Exchange Alley, or Change Alley, is a narrow alleyway connecting shops and coffeehouses in an old neighbourhood of the City of London. It is bounded by Lombard Street, Cornhill and Birchin Lane. It served as a convenient shortcut from the Royal Exchange to the Post Office. Shops included ship chandlers, makers of instruments for navigation such as telescopes, and goldsmiths from Lombardy in Italy.
The coffeehouses of Exchange Alley, especially Jonathan's and Garraway's, became an early venue for the lively trading of shares and commodities. These activities were the progenitor of the modern London Stock Exchange. Similarly, Edward Lloyd's coffeehouse, at No. 16 Lombard Street but originally on Tower Street, was the forerunner of Lloyd's of London, the Lloyd's Register and Lloyd's List.
The nearest London Underground station is Bank (Central, Northern and Waterloo & City lines, and the Docklands Light Railway) and the closest mainline railway station is Cannon Street.
Read more about Exchange Alley: History
Famous quotes containing the words exchange and/or alley:
“The press and politicians. A delicate relationship. Too close, and danger ensues. Too far apart and democracy itself cannot function without the essential exchange of information. Creative leaks, a discreet lunch, interchange in the Lobby, the art of the unattributable telephone call, late at night.”
—Howard Brenton (b. 1942)
“In the mind there is a thin alley called death
and I move through it as
through water.”
—Anne Sexton (1928–1974)