The Haberdashers' Company follows the Mercers' Company (inc. 1394, also connected with clothing and previously haberdashery) in precedence, receiving its first Royal Charter in 1448 and holds records dating back to 1371. The formal name under which it is incorporated is The Master and Four Wardens of the Fraternity of the Art or Mystery of Haberdashers in the City of London. The company was originally responsible for the regulation of silk and velvet merchants.
The Company's first Hall was completed in 1458. The Hall was located on the corner of Staining Lane and Maiden Lane (now Gresham Street) and subsequently destroyed in the Great Fire of London in 1666.
The second Hall was built on the same site between 1667-71 and was designed by Edward Jerman (who had worked in the City with Sir Christopher Wren). This hall was periodically extended and improved and stood until 1940 when it burnt down after an air raid.
The third Hall was opened in June 1956 and integrated within a commercial office development.
In 1996 the offices were redeveloped and the Company moved to temporary offices in Bartholomew Close, EC1, while it acquired a new site in West Smithfield where the current Hall, designed by Michael Hopkins and Partners, was built and opened in 2002.
My ancestor, John Bankes, has a portrait
hanging in the new Haberdasher's Hall.
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