LLOYD’S
The Early Days
The early London coffee houses were centres not only of commerce and literature, but of debate. They also had a political influence which moved Charles II to attempt, unsuccessfully, their suppression as “nurseries of sedition and rebellion”. Among the innumerable 17th century London coffee houses was one called “Lloyd’s Coffee House owned by Edward Lloyd and situated in Tower Street. When it was first opened is uncertain, but the London Gazette of February 21, 1688, records its existence at that time by an advertisement offering a reward, claimable at Lloyd’s Coffee House, for watches stolen from an Edward Bransby.
There is no evidence to suggest that Lloyd’s was better appointed, more attentively served or had a greater brilliance of conversation than the majority of its coffeehouse contemporaries; it had the advantage, however, of being near the River Thames and thus attracting the patronage of men interested in and connected with the sea, among whom were merchants willing to accept insurance on ships and their cargoes.
In the 17th century there were no insurance companies as we know them to-day. The practice was for individuals, who came to be called Underwriters because they wrote their names beneath the wording on insurance policies, to guarantee commercial ventures on a personal basis: Lloyd’s Coffee House proved a favorite venue for them to conduct their business informally over cups of coffee, amid the hum of conversation and the hustle round about. As time went by, Lloyd’s Coffee House became generally recognised as a likely place for persons wanting insurance cover to find Underwriters, and Edward Lloyd found that with the reputation came an increased custom that he was not slow to encourage.
Lloyd prompted the trend towards business by providing his customers with pen, ink, paper, and shipping information
obtained from the waterfront by runners. In 1696 he published a news sheet called Lloyd’s News, but this was discontinued after he found himself in difficulties for inaccurately publishing proceedings of the House of Lords. Short-lived as it was, the venture can be looked upon as the forerunner of Lloyd’s List and Shipping Gazette, Lloyd’s own and London’s oldest daily newspaper, which first appeared in 1734, twenty-one years after Lloyd’s death.
The original Lloyd’s Coffee House was merely a convenient and apparently congenial place for merchants of common interest to meet, chat, and to transact insurance and other business. When Lloyd died in 1713 it was little more, and he could have had no intimation of the international prestige one day to be attached to his name.
The Society
To-day, Lloyd’s is a society, incorporated by Act of Parliament in 1871, whose Members, known as Underwriting Members of Lloyd’s, transact insurance for their own account and risk. The modern Corporation of Lloyd’s does not accept insurance any more than did Edward Lloyd, nor does it assume liability for the insurance business transacted by its Members. Nevertheless, it provides the premises, lays down through a Committee strict financial and other regulations regarding Membership, and administers the many and varied activities in which the Corporation is now involved.
Move to the Royal Exchange
Down the centuries the main spur to Lloyd’s development has often proved to be expediency, and the first occasion when there was any obvious display of communal spirit was no exception.
In 1769 Lloyd’s reputation as a meeting place for merchant insurers was threatened by a gambling influence among the customers which provoked the serious insurance element into persuading a waiter at the coffee house named Thomas Fielding to set up an alternative coffee house in Pope’s Head Alley; to there they transferred their patronage, and a ” New Lloyd’s Coffee House ” was born that, after some time of dual and rival existence, was to shrug off the old and carry on unchallenged.
Two years later, in 1771, a pressing problem of space, a problem Lloyd’s has had to face recurrently since and to accept as a symptom of acute but healthy growing pains, brought about the first Committee of Lloyd’s. The Committee was elected from among 79 merchants, underwriters and brokers at the coffee house, who each paid £100 into the Bank of England for the purpose of acquiring larger premises, and entrusted the Committee with the task of finding them. Though schemes were devised and explored during the next three years, none materialised, and eventually it was on the personal initiative of John Julius Angerstein, not at the time a member of the Committee, that rooms were secured in the Royal Exchange where Lloyd’s moved in 1774.
There was one suggestion of special interest considered during this rather dilatory house-hunting period, for it envisaged a Lloyd’s coffee house designed by the Adam Brothers; indeed plans were drawn up, probably by Robert Adam himself. Though the scheme was never put into practice, it provides an interesting ink with the present Lloyd’s Building in Lime Street in the City of London, since the Committee Room there has been adapted from the original Adam Great Room of Bowood House, Wiltshire, formerly the property of the Marquis of Lansdowne.
