East India Arms, Fenchurch Street, London

The actual East India Company was founded on 31 December 1660 and taken over by the British State after the Indian Mutiny (First War of Indian Independence) in 1857.

There has been a pub on this site since 1630, although this building was built in 1829. Now surrounded by modern office buildings involved in insurance, the surviving facade of Fenchurch Street station just round the corner, and the startling modern construction behind it.

This picture combines three empires - the trading empire of the East India Company of the 18th Century, the 19th Century Victorian formal empire of colonies and Indian Empire, and the 20th Century informal empire of insurance.