June 23, 2026 – London's Business House

Money and Commerce Posted on: June 23, 2026

What the Haringey Council Budget Cuts Actually Mean for North London Business

Chelsea Bloom translates the council press releases into consequences for the high street By Chelsea Bloom Haringey Council published its 2025-26 budget last month in a document that runs to 147 pages and which I read so that you do not have to, partly as […]

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Money and Commerce Posted on: June 23, 2026

The North London Farmers Market Circuit Is a Business Story, Not Just a Food Story

Chelsea Bloom on the economics behind the artisan bread and Herdwick lamb By Chelsea Bloom I went to Highbury Fields farmers market last Saturday with a notebook and the intention of writing about food culture, and came away having been drawn into conversations about logistics, […]

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Money and Commerce Posted on: June 23, 2026

North London’s Property Market Is Doing Something Unusual and Estate Agents Are Struggling to Explain It

Chelsea Bloom on why Crouch End and Muswell Hill are outperforming expectations while the rest stagnates By Chelsea Bloom I cover North London business, which means I cover North London property whether I intend to or not, because North London property is to North London […]

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Money and Commerce Posted on: June 23, 2026

The Holloway Road High Street Revival Is Real, Small, and Precarious

Chelsea Bloom on what is actually happening on one of North London’s most overlooked commercial streets By Chelsea Bloom The Holloway Road has not been fashionable since the 1970s, and depending on your definition of fashionable, possibly not since the 1870s. It is a long, […]

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Money and Commerce Posted on: June 23, 2026

London’s Tech Layoffs Have Changed Islington’s Lunch Economy

Chelsea Bloom on what happens to a neighbourhood when its primary workforce stops commuting By Chelsea Bloom The Angel and Old Street corridor — the stretch of North and East London that acquired the nickname Silicon Roundabout in approximately 2010 and has been embarrassed about […]

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London is the engine room of the British economy, a city where a two-bedroom flat costs more than a small country and somehow everybody acts like this is fine. It is home to the Bank of England, the London Stock Exchange, and approximately forty-seven thousand coffee shops staffed by people with economics degrees wondering where it all went wrong.

The City of London, that ancient square mile of suits and spreadsheets, processes trillions of pounds daily and has done so since Romans decided the Thames was a decent place to charge tolls. Canary Wharf arrived later, shinier, and with better sushi, promptly declaring itself the future of finance while the City quietly got on with actually being the future of finance.

London hosts more international headquarters than any other European city, attracts more foreign investment than it has any right to, and charges businesses rents that would make a New York landlord blush. The startup scene in Shoreditch operates on oat milk, optimism, and venture capital, in that order.

For all its contradictions — the wealth beside the food banks, the global ambition beside the collapsed Tube infrastructure — London remains what it has always been. The place where British business comes to be taken seriously, and to pay through the nose for the privilege.

Auf Wiedersehen.

Billingsgate, Smithfield, Borough Market — three of the oldest trading markets in the world still operating within a mile of each other. The City of London built its entire commercial identity on the back of fish, meat, and bread sold at dawn before bankers were even awake.

Lloyds of London — the insurance market that will insure literally anything, has done so since 1686, and operates from a building that looks like it was designed by someone who lost a bet. They insured Bruce Springsteen’s voice. That is a business story.

The London Metal Exchange — where the global price of copper, aluminium, and tin is still set by traders shouting in a circle called the Ring. In 2024. Remarkable.

Street markets as economic indicators — Petticoat Lane, Portobello Road, Brick Lane. When the economy tightens, street markets boom. Londoners have always known how to trade their way out of trouble.

The Royal Exchange — founded by Thomas Gresham in 1565 as Britain’s first purpose-built trading centre. Now it sells luxury watches and champagne, which is either a fall from grace or the purest distillation of London commerce ever recorded.

London's Business House -- Insight and Inside the Buying and Selling