ES Lifestyle newsletter The latest lifestyle, fashion and travel trends Enter your email address Continue Please enter an email address Email address is invalid Fill out this field Email address is invalid You already have an account. Please log in Register with your social account or click here to log in I would like to receive trends and interviews from fashion, lifestyle to travel every week, by email Update newsletter preferences

On December 31, 1600, Elizabeth I put her name to a Royal Charter giving a group of London merchants monopoly trading rights in the Far East. In so doing, the monarch had established what would become one of the most controversial and significant companies in history.

The East India Company came to dominate not only European trade with South Asia but as a company-come-coloniser, it also took over the administration of much of the Indian subcontinent. By 1803, it had a private army of 260,000 men, and was the vehicle through which British control of India was coordinated.

The whole enterprise was headquartered out of the “Monster of Leadenhall” – a 200-foot long building on Leadenhall Street in the City of London. Built along classical lines, it had previously been used as a residence for the Lord Mayor of London. In 1861, the building was torn down following the absorption of the company’s territories into the British Empire and the start of Queen Victoria’s period as Empress of India.



No plaque exists to commemorate East India House, and today this corner of the City is the site of the Lloyds of London building, completed in 1978.

The ships of the East India Company were predominately carriers of commodity goods such as silk, cotton, spices, salt, tea, indigo dye and opium. Head out towards Blackwall and the East India DLR Station in Leamouth, you will pass through a section of the docklands that was once the main docking area for these vessels.



The East India Docks were capable of holding up to 250 ships at a time but today most of it has been filled in, with the Grade-II listed lock gates the only prominent reminder of the commercial activity that used to take place here. Though the docks may no longer be visible, the local area gives a nod towards its previous occupants. The neighbouring roads are named after the goods that were once brought here by the East Indiamen: Clove Crescent, Oregano Drive, Nutmeg Lane and Saffron Avenue being a few.



The EIC is infamous for the way in which it colonised and then subjugated so much of Southern Asia, not as a nation-state but as a joint-stock company, with a board of directors, answerable to shareholders. Its approach to the business of colonisation has led historian William Dalrymple to describe the venture as “the supreme act of corporate violence in world history”.

Much of the company’s heritage can now be found in the National Maritime Museum at Greenwich and in the British Library. The V&A also has holdings from the EIC, including the truly bizarre Tipu’s Tiger, which is both a sculpture and an organ that can be made to simulate the sounds of a dying European soldier being mauled by a tiger.

Operating during the golden age of the gentlemen’s club, the EIC’s directors felt that a suitable London club needed to be established for “the servants of the East India Company and Commissioned Officers of Her Majesty's Army and Navy”. Based near Chatham House in St James’s Square, the East India Club remains open to this day.

Following the Indian Rebellion of 1857, the company’s territories were handed over to the British Crown and in 1874, the company itself was wound up. Following the dissolution of the firm, the memb criteria was expanded and it counts among its past and present members Randolph Churchill, Denis Thatcher and Nigel Farage.

The most recent iteration of the EIC has been its 2010 relaunch as a luxury goods brand, selling teas, coffees, chocolates and other items at stores around the capital. The ships, grand buildings, dockyards and overseas territories may be gone, but the company continues to be a presence on the British high street.