Baker's Hall

Baker's Hall

On the east side of Harp Lane at No. 16. In Tower Ward (P.O. Directory).

The Hall is mentioned as early as 1555 in Ct. Hust. Wills, II. p. 659, but the situation is not given.

Stow (ed. 1598, p. 135) says the house was formerly the dwelling house of John Chichele, Chamberlain of London, 1435–46 (Cal. L. Bk. K. pp. 57, 400, etc.), but he does not say when it came into the hands of the Bakers' Company.

Destroyed by fire in 1715 and rebuilt. Restored and repaired 1825.

Baker's-Hall, Harp-lane, Gt. Tower-street, is at No. 16, about six houses on the east, or right hand side from Lower Thames-street. It is a neat plain building, on the site of the ancient mansion of John Chichley, Esq., formerly Chamberlain of London. The hall or banquetting-room is large, and has a handsome carved wainscot screen, with four columns and two pilasters, with proper entablatures of the Corinthian order. It is embellished with several pictures, among which are one of St. Clement, the patron of the company; another of Justice; and a portrait of the late Sir John William Anderson, Bart., Lord Mayor of London in 1797, a member of and a benefactor to the company. The hall was substantially repaired and beautified a few years since, under the superintendence of the Editor of this work.

Bakers' Hall, No. 16 Harp Lane, Great Tower Street, a neat plain building erected on the site of one destroyed by fire in January 1715; the last words spoken by Robert Nelson, the author of Fasts and Festivals, were an allusion to the flames which were visible from his dying bed at Kensington. The hall was repaired and the interior restored about 1825, under the superintendence of James Elmes, architect, author of the Life of Sir Christopher Wren. The Banqueting Hall is large, has a good oak screen, with Corinthian columns, pilasters, and entablature, and contains several portraits of benefactors and eminent members of the Company.

In this Hart Lane is the Bakers' Hall, sometime the dwelling-house of John Chichley, Chamberlain of London, who was son to William Chichley, Alderman of London; brother to William Chichley, Archdeacon of Canterbury; nephew to Robert Chichley, Mayor of London; and to Henry Chichley, Archbishop of Canterbury.—Stow, p. 51.

The bakers of London were of old divided into "White Bakers" and "Brown (or tourte) Bakers,"¹ no maker of white bread being allowed to make tourte, and by the regulations of the City the loaves brought into the city by the bakers of Stratford-le-Bow were required to be heavier in weight than the loaves of the same price supplied by the London bakers. Every baker was to "have his own seal, as well for brown bread as for white bread," wherewith to stamp his loaves, and each alderman was required to "view the seals of the bakers in his ward." The penalties for "default," either in quality or weight, "in the bread of a baker of the City" were very severe."² The City bakers were to hold four principal "hallmotes" in the year, on days fixed, to regulate the assay of bread and for other trade matters, when all who did not attend, or "reasonably excuse or essoin themselves," were to be amerced in a penalty of 21 pence.³ The bakers remained a guild by prescription till 1486, when Henry VII. gave them a Charter of Incorporation.

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¹ Strype, B. v. p. 338.
² Liber Attus, p. 231.
³ Ibid., p. 311.