Adam Dant At Lloyds Of London
Double-click to enlarge and study the details
Have you ever wondered what goes on inside that gleaming steel tower on Leadenhall St which houses Lloyds of London? Thanks to the superlative talent of Spitalfields Life Contributing Artist, Adam Dant, we are now able to reveal this startlingly crowded vision of the hidden dramas that take place, usually concealed from the public gaze by Richard Rogers’ elaborate web of service ducts which covers the exterior of the building.
“I am using similar means to the pamphleteers of the eighteenth century who portrayed the life of the underwriters and brokers,” Adam admitted to me, “and I’ve learnt that many of the characters are eternal – you always had a self-important broker and a bullying underwriter.”
“It’s all observed from life in the three pubs that the brokers drink in, The Lamb, The Grapes & The New Moon,” Adam explained, “I solicited lists of types of people they had known and observed, and incidents from the history of Insurance. They told me that nobody sets out to work in Insurance, they all ended up there by accident – they say they are too stupid to go into banking and too disorganised to go into the army.”
Drawing copyright © Adam Dant
If you are interested to acquire a copy of the limited edition of Adam Dant’s LLOYDS OF LONDON print, email adamdant@gmail.com
You may also like to take a look at some of Adam Dant’s other maps, prints & cartoons
Adam Dant’s Map Of The Coffee Houses
The Meeting of the New & Old East End in Redchurch St
Map of the History of Shoreditch
Map of Shoreditch in the Year 3000
Map of Shoreditch as the Globe
Map of the History of Clerkenwell
Map of the Journey to the Heart of the East End
Map of the History of Rotherhithe
Soerditch by Dant (Chapter One)
Soerditch by Dant (Chapter Two)
Soerditch by Dant (Chapter Three)
Soerditch by Dant (Chapter Four)
Soerditch by Dant (Chapter Five)
Soerditch by Dant (Chapter Six)
I was an underpaid box assistant (claims). No way were we allowed mugs of tea on the box!
Sx
P.S Love this drawing but feel I must point out that women have been allowed to work in the underwriting room since 1972/3.
Adam Dant is so witty, I love his work, such a laugh. All the elements of the building’s interior are there (I visited during Open House) with lashings of imagination on top telling this fantastical story. Look forward to more.
Where’s Wally?
Delicious and dazzling: “The Used Cardealers” — I was quite amused! But I think Adam Dant understates the reality…!
Love & Peace
ACHIM
I know that as an illustrator myself there are few things I fear more than the dreaded ‘crowd scene’. But this fellow seems to take right to it!
Rather like the Escher- like style to this, though close inspection seems to show it’s all possible!
Dear Gentle Author,
Shurely shome mischievous mishtake with the “he said they said”?
I actually gave Mr Dant the quote myself having passed it on from an underwriter. This is a well known, insider’s market saying that goes “if your son is not clever enough for banking or fit enough for Sandhurst then you can always send him to Lloyd’s”. Not quite as appealing to people who have little experience or knowledge of the City but like to paint it with a single brush.
I doubt that anyone working in insurance (or in fact in any line of work) is actually silly enough to call themselves stupid and disorganised and from experience Lloyd’s is certainly a place where anyone who was stupid or disorganised would have nowhere to hide.
Much like any other market or trading floor in London, whether Billingsgate, Columbia Road, Brick Lane, the Stock Exchange or Metal Exchange those who are not quick thinking and organised do not last long in the front line and are quickly replaced with those who are more astute and efficient.
In this way the Lloyd’s market and insurance in general is in fact very meritocratic as it offers opportunity to those who are capable and in my experience is one of the few industries that values and makes equal space for the 16 year old school leaver from Essex as much as the public school boy with an Oxbridge degree.