Corn Exchange, London

The bustling area you are in now, Mark Lane, takes its name from a much older history as Mart Lane, a direct reference to the markets that defined this corner of the city. For centuries, this site served as the primary nerve center for the national grain trade, where the price of your daily bread was effectively decided. Farmers from across the country once sent their grain up the Thames to nearby Bear Quay, but the system often left them stranded without a buyer if demand was low. An enterprising former inn worker named Johnson eventually transformed this informal process by collecting grain samples and prices to sell on behalf of those absent farmers, a success that sparked the creation of the first dedicated Corn Exchange in seventeen forty-seven.