Laying the Foundation Stone of the Royal Exchange

A view taken from the top of the red-striped fabric pavilion, designed for the 17th of January 1842 ceremony, when the foundation stone of the Royal Exchange was officially laid. Numerous guests fashionably dressed are contemplating the event presided over by Prince Albert and possibly Sir John Pirie, Lord Mayor at the time. Among the gathering crowd, other celebrities were present such as the Duke of Welllington and the members of the Peel Cabinet. The current Royal Exchange was inaugurated by Queen Victoria at another large ceremony two years later.
The Royal Exchange was formally established in 1566 by an English financier and merchant, Thomas Gresham. This building was a place for business trade and the arrangement of credits and loans, between merchants. As several other buildings in London, the Royal Exchange was destroyed by the Great Fire in 1666. The second building suffered the same fate and burned down on the 10 January 1838. The third and last Royal Exchange was designed by Sir William Tite and is located on the same place of the previous ones, to the east of the Bank of England in the City of London. For the new design, the surrounding streets were widened and its façade re-orientated to the west.