This Fire Mark incorporated into the façade of 39 City Mill Lane bears the name of The Rock Assurance Company formed in 1806 as a Life Office for the proprietary Insurance Company the Albion, established the year before. The name the Rock is possibly attributed to the Rock of Gibraltar and a company certificate issued in 1818 appears to show the Northern face of the Rock in the background. The company’s chief office was at 15, New Bridge Street, London.

Fire Insurance Plaques

After the Great Fire of London in 1666, which damaged or destroyed most of the historic city, there grew an urgent need for a more organized response to fires. This led to the creation of the world’s first property insurance policies.

Insurance companies soon realized that it was much cheaper to prevent fires than to pay for the reconstruction of burnt out buildings so they established their own in-house fire brigades, tasked with protecting the buildings covered under policy—and, in many cases, only those buildings.

To distinguish those building which were insured, insurance companies designed their own fire insurance plaques which were then installed on the exterior of the buildings.

Prior to 1865 there was no Fire Brigade as such in Gibraltar, so all firefighting duties were carried out by the Military. The Sanitary Order in Council which set up the Sanitary Commissioners in 1865 placed upon them the responsibility of the prevention and extinction of fires. The Order in Council also authorised the Governor to make from time to time, Rules and Regulations for the extinction and prevention of fires. So although there was never a need to establish private fire brigades as in London for example, insurance companies in Gibraltar nevertheless issued their own fire insurance plaques serving as useful advertisements to those buildings insured by their company.

Today, only a few examples of these unique fire insurance plaques remain.

Rock Assurance certificate dated 1818 with what may be the Rock of Gibraltar depicted in the background.

Rock Life Assurance advert.