Editing Prudential plc (section)

===Early history===
The company was founded in [[Hatton Garden]] in London in May 1848 as The Prudential, Investment, Loan, and Assurance Association and in September 1848 changed its name to The Prudential Mutual Assurance, Investment, and Loan Association,<ref name="Denn">{{cite book|author=Dennett, Laurie.|title=A Sense of Security: 150 Years of Prudential|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=5EEm3mbYqwAC&pg=PA165|year=1998|publisher=Granta Editions|isbn=978-1-85757-060-1|pages=18–20}}</ref> to provide loans to professional and working people.<ref name=timeline1826/> In 1854, the company began selling the relatively new concept of Industrial Branch insurance policies to the working class population for premiums as low as one penny a week through agents acting as [[door to door salesman|door to door salesmen]]. The army of premium collection agents was for many years identified with the Prudential as the "Man from the Pru".<ref name=timeline1826/> The company moved to its long-time home at [[Holborn Bars]] in 1879 and converted to a [[limited company]] in 1881.<ref name=timeline1826/> The building was designed by [[Alfred Waterhouse]], and is built of terracotta manufactured by [[Gibbs and Canning]] of Tamworth (c.1878): two of the same driving forces behind the [[Natural History Museum, London|Natural History Museum]] in London.<ref>[http://atschool.eduweb.co.uk/arodgers/gibbs_and_canning.htm Research page including details of many buildings that used Gibbs and Canning terracotta] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070615082058/http://atschool.eduweb.co.uk/arodgers/gibbs_and_canning.htm |date=15 June 2007 }} accessed 25 March 2012</ref>