The move to the Royal Exchange from the coffee house in Pope’s Head Alley was an important phase in Lloyd’s history, not only because it brought to the fore John Julius Angerstein, eventually to become known as the “Father of Lloyd’s” for his contribution towards Lloyd’s expansion, but because it marked the passing of control of the premises from the coffee man to his customers. In many ways it was the first tentative step on the path to the modern Lloyd’s.
Incorporation
For the next century the private club characteristic of Lloyd’s was further moulded by restricting membership, introducing subscriptions, giving the elected committee increased authority, and by regulating the basis on which Committee Members served: this development culminated in an Act of Parliament granting incorporation in 1871 which has been amended by Lloyd’s Acts of 1911, 1925 and 1951 to meet the demands of modern development. The foundations for incorporation had begun to be laid a hundred years earlier with the election of the first committee, a period during which Lloyd’s survived the strain of the Napoleonic Wars, being gutted by fire in 1838, and growing competition from insurance companies; rather than weakened, it emerged with its character forged, its reliability tested and with greater resilience than ever.
Membership and Security
Insurance can only be accepted at Lloyd’s by elected “Underwriting Members of Lloyd’s” who must satisfy the most stringent conditions in order to qualify.
They must:
- Be nominated by one and supported by five other Members.
- Transact business with unlimited and personal liability.
- Satisfy the Committee of their integrity and financial standing.
- Furnish security in an approved form, to be held in trust by the Corporation of Lloyd’s, which, varying according to the volume of business to be transacted, is a minimum of £15,000 for a Member not previously connected with Lloyd’s who is to accept both marine and non-marine business.
- Pay all premiums into Premium Trust Funds under Deeds of Trust approved by the Board of Trade and the Committee of Lloyd’s from which claims, expenses and ascertained profits only may be paid. Every Member on election must pay a substantial sum (independent of his deposit) as an initial contribution to his Premium Trust Fund deposits and any part of this used to pay claims, etc., must be reinstated before any future profits are distributed.
- Furnish a guarantee policy each year in the case of non-marine business for the amount by which their premium income for that year exceeds the deposit lodged with the Committee. The policy must be subscribed by other Members of Lloyd’s according to conditions set by the Committee.
- Contribute by means of a levy on premium income to a Central Fund intended to meet underwriting liabilities of any Member in the unlikely event of his security and personal assets being insufficient to meet his underwriting commitments. The Fund, amounting to several million pounds, is for the protection of the assured, not of the Underwriter who is still responsible for his liabilities to the extent of his private estate.
The Audit
A main link in the chain of security around the Lloyd’s policy is the Annual Audit to which all Underwriting Members must submit. An Underwriting Member is required to show that the value of his underwriting assets is sufficient to meet his liabilities for all classes of business, estimated according to the Audit regulations.
The Audit is far more than the commonly accepted definition of the term; it is designed to detect any weakness in the Underwriter’s position at the earliest moment and to ensure that provision is made to remedy any such trend so that the assured’s position is always safeguarded.
The Audit sets reserves at a level to give ample margins of security and its requirements disregard the Underwriter’s private fortune. Under the Insurance Companies’ Act 1958 it is conducted by an Auditor approved by the Committee, and a certificate must be furnished in a form authorised by the Board of Trade.
The Audit was first introduced voluntarily in 1908, but in 1909 the Insurance Companies’ Act made it compulsory for non-marine, though not marine business. The marine audit at Lloyd’s continued as a domestic matter until the Act of 1946 laid down a compulsory audit for all classes of insurance: in practice this Act merely gave Parliamentary authority to a long established system at Lloyd’s.
Syndicates
Though Lloyd’s Underwriting Members still transact business as individuals as their predecessors did in the 17th century, the complexity of modern commerce and the enormous insured values involved have made change once again expedient, and the old system whereby each Underwriter personally transacted his own insurance business has had to be modified. To-day, there are some 5,000 Underwriting Members of Lloyd’s who are formed into syndicates groups of a few to a hundred or more members that are represented at Lloyd’s by Underwriting Agents. There are 145 marine, 90 non-marine, 22 aviation, and 21 motor syndicates, and it is the Underwriting Agents who accept on behalf of the “Names” on their syndicates the risks brought to Lloyd’s. Thus, when a syndicate Underwriter accepts (or writes) a risk he can do so for a very much larger amount than if he were acting on behalf of himself alone, though the personal and individual liability of the Members on whose behalf he accepts business is not altered in any way.
