City of London


Book Description

The 'Square Mile', London's financial powerhouse, rose to prominence with the defeat of Napoleon in 1815. David Kynaston's vibrant history brings this world to life, taking us from the railway boom of the 1830s to the 'Golden Age', when the legendary gold standard reigned supreme. Between the two World Wars the City was affected by the Wall Street Crash, pressured by politicians, trade unions and industrialists, but by the end of the twentieth century it had regained a precarious global might. Woven throughout are the stories of four individuals who shaped the City in different ways -- Nathan Rothschild, Ernest Cassel, Montagu Norman and Siegmund Warburg. But the realm of great bankers and brokers is also the workplace of young clerks throwing paper darts, typists bringing in their sandwiches, and sad racketeers watching aghast as the markets fall. Above all, we see what it was like to work in the City -- the dress codes, eating habits, work hours, pay, humour, changing architecture and language that forged the unique culture of the Square Mile. Richly entertaining, full of vivid anecdotes, this is a story of booms, busts and bankruptcies -- from the Kaffir boom to the Marconi scandal, the 'Big Bang' deregulation of 1986, and the Barings crash in 1995 -- bringing us to the brink of the modern age.




The City


Book Description

Radical insider’s account of how the city of London really works The City, as London’s financial centre is known, is the world’s biggest international banking and foreign exchange market, shaping the development of global capital. It is also, as this groundbreaking book reveals, a crucial part of the mechanism of power in the world economy. Based on the author’s twenty years’ experience of City dealing rooms, The City is an in-depth look at world markets and revenues that exposes how this mechanism works. All big international companies—not just the banks—utilise this system, and The City shows how the operations of the City of London are critical both for British capitalism and for world finance. Tony Norfield details, with shocking and insightful research, the role of the US dollar in global trading, the network of Britishlinked tax havens, the flows of finance around the world and the system of power built upon financial securities. Why do just fifty companies now have control of a large share of world economic production? The City explains how this situation came about, examining the history of the world economy from the postwar period to the present day. If you imagine you don’t like “finance” but have no problem with the capitalist market system, think again: it turns out the two cannot be separated.




City of London


Book Description

Pomp, pageantry, power and prestige are just a few of the words to sum up the history and vibrancy of the City of London. Beyond its fame as the financial heart of London, this new guidebook explores the Square Mile of London revealing the secrets hidden in its rich treasure trove. Neither square nor a square mile, the City of London seems to lie beyond the limits of logic. From St Paul’s, Wren’s Masterpiece to the Barbican, Europe’s largest centre for Arts, the City of London is a compelling blend of diverse visitor attractions waiting to be explored. Whether you pop into the Old Bailey, the scene of many a courtroom drama, amble through Lincoln Inn Fields or drool over the Crown Jewels in the Tower of London there is never a dull moment in the City... Learn why the Bank of England is known as the Old Lady of Threadneedle Street and the importance of Mansion House, home to the Right Honorable The Lord Mayor of London and looks at the traditions behind the Lord Mayor’s Show.




Liber Albus


Book Description




London


Book Description

City of cities, the modern world’s first great metropolis, London has shaped everything from clothing to youth culture. It has a unique place in the world’s memory, even as its role has changed from the capital of the planet to its playground, and as its lived history has mutated into the heritage industry. In this book, Londoner Phil Baker explores the city’s history and the London of today, balancing well-known major events with more curious and eccentric details. He reveals a city of almost unmatched historical density and richness. For Baker, London turns out to be Gothic in all senses of the word and enjoyably haunted by its own often bloody past. And despite extensive redevelopment, as he shows in this engaging and insightful book, some of the magic remains.




The City of London and Social Democracy


Book Description

The City of London and Social Democracy examines the relationship between the financial sector and the state in post-war Britain. The key argument made in Aled Davies's study is that changes to the financial sector during the 1960s and 1970s undermined the state's capacity to sustain and develop a modern industrial economy. Social democratic economic strategy was constrained by the institutionalization of investment in pension and insurance funds; the fragmentation of the nation's oligopolistic domestic banking system; the emergence of an unregulated international capital market based in London; and the breakdown of the Bretton Woods international monetary system. Novel attempts to reconfigure social democratic economic strategy in response to these changes ultimately proved unsuccessful. Meanwhile, the assumption that national prosperity could only be achieved through industrial growth was challenged by a reconceptualization of Britain as a fundamentally financial and commercial nation -- an idea that was successfully promoted by the City itself. These findings assert the need to place the Thatcher governments' subsequent neoliberal economic revolution, which saw the acceleration of deindustrialization and the triumph of the City of London as a pre-eminent international financial centre, within a broader material, institutional, and cultural context previously underappreciated by historians.




