The Hall

The Hall before the war time destruction, and today.  A Shepherd engraving from the early 19th Century.

One of the first things that was needed when the guilds started were places in which they could meet. From the 1440s the Barbers had their Hall on the edge of the City in the area of the old Roman Barbican. It was built in Monkwell Street and consisted of a single room with domestic offices for the serving of dinners. In 1605 it was decided to add a Court Room which was completed in 1607. In 1615, after serious structural faults were found, much restoration was carried out and in 1635 the Court agreed that an Anatomical Theatre for lectures and demonstrations should be built. This was designed by Inigo Jones and followed the pattern of a lecture theatre in Padisa; at about the same time a new Great Parlour was built but unfortunately most of the property was burnt in the great fire of 1666 with only the Anatomy Theatre being saved. The destroyed buildings were replaced at a cost of £4292 and remained substantially the same until 1784 when the Anatomy Theatre was demolished to make way for housing. In 1869 the buildings were further reduced so that the Company only retained the Court Room which was built into Bastion 13 of the City wall and was regarded as one of the best small halls of the City companies.

On the night of Sunday 29th December 1940 the Hall was destroyed in an air raid although the bulk of the Company s more valuable goods and property were saved by having been taken to a secure place when war broke out. After an interval of nearly 30 years a new hall, seen above, was built and opened by Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother in May 1969. A major reason for the delay was the need to come to an agreement with the City about the site. It was thought necessary that the City wall should be free from obstruction and thus an agreement was made for the new hall to be some thirty feet further east than its predecessor. The shape of the old being preserved in the Great Hall by the bow built on the west side. The new building was much larger than its predecessor and incorporates cellars and domestic offices in addition to the Great Hall, a Court Room, a Library, the Charter Room, a Reception Room and quarters for the Master. The whole is built into a small office block, which provides a useful income for the Company.  The architects were Past Master K Cross FRIBA and Laurence King & Partners, and the builders the well-known firm Dove Brothers of Islington who were also responsible for the magnificent Japanese oak panelling throughout the ground floor.   The delay in rebuilding allowed the Company to demand a much higher specification than would have been possible if the rebuilding had taken place twenty years earlier. The Hall is regularly used by other Companies that do not have their own accommodation.  To celebrate the Millennium a stained glass window has been installed, the work of Liveryman  William Stewart Shand.  Click on the picture at the top left hand corner.

Guide to the Hall

The Entrance Hall

On the right-hand wall we have a cabinet containing three pill slabs, two bearing the arms of the Apothecaries and the other those of this Company.   They were formerly used for rolling and cutting medicinal pills.

On the wall opposite the entrance are displayed two painted and gilt leather screens in the Chinese style.   Now mounted for display they are known to have existed in 1711.   There have been fanciful talks as to their origin, but the prosaic truth is that their original function was to surround the user of a chamber pot.

The Reception Room

The reception room contains the Company’s collection of porcelain and ceramic barbers’ bowls, the ornate version of the more common article used formerly in barbers’ shops to make up shaving lather. Articles used by early surgeons are also on display, including a fleam, the implement used in bleeding to cut a vein, usually in the arm.

On the right of the entrance is a painting showing Sir Charles Scarborough MD, an anatomy lecturer, at work. He is assisted by his demonstrator, Edward Arris, who was Master of the Company in 1651. For educational purposes, the Company had the right to dissect the bodies of four criminals yearly from the gallows at Tyburn. The painting was intended to remind members of the importance of this activity. It was painted in 1658 by Richard Greenbury, the Company’s artist. 

Other significant paintings in the reception room include a portrait of Inigo Jones, Surveyor of the King’s Works until 1642, from the school of Van Dyck. Inigo Jones designed the Company’s anatomy theatre,  demolished in 1784. The portrait was the gift of Alexander Geekie, Master in 1719.  The portrait of Charles II in about 1675 after Sir Peter Lely shows that the connection between the Company and Crown was strong. It still is, as Sergeant Surgeons to the Monarch are today members of the Company.  Shortly after the Restoration in 1660 Sir Humphrey Painter was appointed to the post and in 1676 the Royal Oak cup, one of the Company’s most important possessions, was presented by Charles II at the request of his surgeons Sir John Knight and James Pearse to commemorate his escape from Cromwell’s forces at Boscobel. It is displayed at Court Dinners and other significant events, together with a gilt and enamelled instrument case and the silver gilt Grace Cup dated 1543, both thought to be the gifts of Henry VIII.  The anniversary painting of members of the Company was commissioned in 2008 to celebrate the 700^th anniversary of the first recorded Master of the Company in 1308.  It was painted by June Mendoza. 

A curiosity is the turtle shell painted with the Company’s arms and presented in 1645 by William Kings. It also illustrates the Company’s connection with the sea; the Company examined surgeons for the Navy until 1745.

