Episode 2 of 4
Collapse of Overend, Gurney and Company
- When
- 10 May 1866
- Where
- City of London
The London wholesale discount bank collapsed owing about £11 million, triggering a banking panic and causing crowds to gather at its head offices.
Overend, Gurney and Company, known as "the bankers' bank," collapsed in 1866 owing about £11 million. The failure was the most significant casualty of the credit crisis. A run on the bank ensued as panic spread, with large crowds around the head offices at 65 Lombard Street. The business had previously incorporated as a limited company in July 1865 to recover liquidity.
Sources
- Overend, Gurney and Company Wikipedia, revision of 2026-06-16
- Panic of 1866 Wikipedia, revision of 2026-07-31
Machine-drafted from the cited Wikipedia passages and checked by a reviewing model, not by a human editor. Every passage cites the revision it was written from; dates and places follow those passages.