Mincing Lane is a one-way street in the City of London linking Fenchurch Street southward to Great Tower Street.
Its name is a corruption of Mynchen Lane - so-called from the tenements held there by the Benedictine 'mynchens' or nuns of St Helen's Bishopsgate (from Minicen, Anglo-Saxon for a nun; minchery, a nunnery).[1]
It was for some years the world's leading centre for tea and spice trading after the British East India Company successfully took over all trading ports from Dutch East India Company in 1799. It was the centre of the British opium business (comprising 90% of all transactions), as well as other drugs in the 18th century.[2] It is mentioned in chapter 16 of Charles Dickens' Our Mutual Friend, where it is briefly described:
In 1834, when the East India Company ceased to be a commercial enterprise, and tea became a 'free trade' commodity, tea auctions were held in the London Commercial Salerooms on Mincing Lane. Tea merchants established offices in and around the street, earning it the nickname Street of Tea.[3]
A notable building is the Clothworkers' Hall (the current building, opened in 1958, is the sixth to stand on the site; the fourth was destroyed in the Great Fire of London, while the fifth was destroyed during the Blitz).[4] A modern landmark partly bounded by Mincing Lane is Plantation Place, completed in 2004.
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Minster Court is complex of three office buildings, completed between 1991 and 1992; designed by architects GMW Partnership.[5] The style has been described as "postmodern gothic". It appeared briefly in the 1996 film 101 Dalmatians as House of de Vil.[6] In the forecourt, on Mincing Lane, are three bronze horses that are over 3 metres tall, sculpted by Althea Wynne;[7] they have been nicknamed "Dollar", "Yen" and "Sterling".[8] During the final phase of fitting-out on 7 August 1991, there was a fire in the atrium of Building No. 3 which caused a serious delay in completion.
Situated in No. 3 Minster Court, the London Underwriting Centre (LUC) is intended to run in parallel with the Underwriting Room at Lloyd's of London, providing a facility for insurance company underwriters to meet brokers at a single venue (the Lloyd's building itself being only open to Lloyd's syndicate underwriters). The LUC specialises in international insurance and reinsurance,[9] and can be visited by up to 4,000 brokers each day.[10]
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