The Great Hall

Passing into the Great Hall, the eye is immediately struck by the monumental painting of Henry VIII  by Hans Holbein the Younger. It commemorates the Act of  Parliament of 1540 by which the Company of Barbers and Surgeons of London was set up. This picture, on wood panels shows the king handing a document to his Serjeant-Surgeon, Thomas Vicary Master in 1541, in the presence of other important medical men and barbers. Although repainted in places, and altered with later additions, it is recognized as a fine picture, and has been loaned on occasion to the National Gallery.  To the right of the King are also other members of the Court, the surgeons in their caps, receiving their powers from the Crown from which all authority derived. To the left are the King’s two physicians and his apothecary, while the row of figures above are a later insertion and show members anxious to be included. Above it are the arms of the Company which were formerly above the entrance to the Hall from Monkwell Street and survived the bombing in 1940.   The cherub-like face in the centre is a mystery and appears only on this example of our arms. 

To the right of the Holbein is a portrait of Charles Bernard, Sergeant Surgeon to Queen Anne.  The central chandelier is Waterford crystal and the gift of James Theobald, Master in 1750 and a timber merchant. The gilt wall mirrors bearing the carved arms of the Company date from about 1730. They retain their original bevelled Vauxhall mirror lates.   

The portrait at the other end of the Hall is of  Lady Mary Villiers, daughter of the Duke of Buckingham, on the eve of  her marriage to the Duke of Richmond and Lennox in 1637. From the studio of Van Dyck, it is a good copy of the original in the Royal collection at Windsor. It was, according to the inscription, the gift of John Paterson.  Paterson was Clerk from 1745, when the surgeons left the Company, until 1765 and was highly regarded. Curiously, his gift is not mentioned in the Company’s records.  One suggestion is that he acquired it as payment for his professional services as a solicitor and offered it to the Company, since the painting was too large for normal domestic display. Above it are the arms of the late Queen Mother, formerly our senior Honorary Freeman.  The Company’s collection of seventeenth century silver is on display in the wall cabinets and paddles are available with descriptions.

The Herb Garden 

From the Hall windows can be seen the Company’s herb garden which is situated within the remains of Bastion 13 of the City Wall. Many of the City Livery Companies had gardens for recreation and to grow fruit and lowers, but ours is of particular interest as it also served an educational purpose. The plants grown were used in the treatment of wounds, bruises and burns and every qualified surgeon had to be familiar with them. The first specific mention of the growing of medicinal herbs by the Company occurs in 1597 when it was decided to make a plot of land available for the use of John Gerard, surgeon and herbalist, whose famous General History of Plants first appeared in the same year. He was Master in 1607. After the surgeons left the Company in 1745 the herb garden fell into disuse but it was restored in 1987 on its present site through the initiative of Past Master Sir Francis Avery Jones. Managed and maintained by the City Parks Department and Liveryman Dr Arthur Hollman, the garden contains a maximum of 45 different species.

The Entrance Hall again 

Turning again into the entrance hall, which is also used for exhibitions, we notice the Company’s arms in carved and painted wood mounted on the wall. It dates from about 1664 and formerly adorned the stern of the barge which the Company acquired in that year and kept until 1698. The possession of a barge to accompany the Lord Mayor to Westminster on Lord Mayor’s Day was a sign of a livery company’s status.  The painting by John Collier of Henry Serpell, Master in 1932, shows the latter in 1925 wearing his uniform of High Sheriff of Surrey. It is worth noting that this portrait was painted when the artist was 75, thirty years after the Wilkin portrait opposite. 

The Court Room

Exhibited in the passage to the Court Room are the Company’s armorial bearings from the bow of its barge.  As we enter the Court Room we notice the Master’s chair made from Cuban mahogany in about 1740. Above it is a surviving panel of stained glass from the Hall which was destroyed by enemy action in 1940. Other fragments of stained glass can be seen in the Entrance Hall. Among the paintings displayed is one by Sir Joshua Reynolds of John Paterson in his capacity as one of the commissioners of the new Blackfriars Bridge in 1776, the year that he was Master.  The more recent paintings of Sir John Chalstrey and Sir Lionel Denny record the latest members of the Company who have become Lord Mayor.

The Charter Room

As its name suggests, the Charter Room contains the Company’s royal charters dating from 1462, from which it acquired its legal authority, as well as its ordinances through which it regulated its internal affairs. Visitors should note the signature of Sir Thomas More on the 1530 ordinances.  As Lord Chancellor he authorised them, having ensured that they did not challenge the royal prerogative. A drawing of Philip and Mary embellishes the 1558 charter.   No new ordinances have been drawn up since 1708. The ancient ordinances are therefore still operative for such procedures as the election of the Master and Wardens.

The room also contains the Company’s library which includes books on London and London history, on other livery companies, and on anatomy and surgery before 1745. A library for freemen surgeons and their apprentices had been built up before 1745 but when the surgeons left the surviving barbers retained it and decided to dispose of it for the best price, which was £13 in 1749.