| Summary : A mainly 15th century building, damaged in the Great Fire and restored by Wren. This was the centre of civic government and the largest hall in England after the Great Hall at Westminster Abbey and the Archbishop's Palace at Canterbury. As such, several major trials were held here, including those of Archbishop Cranmer, Lady Jane Grey and Lord Gilbert Dudley in 1553. Although severely damaged in the Great Fire, the outer walls survived and were heightened by 20 feet and provided with glass above the cornice. It survived the air-raids of World War II although the roof needed replacing. The library was added in Basinghall street in 1870-2. Between 1660 and 1690 the building was used as a meeting house for the shareholders of the Royal Africa Company and The Zong Case (1783) was tried here. This incident, in which 133 slaves en route to Jamaica were thrown overboard in order to claim the insurance on them, was seen as a turning-point in the abolitionist struggle. This atrocity was later commemorated in Turners painting of The Slave Ship. |
More information : 1.[TQ 32528138] GUILD HALL [AT]
(3) THE GUILDHALL stands at the N. end of Guildhall Yard, 90 yards N. of Gresham Street. The main building is of one storey and an undercroft, the walls are externally of rubble with limestone-dressings and the interior of limestone-ashlar; the roofs are covered with slates. The present building dates from the early years of the 15th century. Fabyan's "Chronicles" (1411) state, "In this year also was the Guyldehall of London begun...." Stow writes, "Thomas Knowles Grocr, Maior, 1400 with his brethren the Aldermen began to new build the Guild Hall." It was some years in building, the Porch not being finished until 1425; the Kitchen-wing which stood to the N. of the W. end of the main hall was built in 1501. The Great Fire of 1666 greatly damaged the building and Sir Christopher Wren was probably entrusted with the restorations. Work then done included the raising of the side walls of the main hall about 20 ft. and the substitution
for the original open roof of a flat timber ceiling divided into panels by beams; in the raised walls was a clearstorey of round-headed windows.
The western half of the Crypt, which is supposed to have collapsed, was rebuilt with brick walls and barrel-vaulting within the original walls to carry the floor of the hall above, in place of the stone piers and medieval vaulting. In 1788 the original front of the S. Porch, with the alterations probably made by Wren, was pulled down and redesigned by George Dance, and the present roof to the main hall was put up in 1865 by Sir Horace Jones, who demolished the 17th-century flat ceiling and lowered the side walls to their former height. The building was restored in 1815 and again in 1909. This latter restoration included the cleaning of the E. Crypt, the removal of cement and whitewash off the walls of the main hall and entrance-porch, and the opening out of various doorways and windows which had been blocked during some of the previous alterations.
The Guildhall is still substantially an early 15th-century building and the Porch and East Crypt are noteworthy examples of the period. The Aldermen's Court Room has one of the richest plaster ceilings in London. (For further details see Inventory).(2) Grade I.(3)
Between 1660 and 1690 the building was used as a meeting house for the shareholders of the Royal Africa Company and The Zong Case (1783) was tried here. This incident, in which 133 slaves en route to Jamaica were thrown overboard in order to claim the insurance on them, was seen as a turning-point in the abolitionist struggle. This atrocity was later commemorated in Turners painting of The Slave Ship. (4) |