Lloyds Register (of British and Foreign Shipping)

The Lloyds Register building is in Fenchurch Street. The first register of shipping was complied in 1764, and was a list of ships over 100 tons. The old register can still be seen in the library.

Ships hulls were registered by vowels and its fittings, such as masts and rigging by numbers - ships which were A1 being the best, and is where the phrase originally comes from.

As well as registering, it lays down ship-building standards. There is an office in just about every port in the world, and was possibly used as a spy network during WW2. 

Lloyds Register today is a risk management organisation that is involved in classification, assessment and risk assessment. Nowadays, it has control systems for things such as ships, yachts, steel, rail and oil rigs. 

The weathervane on top of one of the buildings turrets is a Tudor galleon: even the rigging is gold!

To the rear right of the original building is Richard Rogers modern architectural addition

Opened in 2000, its glass and steel structure was a building for the new millennium.