A neighbourhood area pertaining to the heart of the city, this locale is an idiosyncratic cluster of Victorian-era city developments, new-build office complexes and historic, post-1666 architecture. The area is bordered by Moorgate road and Coleman Street to the west and Bishopsgate to the east. Lothbury street itself runs along the back of the Bank of England, flanked on its southern side by the institutions imposing sandstone walls. A number of other significant buildings are dotted around here, such as One Moorgate Place which “oozes character, culture and heritage”. Notable for its merging of the Victorian Baroque with brazen Brutalism from the 1966 extension, this building houses the Institute of Chartered Accountants for England and Wales. Brown Shipley, a private bank, occupied their own building at Founders Court; this was listed as Grade II as an example of post-war architecture which elegantly mirrored 19th century architectural styles. Other financial institutions like BlackRock and NatWest, are located here. Their headquarters, on the corner of Lothbury and Tokenhouse Yard, were built between 1923 and 1931 by Mewes and Davis. The tower of the area is Angel Court, where companies like Bupa and Shanghai Pudong Development Bank are based; this is a more recent, 300,000 sq ft development which replaced a prior tower from the 1970s. The nearby Telegraph pub is a “standard city boozer”, albeit with a more sophisticated aesthetic.

Part of this area falls into Coleman Street Ward, which likely gets its name from the medieval coal traders residing in the area. During the previous millennium, prior to the industrial revolution, coppersmiths populated the street of Lothbury. There has been a church on the site of the current St Margaret Lothbury Church since the twelfth century. Like most of the surrounding area, it was completely obliterated during the Great Fire of 1666, though it was later rebuilt by Christopher Wren, who is also responsible for the reconstruction of a great many number of buildings in the city after the fire. This church serves as a place of worship for a number of associations including the five livery companies, one of which is the Armourers, whose ornate hall can be found five minutes-walk from here at the intersection of Coleman Street and London Wall. During the early 1900s, there were plans by Great Northern and City railway to dig an underground station under Lothbury but this failed to ever materialise due to a lack of funding.

Thomas Harriot (1560 – 1621) is buried at the location where St Christopher le Stocks church once stood. Harriot was a polymath – he was a master of mathematics, astronomy, physics, and many languages. He voyaged to the Americas in 1585 where he helped to facilitate communication with the natives by translating Algonquian to English. Although he did not publish any of his scientific work during his lifetime (his papers were discovered posthumously) Harriot made a number of notable contributions to the scientific sphere by corresponding with established scientists of his time, like Johannes Kepler. Though it is hard to verify, the polymath was perhaps the first person to calculate the rate of rotation of the Sun. Harriot’s most pervading contribution, though, is probably his popularisation of the ‘<’, ‘>’ symbols.

The Whalebone Tavern used to stand at the previously mentioned Lothbury, across from the Royal Exchange. During the years of Oliver Cromwell it served as the meeting point for a group of radicals known as the Levellers. Although by today’s standards this group’s values – extended suffrage, religious tolerance and the rule of law – seem commonplace, in those days they were viewed with scepticism and were spied upon by the son-in-law of the Lord Protector.

This particular locale is noticeably short on eateries and pubs, with the exception of The Tokenhouse and The Telegraph. This comes at no significant cost, however, since nearby Coleman Street has a fine array of hip restaurants, both casual and up-market.

A redevelopment of the art deco Halifax House on Copthall Avenue by PDP London was recently completed, delivering increased value by improving the image of the building. The two adjacent buildings were also included in the project. To the north, the Elizabeth line opened in May 2022 taking passengers west to Heathrow via Paddington, and east to Abbey Wood or Shenfield. The new line means that train journeys to Canary Wharf now take only six minutes where they once took twelve. While the new line officially stops at Liverpool street which is a twelve minute walk northeast of here, the platform stretches so far west that commuters can gain access through a new entrance at Moorgate which is walkable in under ten minutes.