Press releases 2004

27/07/2004 The Queen opens new London Stock Exchange building

The Queen, accompanied by The Duke of Edinburgh, will today formally open the new London Stock Exchange building by switching on ‘The Source,’ a specially commissioned artwork reflecting the nature of financial markets in the electronic age.  On their tour of the building The Queen and The Duke of Edinburgh will meet with London Stock Exchange staff and customers as well as users of the Media and Business Complex.

Christopher Gibson-Smith, Chairman of the London Stock Exchange said:

“The Queen opened the former Stock Exchange Tower in 1972, and we are delighted that she has returned to open our new headquarters.  The contrast between the two buildings underlines just how much the London Stock Exchange has changed in the last thirty years.

“The open-plan layout enables us to work in new ways and gives us the flexibility we need as we continue our development as a commercial enterprise.  In addition, our new Media and Business Complex is being used for a huge variety of meetings and events, with the constant flow of communication and ideas putting us firmly at the heart of the City."

The interior of the new London Stock Exchange building at 10 Paternoster Square was designed by Gensler, with a brief to create a flexible work space and emphasise the Exchange’s place at the centre of London’s financial markets.   An important symbol of this will be a dynamic sculpture called The Source, designed by Greyworld. The Source will mark the start and finish of each day’s trading, showing whether the markets have closed up or down, and is formed of hundreds of spheres moving independently to form random shifting patterns, or showing words, numbers and shapes fed in directly from the world’s markets and media.

During the visit, The Queen will unveil the winning entry in an art competition run by the Exchange with the Trident Trust, a charity helping 14-18 year olds to gain workplace skills and understanding. Trident Trust has been the Exchange’s partner charity for the last two years.  The Exchange’s new partner charity for the next two years will be Brainwave, a charity for children suffering from brain impairment. One of the children helped by Brainwave will make a presentation of flowers to The Queen.

For further information, please contact:

Catherine Mattison   Press Office  +44 (0)20 7797 1395

cmattison@londonstockexchange.com

Notes to Editors
1. The new London Stock Exchange Media and Business Complex is used for daily transmissions by ABC, BBC, CNBC, CNN and SKY.  The studios, as well as a range of adjacent meeting rooms are available for hire, offering businesses a unique venue to conduct media interviews, meetings and other business communications.