Change Alley
Change Alley is a narrow, partly covered passageway linking Cornhill with Lombard Street, right in the heart of the City of London’s historic financial district. Once known as Exchange Alley, it was lined with coffee houses such as Jonathan’s and Garraway’s, where merchants, brokers and speculators gathered to trade news, shares and commodities in the 17th and 18th centuries.
The alley became infamous as one of the main stages of the South Sea Bubble of 1720, when frenzied dealing in South Sea Company stock led to ruin for many investors. Although later fires and rebuilding altered its appearance, Change Alley still preserves the tight, hemmed‑in feel of an older City, with entrances on both Cornhill and Lombard Street. Today it serves as a minor cut‑through between major financial streets, its modest shopfronts and signage hinting at the role it once played in the birth of modern stock trading
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Coffee‑house cluster and early stock tradingIn the 17th and 18th centuries Change Alley (then Exchange Alley) was lined with famous coffee houses including Jonathan’s and Garraway’s, which acted as informal exchanges where merchants, brokers and speculators traded shares, commodities and news. Jonathan’s Coffee House in particular became a key gathering point for stockbrokers and is often seen as a forerunner of the London Stock Exchange.
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Epicentre of the South Sea BubbleChange Alley was one of the main stages of the South Sea Bubble of 1720, when feverish buying and selling of South Sea Company stock sent prices soaring to over £1,000 a share before a dramatic collapse ruined many investors. The episode was later immortalised in satirical prints and in Edward Matthew Ward’s 1847 painting “The South Sea Bubble, a Scene in ‘Change Alley in 1720”, now in the National Gallery.
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Fire and rebuilding in 1748On 30 March 1748 a fire that began in a peruke‑maker’s shop in Exchange Alley destroyed between ninety and one hundred houses and premises in the alley and nearby streets, killing several people. The blaze consumed multiple taverns and coffee houses, including Jonathan’s, Garraway’s, the Swan, the Fleece and the George and Vulture, and the area had to be extensively rebuilt afterwards.
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Garraway’s Coffee House and teaGarraway’s Coffee House in Change Alley was famed not only as a venue for auctions and business dealing but also as one of the first places in England where tea was sold, helping to introduce it to London society. By the 19th century Garraway’s was known for its sherry, ale, punch and sandwiches, with a first‑floor sale room and a small auctioneer’s rostrum used for regular sales.