The Underwriters for syndicates sit with their staffs in the Underwriting Room at “boxes pew”-like desks which, along with features such as a “Captains’ Room” and a liveried staff called “waiters”, are hereditary characteristics still to be found in the modern Lloyd’s.
Brokers
Insurance may only be placed at Lloyd’s through the medium of the 217 firms of Lloyd’s Brokers who alone are permitted to place business with Lloyd’s Underwriters in the Underwriting Room.
This feature of Lloyd’s is based upon practical considerations, for as Lloyd’s is a market it would be impossible for a member of the public, without the specialised knowledge of the Broker, to find the appropriate Underwriter with whom to place his business, let alone at the most advantageous terms and rates that Brokers constantly seek on behalf of their clients.
Brokers have associates and contacts all over the world and, as Lloyd’s Underwriters may accept business only in the Underwriting Room at Lloyd’s, they are the Lloyd’s Underwriters’ only contact with the assured; nevertheless the Broker represents the latter, not the Underwriter, and it is his duty to advise his client and obtain for him the most favourable terms available, commensurate with the risk involved. The Lloyd’s Broker is not restricted to Lloyd’s and can also place business with the insurance companies.
The Underwriting Room and placing a risk
The Underwriting Room, 120 feet wide and stretching 340 feet between Lime Street and Billiter Street in the City of London, is essentially a market for insurance where business, transacted in a competitive atmosphere, is a question of negotiation between Brokers and Underwriters. Marine, motor and aviation business is transacted on the ground floor, and non-marine business generally on the gallery floor.
Those unfamiliar with Lloyd’s often find it surprising that Underwriters can be found sitting at the same box and yet competing with each other. But Lloyd’s could never have
developed without good faith persisting amid the competition, and it is very much a part of the strong, but intangible “spirit” of the market. The confidence between Broker and Underwriter is, perhaps, exemplified by the “Slip”, an unpretentious piece of paper giving the basic details of a risk to be placed and which in the first instance is the only paper evidence of agreement between them. Despite its simplicity the Broker knows that if the slip bears an Underwriter’s initials a bona fide claim will be honoured, if necessary before time has permitted the issue of a policy.
Initially, the slip relating to a risk is taken by the Broker to an Underwriter who is recognised in the market as being an authority on the particular type of insurance required, and who is known as a “leader” The Broker will be able to assess the limits within which the Underwriter is likely to quote his rate of premium, and if after discussion the Broker considers the rate too high, he can, and will, approach other Underwriters for competitive rates.
When a rate for an insurance is agreed and the cover required is large, as these days is often the case, it is usual for the Underwriter to accept part of the risk rather than the whole. This percentage, together with his initials, the Underwriter puts on the slip which the Broker then takes to other Underwriters, persuading them also to take proportions at the same rate of premium until enough have accepted to cover the whole 100 per cent, of the risk. In this way the insurance is spread over numerous individuals, and if there is a loss it “lightethe rather easilie upon many, than heavilie upon fewe” this very early concept of insurance is a basic principle that has enabled the Lloyd’s market on occasions to withstand the stress of enormous claims without the dire result that to the layman might seem inevitable.
The Growth of Non-Marine Business
Though Lloyd’s was originally a market exclusively for marine insurance and developed a worldwide shipping intelligence system accordingly, to-day more than half the annual premium income of over £340,000,000 derives from non-marine sources. It is a development almost entirely due to the efforts of Cuthbert Heath who pioneered many forms of non-marine insurance in the 1880’s considered at the time highly speculative – but now accepted as commonplace. Heath wrote, among others, the first burglary cover, the first jewellers’ block policy and the first loss of profits through fire insurance.
Nowadays, risks of every conceivable description, with the exception of whole life and financial guarantee cover, are accepted by Lloyd’s Underwriters from all continents and most countries either directly or by means of reinsurance: no risk is too small and few too large for the market.
The first aviation insurance ever to be written was accepted at Lloyd’s in 1911, and the aviation market has now reached important proportions with an annual premium income of some £25 millions, a figure that is still growing and is an estimated half of the business of the whole London aviation market.
Motor insurance, excluding overseas business, accounts for some £15,000,000 of the total annual premium income of Lloyd’s Underwriters and though in volume this may be a comparatively small figure, the market has a vigour and flexibility giving a profitability that compares favourably with any other motor market.
