Our vision and mission
We use lessons from the past to inform, educate, and influence policymakers, researchers and business leaders in shaping a safer ocean economy for tomorrow.
Our history
This page is approximately a 4 minute read
Origins
The Lloyd’s Register Foundation, Heritage Centre is a public-facing library and archive holding material concerning over 260 years of marine and engineering science and history.
In 1760, the Society for the Registry of Shipping was formed to provide shipping intelligence to those involved in the maritime industry. The Society was made up of underwriters and brokers, ship-owners and merchants who met at Edward Lloyd’s coffee house on Lombard Street in the City of London.
In 1834, the Society was reconstituted as Lloyd’s Register, and stricter records keeping led to the creation of our core archival collection. Much of the organisation’s history has been preserved with digitisation projects making available over 1.1million catalogued assets, including ship plans and survey reports. This includes the iconic Lloyd’s Register of Ships, used as a reference tool by maritime researchers and enthusiasts globally. These volumes became the ‘universal standard’ of shipping information.
The Heritage Centre
The Heritage Centre is a part of the Lloyd’s Register Foundation and is focused on increasing the understanding and importance of maritime safety.
Based at the Lloyd’s Register Building at 71 Fenchurch Street in London, the Centre is open publicly, offering a unique collection of research resources from our reference library and corporate archive. To search our collection, visit our online catalogue.
The diversity of the Centre’s library and archive offers an invaluable resource to researchers from a variety of disciplines, including maritime, business, engineering, and genealogy.
The Heritage Centre also commissions its own research to enable us and wider society to learn from the past.
For example, in 2022, the Heritage Centre commissioned independent academic research into LR’s involvement with the transatlantic trade of enslaved African people. You can read more about this research and the work we are doing in response to these findings here.
The Lloyd's Register Building
Since 1901, 71 Fenchurch Street has been the London headquarters and historic home of Lloyd’s Register.
Click on each image to follow the history of the building through the last 120+ years.
Lloyd's Register buildings brochure
Download the brochure to find out more about the Collcutt and Richard Rogers buildings.
Lloyd's Register buildings brochure
Download Lloyd's Register buildings brochure (PDF, 3.65MB)From 1760 to today
Preserving over 260 years of marine and engineering history.
1760
The Society for the Registry of Shipping was formed by customers of Edward Lloyd's coffee house on Lombard Street in the City of London, to provide shipping intelligence to those involved with the maritime industry. The Society was made up of underwriters and brokers, shipowners and merchants who all met at Edward Lloyd's coffee house.
1764
The 1764 Register of Ships is Lloyd’s Register’s first publication, and it has been preserved ever since. It provided critical information on vessel seaworthiness, regularly rating, or ‘classing’, ships based on surveys of their hulls and equipment. The Register of Ships was the first publication of its kind, offering essential risk assessments for sea voyages.
1834
A great variety of survey reports, technical drawings, publications, and administrative records of the reconstituted Lloyd’s Register is kept within the London premises. These records will form the core archive collection.
1852
Lloyd's Register has maintained a library since 1852, founded at the bequest of Augustin Francis Bullock Creuze. Appointed in 1844, he was Principal Surveyor for LR until 1852, when he died at the premature age of 51. The collection included 18th and 19th century treatises on ship building, naval architecture, voyages, and memoirs.
1901
71 Fenchurch Street became the London headquarters of Lloyd’s Register and was built with bespoke spaces to house the library collection. The building also included a museum and was dubbed ‘a Modern Palace of Art’. The building retains its historical character with its collection of artworks, models and memorabilia on display.
19xx
The Information Services were established at Lloyd’s Register. The services were responsible for the library and archive, providing information to shipowners and operators, a wide variety of businesses, and the public as well as conducting research on Lloyd’s Register’s historical development and involvement in the shipping industry around the world.
2011
The IMarEST Library was incorporated in the existing library collections, adding numerous conference proceedings, journal series, technical reports and reference titles. The IMarEST was established in 1889 and is the largest international membership body and learned society for marine professionals with 13,000 members worldwide.
2012
Lloyd's Register Foundation is formed, following Lloyd's Register's conversion from an industrial and provident society to a company limited by shares - Lloyd's Register Group. Information Services moves to Lloyd’s Register Foundation and was rebranded as the Heritage & Education Centre.
2019
Launch of Project Undaunted, aiming to digitise the historical ship plans and survey reports of Lloyd’s Register. The project was finalised in 2022 with over 1.1 million documents now available online for researchers to explore.
2025
The first Heritage Grant funding open call launched. The call supported initiatives that strengthened heritage research, equity, safety, and public access, while advancing our global reputation as a centre of excellence in heritage management and learning from the past.
2025
Renamed to Heritage Centre in line with the new Foundation strategy 2024-2029.
