Phoenix Assurance or Phoenix Fire Office was a fire insurance company founded in 1680 in England.[1]
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The history of the company includes the nostalgia of red-coated attendants clattering to the fires of London on horse-drawn tenders.[2]
The Phoenix figured in case law. In 1796, the company refused to pay damages awarded of £3,000 (2021: £310,000) following a 1792 fire at a house in Tavistock Street, London. Phoenix claimed that the owners had failed to obtain a certificate from the ministers and churchwardens of the parish affirming the good character of the victims. Phoenix issued a writ of error to appeal against the original decision.[3]
Phoenix diversified into life insurance, establishing the Pelican Life Office in 1797.[4] In 1907 Phoenix reabsorbed Pelican Life Assurance, at that time known as the Pelican and British Empire Life Office, becoming a composite insurer.[4]
The company built a new head office at 3-7 King William Street, erected in 1915,[5] on a design by John Macvicar Anderson and his son Henry Lennox Anderson.[6] It was known as Phoenix House while the seat of the company from 1915 to 1983; the name later went to another building at No. 18 in the same street.[7]
Sun Alliance & London acquired Phoenix Assurance in 1984.[8]
References
edit- ^ The Times, 27 June 1785 Category: Classified Advertising
- ^ Clive Aslet, The Times, 10 September 1983, Picturing the past frame by frame
- ^ The Times, 8 June 1796; Law Report. Court of King's Bench, June 7., Phoenix Fire Office
- ^ a b "Royal & Sun Alliance Insurance Group Plc". Encyclopedia.com. Retrieved 22 July 2021.
- ^ "The Phoenix Assurance Company strong room under construction at 5 King William Street". Historic England.
- ^ "The Andersons in the City". Claxity. 15 October 2021.
- ^ "5 King William Street Heritage Statement" (PDF). Transfort for London. September 2014. p. 5.
- ^ Trebilcock, Clive (1999). Phoenix Assurance and the Development of British Insurance: Volume 2, The Era of the Insurance Giants 1870–1984. Cambridge University Press. p. 1021. ISBN 978-0521254151.
Further reading
edit- Trebilcock, Clive. Phoenix Assurance and the Development of British Insurance. Volume I: 1782-1870 (Cambridge University Press, 1985)
- Trebilcock, Clive. Phoenix Assurance and the Development of British Insurance. Volume II: The Era of the Insurance Giants, 1870-1984 (Cambridge University Press, 1999)