It is often said of Lloyd’s that anything can be insured there, and, though not literally true, it is more true of Lloyd’s than of anywhere. There are some risks unacceptable because they are unsuited to the Lloyd’s system of individual insurance -whole life business for instance- and other risks too speculative to be construed as legitimate insurance at all. Unusual insurance, perhaps on a film star’s beard, against the holing-in-one expenses of golfers, or being hit by a satellite straying from the periphery of its orbit, may represent a minute percentage of Lloyd’s Underwriters’ premium income, but it does, nevertheless, indicate the flexibility of the market.
The Committee of Lloyd‘s
The Lloyd’s market is administered by the Committee of Lloyd’s comprising 12 Members of Lloyd’s, elected from and by their fellow Members, who serve for periods of four years on the Committee, after which they must retire for one year before again becoming eligible for election; in practice this requires three Committee Members to retire by rotation each year and three new Members to be elected in their stead. The Committee Members elect their own Chairman and Deputy Chairman annually.
The Committee, other than in very few instances, does not dictate the type of business accepted at Lloyd’s or interfere in the day-to-day conduct of Underwriters’ business. The Committee is responsible for the election of new Members and is vitally concerned with the financial stability of those doing business at Lloyd’s. It administers the affairs of the Corporation, including the provision of Claims Offices, Shipping Intelligence and Publications, an Aviation Department, the Agency Network, the Policy Signing Office, a Central Accounting system, Foreign Legislation, Membership, Audit and Information Departments, as well as the premises themselves. These Corporate matters entail, through the Principal Clerk, who is chief executive officer of the Corporation of Lloyd’s, the direction of a permanent staff of over 2,000.
Lloyd’s Policy Signing Office
Years ago all insurance policies at Lloyd’s had to be signed by the individual Underwriters who accepted a share of the risks. These days this very important aspect of the function of the market is performed by Lloyd’s Policy Signing Office, a central department administered by the Committee of Lloyd’s where policies are checked with the slips, signed on behalf of syndicates and sealed with the seal of Lloyd’s Policy Signing Office without which no Lloyd’s policy is valid. Lloyd’s Policy Signing Office also provides Underwriters with the complex details of their underwriting transactions.
In 1961 a system of central accounting was introduced, based on the details provided by Lloyd’s Policy Signing Office which
include the relevant accounting figures. Settlement is now made centrally on the agreed figures issued by Lloyd’s Policy Signing Office, whereas previously each Underwriter had to agree his account for premiums and claims with each Broker, covering in total over 20 million entries per annum. In conjunction with this service Underwriters and Brokers are provided with quarterly statistics of business transacted.
Lloyd’s Agents
Lloyd’s has always been closely connected with the sea and accordingly developed a world-wide shipping intelligence system. An important aspect of this system is the network of Lloyd’s Agents and Sub-Agents throughout the world whose function is to send to Lloyd’s shipping, aviation and other news relating to the ports and areas in which they operate. This is only part of the work of Lloyd’s Agents who are also called upon to appoint Surveyors to report on damage or loss and are authorised to settle claims on behalf of Underwriters for whom they are appointed claim-settling agents. It is the practice for marine policies of Lloyd’s Underwriters and insurance companies to state that claims’ settlement will be assisted if Lloyd’s Agents are called in to conduct a survey.
Lloyd’s Agents in certain circumstances deal with non-marine surveys and claims and they also work in conjunction with Lloyd’s Aviation Department in arranging aviation surveys on damaged aircraft.
The first Lloyd’s Agent appointed abroad was at Antigua in 1811 and from then on the system developed rapidly until 150 firms had been appointed by the end of that year; to-day there are some 1,500 Lloyd’s Agents and Sub-Agents throughout the world.
Shipping Intelligence and Publications
The enormous volume of shipping intelligence received at Lloyd’s from Lloyd’s Agents, wireless stations, shipowners and other sources is collated in Lloyd’s Intelligence Department and distributed to newspapers, wireless and T.V. services and throughout the marine and commercial communities in general.
