Livery Company - Livery Halls

Livery Halls

See also: Mottos and halls of the Livery Companies

Many companies still operate a livery hall where members and their guests can be entertained and company business transacted. Among the earliest companies known to have had halls are the Merchant Taylors and Goldsmiths in the 14th century, but neither theirs nor any other companies' original halls remain; whatever few survived the Great Fire of London were destroyed in the Blitz of the Second World War.

Today, only some 40 companies have halls in London, which are commonly available for business and social functions, such as commercial and society meetings and dinners. The oldest hall now extant is that of the Worshipful Society of Apothecaries, dating from 1672. Companies that do not have their own hall usually rent another's for social occasions, or share premises on a semi-permanent basis, such as the Spectacle Makers' Company, which uses part of Apothecaries' Hall, and the Shipwrights, which co-habit with the Ironmongers. Three livery companies (the Glaziers and Painters of Glass, Launderers, and Scientific Instrument Makers) have their halls in Southwark, just south of but outside the City of London, while the Worshipful Company of Gunmakers is based at Proof House, in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets.