Guildhall

Guildhall

On the east side of King Street at No. 23 (P.O. Directory). In Bassishaw Ward and Cheap Ward, extending east to Basinghall Street.

Earliest mention: There may be a reference to the Guildhall in the "Terra Gialle," a MS. belonging to the D. and C. St. Paul's, c. 1130, in which mention is made of various lands in London.

Mentioned in ordinance passed after fire of 1212 for protection of buildings, "Gildhall," 1244 (Lib. de Ant. Leg. p. 10).

In grant of land 5 Ed. I., it appears that "the curtilage of the Gihalle" was situate 25¾ ells west from the "vico regio," apparently Basinghall Street, as the land included in the grant is described as in the parish of St. Michael Bassishaw, which could hardly be the case if King Street were intended (Anc. Deeds A. 1857).

It is described 15 Ed. III. as the hall of the pleas of the City (Cal. P.R. Ed. III. 1340–3, p. 227).

Stow tells us that the Guildhall was rebuilt in the 15th century, the rebuilding being commenced by T. Knolles, Mayor in 1400, and in Letter Book I. there are several allusions to the new work there (S. 109, 273, 293).

Fabyan gives the date as 1411 (ed. 1811, p. 576).

Stow describes it previously to this rebuilding as a little old cottage in Aldermanburie Street, but there appears to be no authority for placing it so far west, and it is more probable that the original building occupied a portion at least of its present site and was approached from Aldermanbury by a passage only.

The Executors of Ric. Whittington contributed to the paving of the Hall and the glazing of the windows (S. 274).

The site of the "Guildehall" is described 4 Ed. VI., as in the parish of St. Michael Bassishaw, abutting east on Bassinghawstrete, west on "le Yeldehall chappell," south on Blackwell Hall, north upon "les grocers landes" (Pat. Roll, Ed. VI. Pt. 9).

The Mayors' feasts were kept in the Guildhall from 1501, formerly held in Merchant Taylors' Hall or Grocers' Hall (Strype, ed. 1720, I. iii. 42).

Burnt in the Fire 1666, except the stone walls of the Hall (ib. 52).

Repaired 1706. Re-erected 1789. Architect, G. Dance, the younger. Hall restored 1866–70.

Numerous courts are held there for the transaction of the business of the City by the Mayor, Aldermen and Commonalty, and some of the City Companies hold their meetings there.

The name occurs in early records as "Gialle," "Gihalle," "Guyhalle," "Gihale," "Guihalle," "Gyhale," "Gilda Aula," "Gildaula," "Gyhalda," etc, and it is said to be derived from A S "gild" = payment, and "gildan" = to pay. The Guildhall would be the appointed place where the burgesses would "yield" or pay their taxes, hence "Yeldehall," a not uncommon form of the name.

The crypt has recently been restored and excavated, and has fine shafts and vaulting. It is divided into an eastern and western portion, the eastern being the more elaborate.

There is an interesting account of these crypts in Tran. L. and M. Arch. Soc. N.S. II. (3), 277).

A Roman pavement was found here under the Sewers' Office in 1861.

Guildhall, King-Street, Cheapside,—at the N. end of it, from 92, Cheapside, it communicates with 76, Basinghall-st.

Guildhall, the, of the City of London, is situated at the north end of King-street, Cheapside, where the principal business appertaining to the corporation of London is transacted.

It was began to be erected, according to the authority of Fabian, in 1411, the 12th of Henry IV., by Thomas Knolles, citizen and grocer, then mayor, and his brethren the aldermen; and instead of what Stowe calls, from his own remembrance, "an olde little cottage in Alderman-berie-street, they made a faire and goodlie house, more neare unto St. Laurence church in the Jurie."

In the first year of Henry VI., 1422, John Coventry and John Carpenter, executors of the celebrated Richard Whittington, gave towards the paving of the great hall twenty pounds, which was a large sum in those days, and fifteen pounds more in the year following, to complete the said pavement with hard stone of Purbeck. They also glazed some of the windows of the hall, and of the mayor's court, on each of which were painted the arms of Whittington.

