Commerce and Industry

The Bank of England, on Threadneedle Street, is the central bank of the United Kingdom and Britain's chief financial institution. Also in London are scores of large privately owned British banks, foreign commercial banks, and banks run by international consortiums. Together, they make London one of the world's chief financial centers.

The Stock Exchange, near the Bank of England, is the main stock market of Britain. It was created in 1973 by the amalgamation of numerous British exchanges, including the London Stock Exchange. There are also many exchanges dealing, on a worldwide basis, in commodities, such as wool, grain, tea, sugar, rubber, and metals.

London's insurance industry operates both domestically and abroad. Prominent internationally is Lloyd's of London, an association of insurance underwriters. The Baltic Mercantile and Shipping Exchange, which deals in the charter and dispatch of cargo ships and aircraft, is the largest exchange of its kind in the world.

London's wholesale food markets serve a broad area in England. Billingsgate, which in 1981 was moved down the Thames from its centuries-old location in central London, is one of the world's chief fish markets. Covent Garden, Britain's main vegetable, fruit, and flower market for three centuries, was replaced in 1974 by the larger, more efficient New Covent Garden Market in Battersea. Smithfield and Spitalfields are smaller markets.

London specializes in light industry, such as food processing, brewing, and the manufacture of chemical products, furniture, clothing, and precision instruments. Heavy manufacturing, such as production of aircraft and automobiles, is found outside central London.

The Port of London, consisting of dock facilities at several locations on the estuary of the Thames, is one of the world's leading cargo ports. Modern facilities at Tilbury, about 20 miles (32 km) down the Thames from the London docks, handle oceangoing vessels. London's docks are used primarily for local barge traffic.