The City in the City


Book Description

An exploration of the dramatic transformation of London’s financial district after 1945, viewed at four spatial scales: city, street, facade, interior. In The City in the City, Amy Thomas offers the first in-depth architectural and urban history of London’s financial district, the City of London, from the period of rebuilding after World War II to the explosive climax of financial deregulation in the 1980s and its long aftermath. Thomas examines abstract financial ideas, political ideology, and invisible markets as concrete realities; working on four spatial scales—city, street, facade, and interior—the book explores the grand plans, hidden alleys, neo-Georgian elevations, and sweaty dealing floors that have made the financial center work. Moving from politics to sociology, institutions to bodies, development plans to office desks, Thomas unravels the rich entanglements between the structure of the UK’s financial system and the structure of the environment in which it operates. Despite its physical and political centrality, this period of the City’s architectural history occupies an academic lacuna. Longstanding prejudices about developer-led architecture and the real estate industry have obscured the postwar City’s relevance. The book shows how, as currents of local government reform, nation-building, and globalization swept across Britain, the City became an ideological battleground for debates between politicians and financial institutions, real estate developers and architects, preservationists and so-called “proactive” planners throughout the latter half of the century. The City of London is a place steeped in rich cultural and architectural heritage of immense national significance, yet it is also a highly privileged citadel at the core of global financial networks. The City in the City is both a critique and a celebration of this unique and complex place.




Japan and the City of London


Book Description

From an insider's position, Sir Paul Newall tells the story of Japan's links with the City of London and explains why the City was first chosen by Japan as the focal point for its overseas financial investment. This account draws upon the author's close contact with Japanese governmental and financial authorities both in the UK and Japan itself. It documents the evolution and development of this relationship, from the earliest beginnings of Japanese financial contact in the 1860s. Important to economic and financial historians, this account should also be of particular value to those dealing with Japanese companies and financial institutions, as well as to those Japanese who are working, or have worked in the City. First published in 1996, this title is part of the Bloomsbury Academic Collections series.




City of London in the Great War


Book Description

Throughout the First World War, London played a major part in Great Britain's war effort, both at home and abroad. A far as Germany was concerned, the city was their ultimate goal the ultimate target that would bring them the sought-after victory they so desired. With the British Royal Family at Buckingham Palace, the heart of British Government at the Houses of Parliament and one of Europe's major financial centres, situated at the Bank of England, London was a major prize that would either be protected or lost to the enemy. With a real belief amongst the British public that there would be an invasion at some time during the war, the security of the countries capital was paramount not only for survival of the nation, but also to ensure that public morale remained high.The capital was a central hub for recruitment with centres popping up all over the city, at places such as Scotland Yard and the Tower of London. There was a regiment for everybody, catering for all elements of society from the labourer, to the landed gentry, for the more affluent, as well as those less well off, and from the professional sportsman, to the city banker; everybody wanted to do their bit for King and Country.The book looks at many different aspects of wartime London: the Members of Parliament who left their comfortable lifestyles, who fought and died for their country, the Silvertown munitions factory explosion, the twelve German spies who were shot at the Tower of London, and the hundreds of military hospitals that were spread across London. Part of St Thomas's Hospital, for example, treated the wounds of 11,396 military personnel between 1915-19.City of London in the Great War records yet another chapter in the history of the nation's capital, during the four-year period of time, which will live in the memory of the city forever more.




HISTORICAL AND LITERARY MEMORIALS OF THE CITY OF LONDON


Book Description

"Historical and Literary Memorials of the City of London" is a work by John Heneage Jesse. Published in the 19th century, this book is a collection of historical and literary accounts focused on the city of London. John Heneage Jesse was an English historian and writer known for his works on historical topics. In this particular volume, Jesse likely delves into various aspects of London's history, including notable events, landmarks, literary connections, and perhaps the social and cultural development of the city. For readers interested in the history of London, especially during the 19th century, "Historical and Literary Memorials of the City of London" by John Heneage Jesse could provide valuable insights and a glimpse into the city's rich past.