Within Lloyd’s, the intelligence is edited and published by Editorial Departments in a number of shipping publications printed in Lloyd’s own printing department on the premises and sent all over the world: Lloyd’s List and Shipping Gazette Lloyd’s Shipping Index, Lloyd’s Shipping Index Voyage Supplement) Lloyd’s Weekly Casualty Reports, and Lloyd’s Loading List. In addition such publications as Lloyd’s Maritime Atlas, Lloyd’s Calendar, Lloyd’s Survey Handbook and Lloyd’s List Law Reports are also issued. Lloyd’s List and Shipping Gazette contains news of general interest to the commercial and maritime communities, as well as shipping information including arrivals and sailings in most ports of the world, while Lloyd’s Shipping Index, also published daily, lists some 14,000 ocean-going vessels and the latest known report of each.
With these and the other shipping publications backed by shipping information and records amassed over many years, Lloyd’s provides the world with the most comprehensive shipping intelligence available as well as information of aviation and non-marine casualties everywhere.
Standard Documents
A number of documents originating at Lloyd’s have become standard, and are universally used by shipping and insurance circles everywhere. Lloyd’s Marino Insurance Policy was adopted at Lloyd’s in 1779 and the wording, only slightly amended, is still used in all marine insurance policies, although, of course, there have been clauses added to meet modern requirements. Lloyd’s Average Bond, Lloyd’s Bottomry Bond, Lloyd’s General Average Receipt, Lloyd’s Standard Form of Salvage Agreement and Lloyd’s Standard Form of Arbitration Agreement in Case of Collision, are known throughout the mercantile world and greatly facilitate the transaction of business in general.
Lloyd’s Medals
The Committee of Lloyd’s has also instituted a number of medals for presentation to those who have by extraordinary exertions contributed to the saving of life at sea or to the preservation of vessels or cargoes, while Lloyd’s War Medal for Bravery at Sea, struck in 1940, is bestowed upon officers and men of the Merchant Navy and Fishing Fleets in cases of exceptional gallantry at sea in time of war. A much prized medal is also awarded to members of the Lloyd’s community for outstanding services to Lloyd’s. Lloyd’s medals are described elsewhere in this volume.
Lloyd’s Register of Shipping
Confusion often arises over Lloyd’s Register of Shipping and Lloyd’s; they are in fact two independent organisations, though sharing the same origin and name. In the days of Lloyd’s Coffee House Underwriters collected and catalogued information concerning the characteristics and construction of individual vessels to help them in their insurance activities. This Register of Ships, known as the Underwriters’ Register or Green Book, was first published in 1760. In 1797 a dispute over classification methods prompted shipowners to publish their own book which appeared in 1799 and remained a rival register until 1834 when a common problem of finance brought about a reconciliation which resulted in the formation of ” Lloyd’s Register of Shipping” since then the society has remained independent of Lloyd’s, though a close liaison is exemplified by Members of the Committee of Lloyd’s serving on the Committee of Lloyd’s Register of Shipping. Lloyd’s Register of Shipping is described more fully in a separate article.
Calling
Lloyd’s is a blend of old and new: for with a system based on empirical development it is not always desirable, or indeed possible, completely to replace old and tried methods. Often it is better to improve an established system by modern techniques, and in the main this is what has happened at Lloyd’s. “Calling” for instance, by which Brokers contact colleagues, dates to Royal Exchange days, and in embryo form even earlier to those of the coffee house where a boy called the “Kidney” read notices from a pulpit. The original method at the Royal Exchange of a waiter calling the name of the Broker required through a megaphone is fundamentally unaltered, but nowadays a pencil microphone and loud speakers are used, and once the Broker has heard his name he can signal his whereabouts on screens in the Caller’s rostrum and on the gallery by a system which works electronically.
The Nelson Room
Lloyd’s building in Lime Street was designed with an eye to the functional and the modern, but it is easy to escape the urgency of the international insurance market in the quiet of the Nelson Room situated on the gallery floor of the Underwriting Room. There, set out in illuminated cases lined with crimson velvet, are relics of Nelson and Lloyd’s Patriotic Fund. Founded in 1803, though informal charitable subscriptions had been raised at Lloyd’s Coffee House long before that date, the Fund was subscribed by the Lloyd’s community for the relief of families of sailors killed or wounded while on active service. In addition, presentations were made, generally in the form of silver plate, to officers who distinguished themselves in battle. The Lloyd’s Patriotic Fund is still carrying out the work for which it was originally founded.
