Stock exchange clocks’ timely return to the City

They speak of an age when flick clocks were at the cutting edge of technology, Johannesburg was a more important financial centre than Dubai and share trading was carried out face to face — rather than over the phone — before a damn good lunch.

The brokers and jobbers who scurried around the floor of the Stock Exchange in the Seventies and Eighties could tell the time in San Francisco, New York, Toronto, London, Zurich, Hong Kong, Tokyo and Melbourne and the South African capital by glancing up at the Italian-made clocks above them.

Then came Big Bang in 1986 and the death of face-to-face trading.

The retro clocks, made by Italian manufacturers Solari & Co in 1971, were removed and dumped in an East End railway arch to rot.

Now they have returned to the City after being discovered and restored by the London designer Mark Lawson Bell.

The clocks have been hung on the walls of the City brasserie 1 Lombard Street where they will stay until September 29 when they will be auctioned off.

Former banker Soren Jessen, founder of 1 Lombard Street, said: "These clocks are truly a unique piece of history. When we were offered the opportunity to display them I jumped at the chance.

"It is a strange twist of fate to think that the clocks should end up hanging on the walls of 1 Lombard Street opposite their original home in the London Stock Exchange building nearby, once more watching over City workers."