Fishmongers' Hall

Fishmongers' Hall

On the south side of Upper Thames Street at No. 107, out of Fishmongers' Hall Street (P.O. Directory). West of London Bridge. In Bridge Ward Within.

This part of Thames Street was called Stockfishmongers' Row (q.v.).

Given to them in the reign of Henry VI. by Sir John Cornwall, lord Fanhope (S. 217).

Prior to the incorporation of the two Companies of Stockfishmongers and Saltfishmongers 28 H. VIII. they had two separate halls, but the charter provided that they should have the one hall in Thames Street.

It was burnt in the Fire 1666 and rebuilt 1671. Archt,, J. Jarman. Pulled down for the formation of New London Bridge and its approaches, and rebuilt 1831–3, near the site of the old Hall. Arch., H. Roberts.

Fishmongers-Hall, Upper Thames-Street,—at 112, about ten doors on the L. west from London-bridge.

Fishmongers' Hall has been recently taken down for the approaches to London new bridge, and is about to be rebuilt near the old site in Upper Thames-Street.

The company of Fishmongers is the fourth of the twelve chief companies of the city, and were originally two bodies, namely, the Stock-fishmongers and the Salt-fishmongers, and had between them six halls, two in Thames-street, two in New Fish-street, and two in Old Fish-street. This company, as well as others which were concerned in the supply of provisions, was originally under the immediate direction of the Lord Mayor and Court of Aldermen, to whom this power was granted by act of parliament in the seventh of RIchard II. A.D., 1384.

The Salt-fishmongers were incorporated in 1433, and the Stock-fishmongers in 1509. The two companies were united and obtained a charter of incorporation from Henry VIII. in 1536, under the name of "The Wardens and Commonalty of the Mystery of Fishmongers of the City of London."

Fishmongers' Hall, a large semi-classical edifice, which not unworthily occupies a commanding position at the north-west angle of London Bridge; the hall of the fourth on the list of the Twelve Great Companies, erected 1831-1833, from the designs of Henry Roberts, near the site of the old hall built after the Great Fire by Edward Jerman, the City surveyor. The original hall of the Company had been the mansion of Lord Fanhope, but was at different times added to and altered to suit the Company's requirements. It was entirely destroyed in the Great Fire. Jerman's hall is the scene of Plate VIII. of Hogarth's "Industry and Idleness." The chief feature of the interior of the present building is the banqueting hall, a superb room, 73 feet long, 38 wide, and 33 high, and very richly decorated. The Court Drawing Room is 40 feet by 25 feet, and the Court Dining Room 43 feet by 30 feet, and 20 feet high. Fishmongers' dinners are among the most famous of the City banquets. Often they have been the occasion of great oratorical displays, and sometimes it is reported of equally great failures. Erskine, though so brilliant at the bar and in the House, was not a good after-dinner speaker. On one occasion at Fishmongers' Hall he made such sad work of a speech that Jekyll asked him if it was in honour of the Company that he floundered so. The earliest extant charter of the Company is a patent of the 37th of Edw. III. (1364); while the acting Charter of Incorporation is dated 2d of James I. (1604). Besides the Fishmongers' Company there was a Company of Stock- fishmongers, incorporated by a charter of 24 Henry VII. Thames Street was known as "Stock-Fishmonger Row," and the old Fish Market of London was "above bridge," in what is now called Old Fish Street Hill, in the ward of Queenhithe, not as now "below bridge," in Thames Street in the ward of Billingsgate. The two companies were definitely united by a Charter of Incorporation, 27 Henry VIII. (1537). The Company is divided into liverymen (about 450 in number) and freemen. The ruling body consists of thirty-four—the prime warden, five wardens, and twenty-eight assistants. The freedom is obtained by patrimony, servitude, redemption (for defective service) or gift. The fees for taking up the freedom of Company are: by patrimony or servitude,£1:13s.; redemption, £113:10:6; upon admission to livery, £31:15s.; election to the Court, £33:12s. The Company is well endowed and wealthy, and expends large sums annually in the relief of poor members, the support of almshouses and schools, exhibitions to Oxford and Cambridge, loans of from £50 to £300 to young freemen, and general benevolent purposes. Eminent Members.—Sir William Walworth, who slew Wat Tyler; Isaac Pennington, the turbulent Lord Mayor (1643) of the Civil War; Doggett, the comedian, who (1721) bequeathed a sum of money for the purchase of a "coat and badge" to be rowed for every 1st of August from the Swan at London Bridge to the Swan at Chelsea, in remembrance of George I.'s accession to the throne. Observe.—A funeral pall or hearse-cloth of the age of Henry VIII., very fine, and carefully engraved by Shaw; original drawing of a portion of the pageant exhibited by the Fishmongers' Company, October 29, 1616, on the occasion of Sir John Leman, a member of the Company, entering on the office of Lord Mayor of the City of London; statue of Sir William Walworth, by Edward Pierce; portraits of William III. and Queen, by Murray; George II. and Queen, by Shackleton; Duke of Kent, by Beechey; Earl St. Vincent (the Admiral), by Beechey; and Queen Victoria, by Herbert Smith.