Above: Queen Elizabeth I opens the Roayl Exchange in 1571

Above: the interior of the Royal exchange showing the collanaded walkways where traders would set up stalls and shops.

THE Royal Exchange was first built in 1566, at the sole expense of Sir Thomas Gresham, an eminent citizen of London. Before that time, the merchants had no public building in which to transact their business. It was first called the Bourse; but Queen Elizabeth, during whose reign it was erected, went there, in grand procession, on the 23d of January, 1570-71, and had it proclaimed ' The Royal Exchange.' Sir Thomas Gresham left the building at his death to the corporation

1666 - A spectator of the Fire of London, in 1666, wrote : ' As London was the glory of England, so was the Royal Exchange one of the greatest glories and ornaments of London. There were the statues of the kings and queens of England set up, as in the most conspicuous and honourable place, as well receiving lustre from the place where they stood, as giving lustre to it." In the Great Fire, the Royal Exchange, statues and all, became a prey to the flames.

(Extract based upon Google Books entry)

In The Last Seal it is at the Royal Exchange that Ben encounters Gabriel, Artemas and Freya, inadvertantly picks up the scroll and almost gets hung for theft -this is where his adventure begins.