The foundation of the mayor's court, which, till lately, was used as the Court of King's Bench, and is now restored to its former use, was laid in the reign of Henry VI., and that of the porch on the south side of the said court, in 1426. At the same time was built the mayor's chamber and old council chamber, now used as a committee-room, with the other rooms upstairs, now appropriated to the use of the Commissioners of Sewers; the new council-chamber, now used by the court of aldermen, with a room over the same for a treasury, wherein to preserve the books and records belonging to the city; and another room underneath the said chamber was began to be built in 1614, and was completely finished shortly after Michaelmas, 1615.

Last of all, says Stowe, a stately porch, entering the great hall was erected to the south front, and the kitchen and other offices adjoining were built about 1501.

At the great fire of 1666, the whole of the interior and out offices were destroyed; but the walls were of such remarkable solidity, that they survived all the fury of the raging element. A contemporary writer, Thomas Vincent, author of a pamphlet, called "God's Terrible Voice in the City," published in 1667, says, "among other things that night, the sight of Guildhall was a fearful spectacle, which stood the whole body of it together in view for several hours, after the fire had taken it, without flames (I suppose, because the timber was of such solid oak), in a bright shining coal, as if it had been a palace of gold, or a great building of burnished brass."

The temporary renovation of the interior was completed with the present tasteless attic and panelled ceiling within three years after the fire; and grand as is the patched up ruins of this splendid hall, how much more grand must it have been, when each set of the clustered pillars which are against the walls, carried the noble oak pointed roof, that lay mouldering in the merciless flames of 1666. The corporation would do well to restore it, as well as other portions of this costly and useful monument of the liberality of our forefathers.

Over the ancient front of the present southern porch, was a splendid frontispiece, decorated with the ancient arms of England, and beneath them an inscription with the following words in gilt letters—

"Reparata et ornata Thoma Rawlinson,
Milit. Majore, An. Dom. MDCCVI."

The rest of the south front, it appears from drawings and engravings of it extant, was in a style of considerable richness and grandeur. Some traces of this original style are still perceptible in the present porch, which is almost the only part now left in its original state.

This ancient front was taken down and rebuilt in its present heterogeneous style, from the designs of the late George Dance, Esq., in 1789. This attempt at the ancient beautiful style of our native country is the greatest, and perhaps the only failure in composition of that able and tasteful architect; who, however, has his illustrious predecessor Sir Christopher Wren, to keep him company as his compeer in ignorance of the beauties of that splendid style.

Guildhall is still entered by its ancient southern porch, at the extremity of which are a flight of steps which lead through the centre bay into the great or common hall, which is 153 feet in length, 48 feet in breadth, and about 53 feet in height. At each end is a magnificent window of the pointed style, filled with painted glass, of the armorial bearings of the United Kingdoms, of the City, and representations of stars of the Orders of the Garter, Bath, St. Andrew and St. Patrick. These windows are modern restorations, and are in good style, but are sadly in want of their ancient accompaniments, the ancient oak roof of similar shape and ornament, instead of the conventicle round-headed windows which on either side between them look like two gorgeous eastern emperors presiding in a synod of Genevese puritans.

The capitals of the pillars, that formerly supported the open-worked oak roof, are now made supporters of fourteen shields, containing armorial bearings of the United Kingdoms, of the City of London, and of the twelve principal companies in their rotation of precedence. At the eastern end of the hall is a raised part separate from the rest, called the hustings, which is used for the several courts of hustings, for the assembling of the lord-mayor, aldermen, sheriffs and city officers on common halls, elections and other days of public business.

In this hall are several sculptural monuments to great public characters, and in the various courts portraits and other pictures.

Among the monuments in the Great Hall are a monument to William Pitt, Earl of Chatham, sculptured by the elder Bacon, erected in 1782 at the expense of the corporation, with an inscription written by Edmund Burke; another to William Pitt, his son, sculptured by J.G. Bubb, and an inscription by the late George Canning; one to Admiral Lord Nelson sculptured by James Smith, and an inscription from the pen of Richard Brinsley Sheridan; a statue between two figures, one representing the City of London, and the other Commerce in a drooping state, William Beckford, lord-mayor in 1762 and 1769, with an inscription of that patriotic citizen's celebrated reply to George III. on the 23d of May, 1770: the sculpture is by Moore.

