East India House

East India House

At the north-west corner of Lime Street (Horwood, 1799), extending to Leadenhall Market. In Lime Street Ward. The offices of the East India Company.

The original edifice only occupied the western portion of the area eventually covered by the House, and is shown on O. and M. map, 1677, at some little distance from Lime Street corner. Strype says the house was formerly Sir William Craven's, "with spacious rooms, very commodious for such a Publick Concern," and was let to the East India Co. by the Earl of Craven at a yearly rent (ed. 1720, I. ii. 88 and 89). It is shown in the same position on Strype's maps as on O. and M. and also on Rocque's map, 1764. Rebuilt 1726.

It was enlarged and an eastern wing added by Jupp in 1799. This extension, as shown in Horwood, embraced the site of Benbridges' or Penbrigges' inn (q.v.).

Called "India House," Horwood.

The East India Co. was incorporated by charter in 1600 and dissolved 1858.

The House was sold and taken down 1861 and East India Avenue, etc., erected on the site 1863–4.

East India Company ... The Old Company's House is in Leaden Hall Str. The New Company's at Skinners Hall.

Merchants of East-India ... This Company, for the better negotiation of their great affairs, is governed by a Governor, Deputy, and Court of Assistance, consisting of twenty four. Who about the middle of April are annually elected by the Adventurers of the said Company: amongst which there must be eight new ones chosen, the rest may be again elected; as also the Governor, and Deputy Governor. And these accordingly meet at their House in Leadenhall-street, now called the East-India-House, generally weekly, and keep Courts for the management of their affairs; as the vending their Goods, making of Dividends, raising of Money, viewing their Accounts from their Presidents, Factors, &c. buying in of Goods, setting forth Ships, sending over Factors and Servants, and for the ordering of their Factories kept at Camboya, Bombay, Surat, Curwar, Baticale, Calicut, Fort St. George, Pentapoli, Masolipotan, Ougeley, Gonru, Ormus: with several other Factories in the Isles of Asia, in China, and Japan.]
In the Year 1690. there came forth a little Piece, called, A modest and just Apology for, or Defence of the present East-India Company, against the Accusations of their Adversaries. Wherein the Crimes alledged against them are fairly examined, the Calumnies confuted, and all submitted to the judgment of impartial and unprejudiced Persons. This Tract was written (tho' no name be set to it) by that discreet and knowing Merchant, Nathaniel Tenche, Esq; mentioned before; and was occasioned (as the Writer expresseth in the beginning) by Calumnies daily inculcated in all noted Coffee-Houses: wherein this Company was not only set forth as Bankrupts, as to their present Condition, but represented as vile and odious as Malice it self could invent. Aspersions thrown on them: whereby the Enemies endeavoured, not only to impose upon the unthinking Vulgar, but upon the Members of the Honourable House of Commons: and by putting Papers into their Hands, wherein were many things notoriously untrue. This was in order to the compassing of an Endeavour now made for a new East-India Company. And new Subscriptions with a Preamble were printed; and the very Terms of an Act of Parliament for that purpose, propounded to the Legeslative power of the Nation, King, Lords and Commons.	An Apology and Defence of this Company against the Interlopers. J.S.
This was chiefly set on foot and managed against the Company, by those they called Interlopers; who traded into the Places of their Privileges, and were not free of the said Company. Whose Ships and Goods the Company stopped, and used other Ways and Means to hinder their Trade.	A new East-India Company.
There was afterwards a new East-India Company set up by Act of Parliament. Whereby the old was to be dissolved after some Years: which might suffice to bring forth their Effects. But after much endeavour and meetings of Persons appointed out of both Companies, to confer and concert matters, they were both amicably united into one. This new Company held at first their Meetings at Skinners Hall. But now for some Years past it is held at the old House in Leaden-hall-street. They have a Governor, Deputy Governor, and twenty four Directors, to manage the Companies Affairs.

East India House, on the south side of Leadenhall street, and a little to the west of Lime street. This edifice was built on the place where anciently stood the city house of the Lord Craven, and his ancestors. The present structure was erected by the company in the year 1726. It is a plain Doric on a rustic basement, and has not much to be found fault with or commended. It might have been justly considered as a very fine edifice, had it been the house of a single Director; but it is not at all equal to the grandeur of this company, and the great figure they make in the trading world; nor bears any proportion to the idea we conceive of this body, when we consider, that the Directors who meet here, appoint or remove Governors who are their servants, and yet have all the dignity and state of Kings, some of whom seldom stir abroad without their guards and a numerous retinue, or eat, but upon gilt plate, or the finest China.

The house, however, though too small in front, extends far backwards, and is very spacious, having large rooms for the use of the Directors, and offices for the clerks. It has a spacious hall and court yard for the reception of those who have business, and who attend on the company on court days, which are every Wednesday. There also belongs to it a garden, with warehouses in the back part toward Lime street, to which there is a back gate for the entrance of carts to bring in goods. These warehouses were rebuilt in a very handsome manner in the year 1725, and are now greatly enlarged. The company have likewise warehouses in Seething lane, the Steel yard, and at the Royal Exchange, particularly under the last they have spacious cellars entirely for pepper. Stow, Maitland, &c.

East-India-House, Leadenhall-Street,—the large stone building on the S. side, thirteen doors on the R. from Gracechurch-st. or from Cornhill, forming the corner of Lime-st.

