[2] It is believed that the plaza may have been renamed after Calderón either by the then-sitting Governor-General, or by the Dominican friars who were at the time running the Binondo Church, who had adored his works.

[4] In 1594, the town of Binondo was established on the northern bank of the Pasig River by then Governor-General Gómez Pérez Dasmariñas as a settlement for Chinese migrants arriving in Manila.

[7] In 2005, Plaza San Lorenzo Ruiz was redeveloped by the Manila city government during the tenure of Lito Atienza, with help from the Metrobank Foundation,[8] which donated ₱3 million for the project.

The largest building to have been built around the plaza was the La Insular Cigar and Cigarette Factory, which was opened in 1883 after the lifting of the Spanish tobacco monopoly three years earlier.

[5] While the Hotel de Oriente, unlike the La Insular Cigar and Cigarette Factory, was only partially destroyed in the Battle of Manila, it was demolished afterward, and the site is now occupied by Tytana Plaza,[14] home to the current Binondo offices of Metrobank.

On the northern end of the plaza is a building formerly housing the Binondo offices of Bank of the Philippine Islands (BPI), which is currently home to the branches of Jollibee, Chowking and Greenwich.

While the Binondo branch has moved to a taller building next door, at the corner with Reina Regente Street, BPI currently maintains its main Binondo offices at the BPI Building along Quintin Paredes Street.Plaza San Lorenzo Ruiz is mentioned in Chapter 4 of José Rizal's novel Noli Me Tángere, where Crisostomo Ibarra reaches the plaza and its vicinity after attending Captain Tiago's dinner party at his house on Calle Anloague.