At the western end of the hall are the long celebrated giants Gog and Magog, the terror of youthful apprentices of former days, who firmly believed the legend— "that when they heard the clock strike one, they came down to dinner." These celebrated colossal figures, which are about 15 feet in height, are placed in each angle of this end, upon octagonal pedestals. They have black and bushy beards. One is armed with a sort of halbert, or battle-axe, and the other with a long staff, from which a ball set round with spikes is dependent by a chain. They are painted in imitation of nature, and present altogether a most formidable appearance. The author of a curious little work, called "The gigantic History of the two famous Giants in Guildhall," London, 1741, says that, according to the best authorities, one of them represents Corinaeus, a giant of Trojan descent, who came over with Brutus, the great-grandson of Aeneas, the first conqueror of Britain, and the other Gogmagog, the last of the British giants, whose history is pathetically recorded in the first volume of the Percy Histories. Strype supposes them to represent an ancient Briton and Saxon; but a very full and elaborate account of them is to be found in Hone's "Ancient Mysteries," 8vo., p. 262, which contains references to many ancient authors by whom they are mentioned.

However long such figures may have been in Guildhall, the present statues are not of great antiquity, for they were put up about the year 1708 in the place of the two old wicker-work giants, which had formerly been accustomed to be carried in processions, and which it is generally believed were first used at the restoration of Charles II., when they graced a triumphal arch erected on that occasion at the end of King-street. The maker of them was Richard Saunders, an eminent carver in those days, who resided in King-street, Cheapside.

In the Council Chamber, a very tasteful room erected by the late George Dance, Esq., R.A., for the meetings of the court of common council, is a statue of King George III., in a marble niche, executed by F.L. Chantrey, Esq., at an expense to the corporation of £3,089. 9s. 5d. On the pedestal is an inscription written by Mr. Alderman Birch, who in the year of its erection, 1815, was Lord Mayor. In the south-west angle of the chamber is a bust of the Duke of Wellington, by Turnerelli; on the north-west a corresponding one of Granville Sharpe, by Chantrey; and in the north-east another of Admiral Lord Nelson, by the Hon. Mrs. Damer, and presented by her to the corporation.

The pictures in this room are—

Subjects	Painters' Names
Minerva	R Westall, R.A.
Apollo	Gavin Hamilton.
The late Queen Caroline	James Lonsdale.
The late Princess Charlotte	The Same.
The Siege of Gibraltar	J.S. Copley, R.A.
Admiral Lord Rodney	After Monnoyer.
Swearing in Alderman Newnham as Lord Mayor, in Guildhall, Nov. 8. 1782, containing 180 portraits	W. Miller.
Admiral Lord Nelson	Sir W. Beechey, R.A.
Sir William Walworth, Lord Mayor, in 1374 and 1380, killing Tat Tyler in Smithfield, for menacing Richard the Second	J. Northcote, R.A.
Admiral Lord Duncan	J. Hoppner, R.A.
Defence of Gibralter, Sept. 13, 1782	R. Paton.
Lord Rodney's Victory over the French Fleet on the 12th of April, 1782	R. Dodd.
Defence of Gibraltar on the night between September 13 and 14, 1782	R. Paton.
Admiral Lord St. Vincent	Sir W. Beechey, R.A.
Amiral Lord Howe	Geo. Kirtland.
Daniel Pinder, Esq.	John Opie, R.A.
Richard Clarke, Esq., F.S.A. Chamberlain of London	Sir T. Lawrence, R.A.
Admiral Lord Hood	L.F. Abbott.
Lord Mayor's Show by Water	R. Paton.
Marquess Cornwallis	J.S. Copley, R.A.
The Murder of David Rizzio	J. Opie, R.A.
General Lord Heathfield	after Sir J. Reynolds.
The Relief of Gibraltar, 11th of Oct. 1782, by the British Fleet, under Lord Howe	R. Paton.
Lord Rodey breaking the line of the French Fleet, April 12, 1782	R. Dodd.
Defence of Gibraltar, 14th Sept. 1782	R. Paton.
Alderman John Boydell	Sir W. Beechey, R.A.

