London Stock Exchange

Principal stock exchange in London, England. The market was founded in 1773, 13 years after 150 brokers who been thrown out of the Royal Exchange reconvened at Jonathan's Coffee House. In 1986 a reorganization, dubbed the ‘big bang’, introduced a number of changes. It allowed ownership of member firms by outside corporations and firms were able to operate as both brokers and dealers (previously the functions had been separated). At the same time, the LSE became a private limited company. The London Stock Exchange was listed as a public company in July 2001a London marketplace for securities. It lies in the vicinity of the Bank of England and the Royal Exchange, in the heart of the City of London. The market was formed in 1773 by several stockbrokers who had been doing business informally in neighbourhood coffeehouses. In 1801 a group of members raised money for the construction of a building in Capel Court, Bartholomew Lane, and rules for the exchange were established soon afterward; the rules subsequently have been amended several times. In 1973 the exchange merged with several regional stock exchanges in Great Britain, and in 1986 its operations were reorganized and an automated price-quotation system introduced