1. October 2015T H U R S D A Y .

IN JOHN HARLE’S DAY, LLOYD’S COFFEEHOUSE WAS A LIVELY PLACE, BUSY WITH MEETINGS, GOSSIP AND THE

NEWS BEING READ ALOUD. READ THIS OUT LOUD JUST AS JOHN’S FRIENDS AND COLLEAGUES WOULD HAVE DONE.

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by runners, direct from the wharves on the Thames. News would come from ships coming in and via them from a vast network of correspondents in British and foreign ports. At the front of the coffeehouse was a kind of ‘pulpit’ from which a waiter, known as the Kidney, read aloud the incoming news as it arrived.

Lloyd’s was an information hub for maritime merchants, ship owners and captains. For five months in 1696-7, Lloyd’s put out a printed pamphlet called Lloyd’s News, but this was suspended by Edward Lloyd. Printed news was revived as Lloyd’s List in 1734, but in John Harle’s day, news was mostly delivered