In the Court of Aldermen, over the Lord Mayor's seat, are the king's arms, and over the door those of the city, finely carved. Round the border of the ceiling, which is embossed in fine style, are painted the arms of the lord mayors since 1780, which are continued in painted glass, in the windows.

In an oval in the middle of the ceiling, is a painting by Sir James Thornhill, representing the City of London, with a mural crown upon her head, and a shield emblazoned with the City arms upon her left arm, attended by Minerva and two boys, one supporting the City sword, and the other pointing to the cap of maintenance and the mace. Peace is presenting her with an olive-branch, and Plenty with her horn is pouring out riches. In four compartments round the oval are the four cardinal virtues, represented by boys, and over the chimney-piece is a picture, imitative of sculpture in bronze, containing allegorical figures of London, Justice, Liberty, Piety, Truth, &c. At the lower end of the room, opposite the Lord Mayor's seat is inscribed, "Audi Alteram Partem."

In the Chamberlain's Office is a picture of the battle fought near Touton, in Yorkshire, between the rival families of York and Lancaster, on the 29th of March 1461, painted by Alderman Josiah Boydell. Over the chimney-piece is a finely coloured print of the painted window at New College, Oxford, painted by Jervis, from pictures by Sir Joshua Reynolds. There are also prints of Hogarth's Idle and Industrious Apprentices, and some specimens of ornamental writing.

In the Chamberlain's parlour are deposited duplicate copies of the honorary freedoms and thanks which have been voted to distinguished personages by the City. More than sixty of them are by the late Mr. Tomkins, the celebrated penman, of whom there is a fine portrait by Sir Joshua Reynolds.

In the Waiting-Room, which is supplied with newspapers, magazines, maps, almanacks and other necessary works of reference, are whole length portraits of George I. and II., Queen Caroline, consort of the latter, of Sir William Wilde, Bart., and Sir Richard Rainsford, Knt., painted by Mr. Wright, and of Sir Charles Pratt, afterwards Lord Camden, by Sir Joshua Reynolds, and a painting of the Murder of James I., King of Scotland, by Assassins suborned by the Earl of Athol, his uncle, on the 19th of February 1437, by John Opie, R.A. A View of the Interior of the Guildhall as it appeared at the Entertainment given by the Corporation, on Saturday the 18th of June 1814, to the late King George IV., the Emperor of Russia, the King of Prussia, and other illustrious personages, painted by W. Daniell, R.A.; a coloured lithographic print, representing the Entertainment on Lord Mayor's Day 1828, by Alderman William Thompson, M.P., Lord Mayor.

In the Courts of King's Bench and Common Pleas, which were erected in 1823, from the designs of William Mountague, Esq., the City architect, on the site of the ancient Guildhall chapel, are portraits of the Judges, painted about 1671, by M. Wright, in testimony of the City's gratitude for their services in settling the disputed properties of the Citizens after the great fire of 1666.

In the Library are portraits of several of the Aldermen, some statues that came from Guildhall chapel, some antiquities discovered in the Old London-bridge, and other curious relics of ancient times.

Guildhall (The), of the City of London, in the Ward of Cheap, is of unknown antiquity, but there is reason to believe that it was in existence at least as early as the 12th century. It was formerly supposed, on the authority of Stow, that the original Guildhall was situated in Aldermanbury, but Mr. J.E. Price proves conclusively in the magnificent work published by the Corporation (A Descriptive Account of the Guildhall of the City of London) in 1886 that this must be a mistake. The explanation of the mistake is probably to be found in the fact that there was an entrance in Aldermanbury up a passage to the building.

The present references, however, taken in connection with those quoted from the deeds preserved at Balliol College, Oxford, prove conclusively that, while the Hall has passed through sundry transitions, been altered, added to and enlarged from time to time, no evidence is forthcoming to show that the Guildhall of ancient times was ever situated in any other part of London than that where it at present stands. An enlargement of the ancient building appears to have taken place in the year 1326, 20th King Edward II., and in the mayoralty of Richard de Breton, Britaine or Betoyne. At this time a grant of timber and lead appears to have been made towards the works at the Hall and Chapel; and in 1337, 2 Edward III., it is recorded that on January 25 of that year, and in the time of Thomas de Maryns, chamberlain, 76 pieces of timber, then in Guildhall, were removed and laid in the lesser garden oif the same Guildhall and placed under the wall there to the chamber of the late John de Bankewell adjoining.—Descriptive Account of the Guildhall, p. 48.

