The view from Lehman Brothers' Canary Wharf office in London Thursday afternoon will have done little to calm the concerns of its nervy employees inside. The Thomson Reuters ticker tape opposite their windows read: "Lehman shares drop as Wall Street questions survival."

The turnstiles that serve as an entry system to the office of Lehman Brothers, which is separated from Morgan Stanley's office by a narrow train track, remained busy throughout the afternoon as glum-faced employees snatched the chance for a cigarette under the railway bridge.