Phoenix Fire Office

Phoenix Assurance or Phoenix Fire Office was a fire insurance company founded in 1680 in England.[1]

The Phoenix fire station in Cockspur Street, 1873
Building formerly known as Phoenix House on King William Street, the company's seat from 1915 to 1983

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
  1. The Times, 27 June 1785 Category: Classified Advertising
  2. Clive Aslet, The Times, 10 September 1983, Picturing the past frame by frame
  3. The Times, 8 June 1796; Law Report. Court of King's Bench, June 7., Phoenix Fire Office
  4. "Royal & Sun Alliance Insurance Group Plc". Encyclopedia.com. Retrieved 22 July 2021.
  5. "The Phoenix Assurance Company strong room under construction at 5 King William Street". Historic England.
  6. "The Andersons in the City". Claxity. 15 October 2021.
  7. "5 King William Street Heritage Statement" (PDF). Transfort for London. September 2014. p. 5.
  8. 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.
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