WITH the rain streaming down outside the tiny, over-crowded office, Toby Heale's company could just as easily be tucked away in some forgotten mews in Chelsea or St James - a cubby hole for spies.
To reinforce the image, there are to be no press photographs. The office is so shabby, and Mr Heale pleads vanity.
What goes on at Investor Information is not, of course, spying. But Mr Heale is reticent about some aspects of his operation.
The company gathers data on shareholdings in companies.
Mr Heale said: ''We only work for the corporation itself - never their competitors, never other companies - although we regularly get that kind of approach.'' Investor Information came into being as a result of the profound changes over the last 20 to 25 years in the way in which companies are owned and shares traded.
''In the old days, a company would have a very close relationship with one form of stock brokers - they would be called ''the shop'' and if an investor wanted shares, then that would be where they went,'' he said.