In 1411 the Guildhall was rebuilt, and the fact of the rebuilding is thus alluded to by Robert Fabyan in his Chronicles:—

In this yere also was y^e Guylde hall of London begon to be new edyfied, and of an olde and lytell cottage made into a fayre and goodly house as it now appery^th—ed. 1811, p. 576.

As the hall advanced individual generosity added largely to the general decoration of the work. The executors of the celebrated Whittington paved the Great Hall with "hard stone of Purbeck." Divers aldermen contributed to the glazing and heraldic splendour of the windows. Seven statues were given to fill the vacant niches of a porchway, and a kitchen added in 1501, "by procurement of Sir John Shaa, goldsmith, Mayor, who was the first that kept his feast there." Of the original Guildhall only the walls and crypt remain. The front, towards King Street, was seriously injured in the Great Fire, but immediate action was taken for its restoration, and fromm official records it appears that a sum of £34,77 6: 5s. was spent on the re-edification of the Guildhall.¹ It was "repaired and adorned" in 1706, and the present mongrel substitute was erected in 1789, from the designs of George Dance, the younger, the City architect. The crypt, 75 feet by 45 feet, vaulted and divided into nave and aisles by columns of Purbeck marble, extends about half the length of the hall. It was much injured by the Fire and subsequent carelessness, but has been repaired. The hall, the place where the citizens meet "in common hall" for the transaction of municipal affairs, the election of their members of Parliament, lord mayor, sheriffs, and other civil officers, the consideration of local and public questions, where are held important receptions, the great City banquets, entertainments, and ceremonials, and where have occurred many events of great historical interest, is a noble room, 152 feet long, 49 feet wide, and 89 feet high to the ridge of the roof. It consists of eight bays, the windows in which and at the ends of the hall are filled with painted glass representing the principal events in the history of the City, and especially those of which the hall has been the theatre, and portraits of eminent citizens, armorial bearings and other appropriate subjects. The hall was thoroughly restored with a new open timber roof in 1866-1870 by Sir Horace Jones, the architect to the Corporation. Observe.—Monument to the great Lord Chatham, by John Bacon the elder; the inscription by Edmund Burke. Monument to William Pitt, by J.G. Bubb; the inscription by George Canning. Monument to Nelson, by James Smith; the inscription by R.B. Sheridan. Monument to the Duke of Wellington, by John Bell. Monument to Lord Mayor Beckford (the father of the author of Vathek), by T.J. Moore; the inscription upon it is his own speech to King George III., written for him by Horne Tooke, and spoken, or said to have been spoken, at a period of great excitement. The monument has been incorrectly attributed to Bacon. The two giants in the hall&mdahswhich used to form part of the pageant of a Lord Mayor's Day—are known as Gog and Magog, though antiquaries differ about their proper appellation, some calling them Colbrand and Brandamore, others Corineus and Gogmagog. They were carved by Richard Saunders, and set up in the hall in 1708.¹

In 1415, when Henry V. entered London from Southwark, a male and female giant stood at the entrance of London Bridge, the male bearing an axe in his right hand, and in his left the keys of the City hanging to a staff, as if he had been the porter. In 1432, when Henry VI. entered the City the same way, "a mighty giant" awaited him, as his champion, at the same place. ... In 1554, when Philip and Mary made their public entry into London, "two images, representing two giants, the one named Corineus and the other Gogmagog," stood upon London Bridge, holding between them certain flattering Latin verses; and when Elizabeth passed through the City, the day before her coronation [January 12, 1558], these two giants were placed at Temple Bar, holding between them a poetical recapitulation, in Latin and English, of the pageants that day exhibited.—Fairholt's Lord Mayor's Pageants, p. 23.

Until the last reparation of Guildhall, in 1815, the present giants stood, with the old clock and a balcony of iron-work between them, over the stairs leading from the Hall to the Courts of Law and the Council Chamber. When they were taken down in that year, and placed on the floor of the Hall, I thoroughly examined them as they lay in that situation. They are made of wood, and hollow within, and from the method of joining and gluing the interior, are evidently of late construction, and every way too substantially built for the purpose of being either carried or drawn, or any way exhibited as a pageant.—Hone's Table Book, vol. ii. p. 614.