East India House, The, Leadenhalt-street, is on the south side, between Gracechurch-street and Lime-street. It comprises the principal offices of the powerful Company whose name it bears. The original building was erected on this spot in 1726, and was enlarged by the entire portico and eastern wing, by Richard Jupp, Esq., in 1799. It consists of a hexastyle portico of the Ionic order, selected from the ancient temple of Apollo Didymaeus, with spacious wings, through which the entablature is continued. The frieze of the portico is sculptured with foliage of the Grecian honeysuckle, and the tympanum of the pediment with figures by Banks, representing George III. extending his protection over the commerce and interests of the Company. On the upper acroterium of the pediment is a statue of Britannia, and on the two lower, figures of Europe and of Asia.

In the committee-room are several good portraits, and in the other apartments are statues of Lord Clive, Sir Eyre Coote, and other officers of the Company; and portraits of Lord Cornwallis, Warren Hastings, the Nabob of Arcott, and several splendid views of the architecture and scenery of the East, by Daniells and other eminent artists. They have also a splendid library, with a valuable collection of oriental manuscripts, among which is Tippoo Saib's splendid copy of the Koran. In the Museum are many sculptural and other oriental curiosities, and many trophies taken at Seringapatam; also several fine models of Chinese buildings, caverns and rock work. The library and museum may be seen, by an order from a director, on Mondays, Wednesdays and Saturdays.

The East India Company was first incorporated by a charter granted by Queen Elizabeth in 1601. In 1698, a new Company was established, by act of parliament, by virtue of which the former Company was to be dissolved after a certain term, but the two Companies effected a junction in 1700, when a new charter was granted them, under the title of “The United Company of Merchants trading to the East Indies.” The charters of this Company have been renewed with modifications several times since that period, and the present one being nearly expired, a most important discussion in parliament on the subject of its renewal, will agitate the commercial world.

The affairs of this wealthy and powerful Company is superintended by twenty-four directors, chosen by ballot, from proprietors who hold £2,000 stock. Of this body, John Lock, Esq., M.P., is the Chairman; William Astell, Esq., M.P., Deputy Chairman; Peter Auber, Esq., Secretary; William Carter, Esq., Deputy Secretary; an immense establisment of clerks, superintendents, warehouse-keepers, dock-masters, accountants, registrars, &c. The Rev. Henry Higginson, Chaplain; Randle Jackson, Esq., Counsel and Advocate before Parliament; Edward Lawford, Esq., Solicitor; William Wilkins, Esq., R.A., Architect and Surveyor of Buildings; Charles Wilkins, D.C.L., Oriental Librarian.

East India House, Leadenhall Street,—south side, between Leadenhall Market and Lime Street,—was the House of the East India Company, once the largest and most magnificent Company in the world. The house, built originally in 1726, was enlarged by the addition of a central hexastyle Ionic portico and an eastern wing by R. Jupp, in 1799, and subsequently further enlarged and altered from designs by C.R. Cockerell, R.A., and W. Wilkins, R.A. A museum of much interest was added, 1857, by M. Digby Wyatt. The pediment (a poor thing) was the work of the younger Bacon. A statue of Britannia crowned the pediment, and figures of Europe and Asia occupied the sides.

Passing along Leadenhall Street I saw some ships painted upon the outside of a great wall, which occasioned me to enquire of my schoolfellow what place that was! He told me 'twas the house belonging to the East India Company, which are a corporation of men with long heads and deep purposes.—Ned Ward's London Spy, pt. i. See the Cornhill Magazine, vol. ii. p. 114, for a print of the old house described by Ned Ward.

We beat Rome in eloquence and extravagance; and Spain in avarice and cruelty; and, like both, we shall only serve to terrify schoolboys, and for lessons of morality! Here stood St. Stephen's Chapel; here young Catiline [Fox] spoke ; here was Lord Give's diamond house; this is Leadenhall Street, and this broken column was part of the palace of a Company of Merchants who were sovereigns of Bengal.—H. Walpole to Sir Horace Mann, April 9, 1772.

Walpole's prophecy is, in part, more than fulfilled already. St. Stephen's Chapel and the place where Fox spoke—the Houses of Lords and Commons—are gone, and other houses mark their site, but in Leadenhall Street not even a broken column remains to show where stood the palace of the company who were sovereigns of Bengal.

The East India Company was incorporated by a Charter dated December 31, 1600. For two centuries and a half it governed India from its House in Leadenhall Street; and it was not till after the experience of the Indian Mutiny that the sovereignty was, by the Act of September 1, 1858, transferred to the Crown, and the Company virtually dissolved. In July 1861 the East India House was sold and taken down, and an immense pile of offices, with a frontage over 300 feet long and a passage through to Lime Street, erected on the site, 1863–1864, from the designs of Edward N. Clifton. Hoole, the translator of Tassoy was a clerk in the East India House. So, for thirty-three years, was Charles Lamb, the author of Elia. He retired on a pension of £400 a year, and after his death the "Trustees of India House Clerks" Fund" gave his sister Mary Lamb an annuity of £120. "My printed works," said Lamb, "were my recreations—my true works may be found on the shelves in Leadenhall Street, filling some hundred folios." James Mill, the historian of British India (d. 1836), entered the India House as a clerk in 1819, and was afterwards made chief of the Department of Indian Correspondence. His son, John Stuart Mill, became a clerk in the India House in 1823, and rose through the intermediate grades till he was appointed in 1856 to the post formerly held by his father, a position he retained till the Company was dissolved.