Mounted with PAD1422. South Sea House was once the place of business of The Governor and Company of Merchants of Great Britain trading to the South Seas and other parts of America. A clerk at the company wrote an essay entitled "Recollections of the Old Sea House" which contains the following description of the building as it was in 1820, "The throng of merchants was here - the quick pulse of gain...Here are still to be seen stately porticos, imposing staircases, offices as roomy as the state apartments in palaces...the still more sacred interiors of court and committee rooms..."