Nelson himself received two presentations of silver plate from the Fund, each valued at £500, after the battles of the Nile in 1798 and Copenhagen in 1801, and it is some of the plate commemorating these victories that forms the nucleus of the Nelson Room exhibits. Over the years Nelson letters, mementos, Patriotic Fund silver plate and swords, and a full length portrait of Nelson by Lemuel Abbott have been purchased and presented to Lloyd’s by Underwriters, Brokers and friends, and they form a collection much prized at Lloyd’s.
The Lutine Bell
In many minds the name “Lloyd’s” is synonymous with the Lutine Bell, though there is widespread misconception about its use. The Lutine Bell hangs above the rostrum in the Underwriting Room at Lloyd’s and is used when important announcements are to be made to the market, two strokes for good, and one stroke for bad news: it is not rung for every loss at sea. Originally, the sounding of the bell meant that an announcement was to follow relating to an overdue vessel, but since the advent of radio and the development of other modern methods of communication, the bell is rarely used in this context nowadays.
The bell originally belonged to the French frigate La Lutine that surrendered to the British at Toulon in 1793 and, as H.M.S. Lutine, was used to carry a cargo of gold bullion from Yarmouth Roads to Hamburg in 1799. This was her last voyage, for the vessel was wrecked off Terschelling in a violent storm on October 10, 1799, with the loss of all hands and the cargo valued at about £1,400,000, which was insured at Lloyd’s.
A number of salvage attempts have been made over the years resulting in the recovery of some £100,000 in bullion, relics such as cannon, the rudder from which a chair and table now in the Writing Room at Lloyd’s were made, the Captain’s watch, and of course, the bell itself, which was raised in 1859.
The Homes of Lloyd’s
Since 1688 Lloyd’s has had homes in Tower Street, Lombard Street, Pope’s Head Alley, the Royal Exchange, South Sea House (occupied while the Royal Exchange was being rebuilt following a fire in 1838) and Leadenhall Street. The present building stands in Lime Street and was opened by Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother on November 14, 1957; it is joined to the Leadenhall Street premises by a bridge across Lime Street at first floor level.
Lloyd’s in Lime Street occupies a site rather more than twice as long as it is broad and has its principal front in Lime Street. The main feature of the building is the Underwriting Room which, with a gallery on all sides, occupies most of the site and provides about 44,250 sq. ft. of underwriting space.
The building, designed by Terence Heysham, F.R.I.Β.Α., comprises a five-storey block above the north gallery, a two-storey block above the south gallery and five-storey wings along Lime Street and Billiter Street. The lighting well over the Underwriting Room is divided by a short north-south block. On two of the four single stage towers marking the corners of the building are carved reliefs by James Woodford R.A. depicting “air”, “sea”, “fire”, and “land”.
The Committee suite on the second floor has been designed in the style of the Adam period. The Committee Room itself has been adapted from the original Adam Great Room of Bowood House, Wiltshire, and its main feature is the delicately tinted Adam ceiling set within an elaborately gilded cornice and frieze. The marble chimney-piece was designed by Adam and carved by Thomas Carter, while the hand-woven silk fabrics used for the curtains and chair coverings and the chenile carpet have been designed to blend with the setting of the period.
The Captains’ Room, whose name derives from the days when a room was at one time set aside at the Royal Exchange for the auction of ships, is a restaurant for Underwriting Members and others situated on the second floor. Measuring 60 feet by 70 feet it is larger than the whole of Edward Lloyd’s 17th century coffee house in Lombard Street. In the basement below the Underwriting Room is a restaurant where meals are served informally.
Lloyd’s in Lime Street, together with Lloyd’s building in Leadenhall Street and Royal Mail House, acquired in 1936, give the Corporation of Lloyd’s probably the largest freehold site in the City of London.
Lloyd’s, it can be seen, is an organisation of many different yet complementary facets: a corporation; a society of Underwriters; an international insurance market; printers and publishers of shipping publications; the world center of marine intelligence; and an important City landlord. Each and all of these descriptions apply to Lloyd’s, making it unique as a business institution. Nowhere else is insurance transacted by individuals having unlimited liability, in competition with each other, and yet with a very real, if indefinable, “esprit de corps”.
The above has been given to us as a team students for a case study, at late 60s. Thence a lot of things have been changed and mostly the new building just across the old one, the only I can say as a “under the line note” the initial scheme in key shapes remain unaltered.
