Daily entries from the 17th century London diary
If you would like to write a summary for this topic, email phil [at] gyford [dot] com
Wikipedia
The Worshipful Company of Leathersellers is one of the Livery Companies of the City of London. The organisation originated in the latter part of the fourteenth century and received a Royal Charter in 1444. The Company, which originally regulated leather merchants, continues to act as an advocate for the UK leather trade, though it is now primarily a philanthropic organisation active in many charitable and educational fields.
The Leathersellers' Company ranks fifteenth in the order of precedence of Livery Companies. The Company's motto is Soli Deo Honor et Gloria, Latin for Honour and Glory to God Alone.
The Company is very closely linked with the Leathersellers' Federation of Schools (formerly Prendergast School), now comprising Prendergast Hilly Fields College, Prendergast Ladywell Fields College and Prendergast Vale College, all located in the London Borough of Lewisham. Since the mid-seventeenth century the Company has also been closely linked with Colfe's School, today an independent co-educational school located in Lee, near Lewisham, London. In addition the Company supports and maintains its longstanding connection with the Institute for Creative Leather Technologies (now a part of the University of Northampton), the successor of the College which the Company founded in Bermondsey in 1909 as Leathersellers' Technical College. The Company continues to support higher education through exhibitions (grants) to university students, a practice which began in 1603 when four 'poor scholars', two at Oxford and two at Cambridge, were awarded five guineas each per annum. Today around 100 students receive exhibitions which enable them to study at various universities.
The Company is affiliated with the Royal Navy's submarine HMS Tireless and with 1st The Queen's Dragoon Guards. Like many other Livery Companies, it has a long tradition of maintaining almshouses. The first almshouses run by the Company were built in 1543-44, close to Leathersellers' Hall on a site behind St Ethelburga's Bishopsgate church, and housed seven elderly people. In 1837 the Company also built almshouses at Barnet in north London. These were extended in the mid-nineteenth century. In 1866 it was decided to close the almshouses in the City and remove the residents from there to join those already at Barnet. The Company still maintains almshouses at Barnet, now known as Leathersellers' Close, home to about 20 residents.
The Company has had six Halls since its foundation, and is currently in temporary accommodation in Garlick Hill while its seventh Hall is being constructed. The first was on London Wall but in 1543 the Company acquired the former Benedictine convent of St Helen, off Bishopsgate, and the subsequent Halls have all been on that site, now called St Helen's Place. The fifth Hall was destroyed in May 1941 during the London blitz. The sixth Hall was officially opened in 1960 and was demolished in 2011, though the facade of the building has been retained. A new, seventh Hall is being built in St Helen's Place to designs by Eric Parry R.A. and is expected to be completed by 2015.
[edit] External links
Annotations
-
“The Leathersellers’ Company has owned six Halls, the first of which was sited on London Wall near Moorgate, an area long associated with the leather trade. It was in use from around 1476 until 1543 when the Company bought the former priory of St Helen on Bishopsgate. The old priory buildings were converted into a Hall, but they were increasingly expensive to maintain and so in 1799 the site was cleared and the first St Helen’s Place laid out….” http://www.leathersellers.co.uk/simple.cfm?CFID=4021662&CFTOKEN=68322321&page_id=62
-
The Leathersellers’ Company’s Hall appear not to be on the 1746 map, but St. Helen’s Church’s property on Bishopsgate extends NNE from near the upper left-hand corner of this segment of that map. http://www.motco.com/map/81002/SeriesSearchPlatesFullb.asp?mode=query&artist=384&other=321&x=11&y=11
-
On John Stow’s map, it be off Bishopgate street on Priory site of St Helen , from Elizabeths London Liza Picard.
-
“The Leathersellers’ Company is one of the ancient Livery Companies of the City of London, ranked fifteenth in the order of precedence. It was founded by royal charter in 1444 with authority to control the sale of leather within the City. The Company no longer has this regulatory role, and instead devotes its energies to support for charity, education and the British leather trade.
The Leathersellers’ Company is made up of 150 liverymen and a variable number of freemen.” http://www.leathersellers.co.uk/