Jumped out at me for the "V" formation there which looks like pretty much any Lodge meeting I've ever been to, so I posed the question "Is it sane or absurd to assume that Lloyd's is basically controlled by Freemasons?"
Turns out there's enough info there to start a thread.
Just watched a James Burke Connections episode about Lloyd's of London last night -- it was great and made me feel utterly ignorant because I had no idea how much power they've been wielding. It was like the Council for National Policy...I was aware of them like the hum from an appliance, it was mostly ubiquitous background noise. Note to self: that's a really good place to hide out, apparently.
No matter what else Lloyd's represents, they're certainly an incredible looking venue for mundane evil deeds...a massive science-fiction version of the sets from American Psycho, there's definitely a touch of Terry Gilliam to it all...
1992 Article from the Times....
"Time to lift the apron: Pressure is mounting for the Freemasons in big business to reveal all."
ON THE first Monday in February and December, and the third Monday in April and October, an anonymous collection of men, carrying plain briefcases, make their way to 86 St James's Street in Westminster, London. They are members of the Black Horse of Lombard Street Lodge, a secretive group of Freemasons who have one thing in common: they all work for Lloyds Bank or have close connections with it.
Likewise, four times a year the Holden Lodge meets at Freemasons Hall, an imposing stone building east of Covent Garden. Again the common link is their employer, this time Midland Bank. Soon after, their Masonic counterparts at National Westminster get together.
There is nothing unusual about these meetings. Up to 300,000 men are estimated to be Freemasons. Many are financiers and businessmen. There are more than 8,000 lodges, some of them exclusive to a particular employer or industry. Lloyd's, the insurance market, famously has three, including the Lutine Lodge.
Share traders have several lodges. One is said to be the Verity, whose members congregate at the City of London Club in Old Broad Street, conveniently close to the old Stock Exchange tower, on the first Thursday of February, October and December. The Bank of England also has its own lodge.
While Freemasonry in the police, the judiciary and local government has been the focus of opposition and suspicion, Masons in the business community have escaped largely unscathed.
...
However, Martin Short, author of Inside the Brotherhood, believes the Freemasonry can be more sinister, especially in the City, where there are hundreds of lodges. 'The Square Mile has been squared, and encompassed, many times over by the men in lamb-skin aprons. The capacity for corruption is there. It is a kind of additional old boy net. I think it blurs people's objective edges.'
He points to one lodge he came across in his research, where the members were largely made up of Ministry of Defence procurement staff, Army officers and senior managers of armaments manufacturers. 'Nor was Masonry a force for good in the Lloyd's insurance scandals,' he adds.
The Labour MP Chris Mullin is also suspicious of Masonic lodges and other secret societies. His Private Member's Bill, to be debated in November, calls for public figures to be obliged to disclose membership.
.....
According to Ken Helps, assistant to the Grand Secretary at the United Grand Lodge of England, businessmen are given no advice on the matter: 'We leave it purely up to them. They are completely at liberty to disclose if they want. But they must not use Freemasonry to improve their business or professional occupation.'