The current neoclassical building has a trapezoidal floor plan and is flanked by Cornhill and Threadneedle Street, which converge at Bank junction in the heart of the city.

[3] It was Britain's first specialist commercial building, and Clough oversaw the importing of some of the materials from Antwerp: stone, slate, wainscot and glass, for which he paid thousands of pounds himself.

[7] Take a view of the Royal Exchange in London, a place more venerable than many courts of justice, where the representatives of all nations meet for the benefit of mankind.

[10] The third Royal Exchange building, which still stands today, was designed by Sir William Tite and adheres to the original layout–consisting of a four-sided structure surrounding a central courtyard where merchants and tradesmen could do business.

[14] The western end of the building consists of a portico of eight Corinthian columns topped by a pediment containing a tympanum with relief sculpture by Richard Westmacott (the younger) of seventeen figures representing London merchants and foreign traders.

The central allegorical figure represents Commerce, above an inscription chosen by Albert, Prince Consort from Psalm 24: "The Earth is the Lord's, and the fulness thereof".

Charles II (a copy of 1792 by John Spiller after Grinling Gibbons' statue in the centre of the 17th century courtyard) and Queen Elizabeth I by Musgrave Watson, 1844.

[16][17][18] In front of the portico of the Royal Exchange is a statue of Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington, the last work of Sir Francis Leggatt Chantrey.

Designed by Sir Aston Webb, the monument is flanked by two bronze statues of soldiers and surmounted by a lion, all sculpted by Alfred Drury.

[20] The tower contains a chime of 15 bells all cast by Charles and George Mears of Whitechapel in 1844, with a mechanism that can play God Save the King, The Roast Beef of Old England, Rule Britannia!

The largest is also the hour bell, and bears the following inscription "Cast for the Royal Exchange in the year of grace 1844; Richard Lambert Jones, Chairman of the Gresham College Committee; Daniel Watney, Master of the Mercers' Company; Ebenezer Trottman, Assistant; William Tite, Architect; Charles and George Mears, founders."

The newly formed London International Financial Futures Exchange (LIFFE) was the main tenant, using the courtyard for the trading floor, all done without touching the framework of the original building.

[24] In a lane by the eastern entrance to the Royal Exchange, stand two statues: one of Paul Julius Reuter who founded his news agency there, and one of George Peabody who founded the Peabody Trust and a business which became J.P. Morgan & Co.[25] In 2013 a lease of Royal Exchange was sold by Anglo Irish Bank to Oxford Properties, a Canadian property company.

[26] Oxford Properties Group, a division of the Ontario Municipal Employees Retirement System, bought the retail centre for a reported £86.5 million.