IDENTITY STATEMENT
Reference code(s): GB 0074 CLC/B/184
Held at: London Metropolitan Archives
Title: PRUDENTIAL ASSURANCE COMPANY
Date(s): 1886-1925
Level of description: Collection
Extent: 14 production units.
Name of creator(s): Prudential Assurance Co Ltd x Prudential Mutual Assurance, Investment and Loan Association x British Prudential Assurance Association x British Prudential & Consolidated Assurance
CONTEXT
Administrative/Biographical history:
The Prudential Assurance Company was established in 1848 as The Prudential Mutual Assurance Investment and Loan Association, providing loans to professionals secured through life assurance. An Industrial Department was opened in 1854, selling life insurance to the working classes by means of door-to-door agents. Following acquisitions in the 1860s, the company was renamed The British Prudential and Consolidated Assurance Company. This name was shortened in 1867 to The Prudential Assurance Company. It became a limited liability company in 1881.
In 1919, the company moved into general insurance for the first time. Overseas agencies and branches were opened in the 1920s and 1930s to sell both life and general insurance. By the 1970s, the company had made further acquisitions and it was restyled the Prudential Corporation plc in 1978. The name was changed again in 1999 to Prudential plc.
The Prudential Assurance Company was based at Hatton Garden, 1848-1879 and Holborn Bars, 1879-2006. The company subsequently relocated to offices across the UK and India; the registered office is now at Laurence Pountney Hill.
CONTENT
Scope and content/abstract:
Records of the Prudential Assurance Company Limited relating to property in the City of London owned by the Company, including sales particulars, sales agreements, abstracts of title and plans.
ACCESS AND USE
Language/scripts of material: English
System of arrangement:
Records arranged by MS number, assigned during cataloguing at the Guildhall Library Manuscripts Section.
Conditions governing access:
Available for general access.
Conditions governing reproduction:
Copyright to this collection rests with the depositor.
Finding aids:
Please see online catalogues at: http://search.lma.gov.uk/opac_lma/index.htm
ARCHIVAL INFORMATION
Archival history:
Immediate source of acquisition:
Records presented to the Manuscripts Section of Guildhall Library by the Prudential Corporation plc in 1993 and catalogued shortly afterwards by a member of Guildhall Library staff. The Guildhall Library Manuscripts Section merged with the London Metropolitan Archives in 2009.
ALLIED MATERIALS
Related material:
Please note that most of the archives have been retained by the company. LMA holds two other small collections relating to the Prudential, see ACC/1788 and ACC/2453.
DESCRIPTION NOTES
Archivist's note:
Date(s) of descriptions: January to May 2011.