Collections (OIOC) form a significant part of the holdings of the British Library in London, England. India Office collection The collections include the do ...

References

Bibliography

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External links