City (EC3) So named from the money-dealers who came from Lombardy, and first established the trade of money-lending in England, and who took up their abode in this street, and chiefly inhabited it for more than a century. The birthplace of Pope is said to have been in this street. In Lombard Street resided the princely merchant Sir Thomas Gresham, the founder of the Royal Exchange. (Reference: Smith's Streets of London, p. 395)