The new Council Chamber, built after the designs of Sir Horace Jones, the City architect, on the north side of the Guildhall, was first used for a sitting of the Court on October 2, 1884. The first stone had been laid on April 30, 1883. The building is duodecagonal in design. Its diameter is 54 feet, surrounded by a corridor 9 feet wide, above which is a gallery for the accommodation of the public and the press. The height firom the floor to the dome is 61 feet 6 inches, above this rises an oak lantern, the top of which is 81 feet 6 inches.

Of the old hall we have the following description:—

It consisted of two storeys. The chief features were a large arch of entrance, sustained at the sides by columns having enriched spandrels with shells containing the arms of England and of Edward the Confessor; two ornamental niches on each side with figures; and two other niches with figures in the upper storey. The four lower figures represented Religion, Fortitude, Justice, and Temperance; their attitudes were easy and elegant and the sculpture good. The figures in the upper storey represented Law and Learning.—Nichols's Brief Account.

A fine structure built by Thomas Knowles: Here are to be seen the statues of two Giants, said to have assisted the English when the Romans made war upon them; Corinius of Britain and Gogmagog of Albion. Beneath, upon a table, the titles of Charles V., Emperor, are written in letters of gold.—Hentzner, Travels in England, 1598.

In 1546 the Guildhall was the scene of the trial and condemnation of Anne Askew, who was burnt at Smithfield on July 16 in that year; January, 1547, that of the Earl of Surrey, the poet; November 13, 1553, that of Lady Jane Gray and her husband; April 17, 1554, the trial of Sir Nicholas Throgmorton; and in 1606 the trial and conviction of the Jesuit Garnet. On January 5, 1642, Charles I., after his luckless attempt to arrest the Five Members in the House, attended at a Common Council in Guildhall, and claimed the assistance of the citizens to seize them if they took refuge in the City. The splendid feasts at which sovereigns and distinguished personages have been the guests would be too many to enumerate; they have occurred more or less frequently in almost every reign. A public dinner is given in this hall, every 9th of November, by the new Lord Mayor for the coming year. The hall on this occasion is divided into two distinct but not equal portions. The upper end or dais is called the Hustings (from the Court of Hustings); the lower the body of the hall. Her Majesty's ministers and the great law officers of the Crown invariably attend this dinner. At the upper end or dais the courses are all hot; at the lower end only the turtle soup, of which as many as 250 tureens are invariably provided. The scene is well worth seeing once—the loving-cup and the barons of beef carrying the mind back to mediæval times and manners. The earliest account of a Lord Mayor's dinner in the Guildhall is to be found in Pepys:—

October 29, 1663.—To Guildhall, and up and down to see the tables; where under every salt there was a bill of fare, and at the end of the table, the persons proper for the table. Many were the tables, but none in the hall but the Mayor's and the Lords of the Privy Council that had napkins or knives, which was very strange. I sat at the Merchant Strangers' table; where ten good dishes to a messe, with plenty of wine of all sorts; but it was very unpleasing that we had no napkins nor change of trenchers, and drunk out of earthen pitchers and wooden dishes.—Pepys.

They manage better now, but they have only arrived at their present stage of refinement by slow steps. "At City feasts," said Quin, an authority in dinner delicacies, "the candidate for a good dish of turtle ought never to be without a basket-hilted knife and fork;" and Pope referred somewhat irreverently to the pressure on these occasions:—

Have you not seen at Guildhall's narrow pass,
Two Aldermen dispute it with an Ass?
Pope, Im. of Horace, vol. ii. p. 2, l. 104.

The courts within the hall are:—Court of Common Council; Court of Aldermen; Court of Hustings; Court of Orphans; the Sheriffs' Court; the Court of the Wardmote; the Court of Hallmote; the Chamberlain's Court. The Crown Courts were held at Guildhall on successive days during each term, and on the next day but one after each term, but they have been abolished by the Judicature Act.

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¹ Price's Descriptive Account, 1886, p. 223.

¹ Hone's Table Book, vol. ii. p. 63.