The Liverpool & London & Globe Insurance Company, Balcombe

With the holidays approaching, it was time this morning to check our travel insurance. Should any problem arise I hope we'll be covered, but with all these small prints, you're never sure. One thing I'm sure of, though, is that we aren't covered by the Liverpool & London & Globe Insurance Company.
The origins of the Liverpool & London & Globe Insurance Co. date back to 1836, the year the Liverpool Fire and Life Insurance was established. Within a few years, through several acquisitions, it became a prominent actor in the insurance sector. Among these companies taken over was the London, Edinburgh & Dublin Insurance Company in 1847. In 1864, following a successful bid for the Globe Insurance Company, a London-based insurer founded in 1803, it became the Liverpool & London & Globe. The Liverpool & London & Globe had a strong presence not only in the UK, where it was one of the main insurance companies, but also in the British empire, especially in Canada, Australia and New Zealand, and even in the US, where its first branches had opened in 1848. In 1919 the Liverpool & London & Globe was acquired by The Royal, a company based in Liverpool and one of the greatest British exporters of insurance, in what was the largest merger in British insurance history. The name survived but it became part of the ever increasing portfolio of a group that, through successive acquisitions and mergers, became Royal & Sun Alliance (RSA since 2008).

Liverpool & London & Globe
Insurance Company
... Entities
... ...e,Ra....
Unfortunately the lower part of the sign has almost completely disappeared. I was hoping to find out whether the Liverpool & London & Globe had an agent in Balcombe itself, or whether this sign would direct potential customers to a larger town of the area. In any case, given its location, in a small village, away from any main road, I doubt it would have been seen by many outsiders. As for me, I've known it ever since I first went to Wakehurst Place. Indeed if you're walking, Balcombe is the closest train station to the great gardens of Wakehurst Place and Nymans.

Location: Bramble Hill, Balcombe / Picture taken on: 18/05/2008