Phoenix Assurance

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Phoenix Assurance
Company type Public
IndustryInsurance
Founded1782 (1782)
Defunct1984 (1984)
FateAcquired by Sun Alliance
HeadquartersLondon, UK

The Phoenix Assurance Company Limited was an English insurance company that existed from 1782 to 1984. [1]

Contents

History

The Phoenix fire station in Cockspur Street, 1873 Old and new London - a narrative of its history, its people, and its places (1873) (14782131744).jpg
The Phoenix fire station in Cockspur Street, 1873

The company was established in London in 1782. [2] At that time, the company employed red-coated attendants clattering to the fires of London on horse-drawn tenders. [3]

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. [4]

Phoenix diversified into life insurance, establishing the Pelican Life Office in 1797. [5] In 1907 Phoenix reabsorbed Pelican Life Assurance, at that time known as the Pelican and British Empire Life Office, becoming a composite insurer. [5]

The company built a new head office at 3-7 King William Street, erected in 1915, [6] on a design by John Macvicar Anderson and his son Henry Lennox Anderson. [7] 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. [8]

Sun Alliance & London acquired Phoenix Assurance in 1984. [9] In 2004, Resolution Life acquired the life operations of RSA. The following year, Resolution acquired the UK operations of Swiss Life, and merged RSA Life and Swiss Life into a new group called Phoenix Life. [10] In 2008, Pearl Group acquired Resolution Life, and in 2010 Pearl Group renamed itself Phoenix Group. [11]

References

  1. ↑ The Times, 27 June 1785 Category: Classified Advertising
  2. ↑ "Phoenix Assurance Company". Chartered Insurance Instiute. Retrieved 3 September 2025.
  3. ↑ Clive Aslet, The Times, 10 September 1983, Picturing the past frame by frame
  4. ↑ The Times, 8 June 1796; Law Report. Court of King's Bench, June 7., Phoenix Fire Office
  5. 1 2 "Royal & Sun Alliance Insurance Group Plc". Encyclopedia.com. Retrieved 22 July 2021.
  6. ↑ "The Phoenix Assurance Company strong room under construction at 5 King William Street". Historic England.
  7. ↑ "The Andersons in the City". Claxity. 15 October 2021.
  8. ↑ "5 King William Street Heritage Statement" (PDF). Transfort for London. September 2014. p. 5.
  9. ↑ 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.
  10. ↑ James Daley, "F&C boosts assets with £1.2bn deal," The Independent, (13 April 2005), 69.
  11. ↑ Louise Armitstead, "Hugh Osmond's Pearl rises from the ashes as Phoenix," The Daily Telegraph, (19 February 2010), 5.

Further reading

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