"‘The Royal Exchange Insurance Company offices were at no. 5 South Mall in the 1820’s, they were taken over by the Gresham Assurance Company in the 1880’s, they then demolished the former offices to put up the present building. This is a beautiful red brick and limestone building which has a bust of Sir Thomas Gresham, an Elizabethan financier, set into the front of the façade near the roof. " | I must own up to the fact that it was only when reading Roger Herlihy’s book that I borrowed from the library that I realised that Sir Thomas had looked down on me many times as I would have walked past. Since then, I have glanced up every time I have passed by. |