A Brief History

On the 9th of May 1345, twenty-two members of the ancient Guild of Pepperers founded a fraternity which, in 1376, became The Company of Grocers of London. The Pepperers' Guild is first recorded in 1180, but it is probable that it had connections with important London moneyers who, in around 1100, had built what later became the Guild Church of St. Antonin. The dedication came from Spain and may link the moneyers with imports of gold, as well as with Mediterranean goods and spices.

The Fraternity was entrusted with the duty of garbling, or preventing the adulteration of spices and drugs, as well as with the charge of the King's Beam, which weighed all merchandise sold by the Aver-de-Poys weight or the peso grosso. The Company probably derives its name from the Latin, grossarius, one who buys and sells in the gross, in other words a wholesale merchant: since its earliest days the members were wholesale dealers in spices and foreign produce.

A famous member of the Fraternity, Nicholas Brembre, and his friend John Philpot, were knighted by Richard II for services in the Wat Tyler riot. Philpot rendered further service to the trade of the country by fitting out a fleet and ridding the North Sea and Channel of pirates.

The site on which Grocers’ Hall now stands was acquired in 1427, and in the following year, when the original Hall was completed, the first Charter was granted.

In the Wars of the Roses, the City took the Yorkist side, and two Grocers, John Young and John Crosby, were knighted by Edward IV for services in the field.
The Company can claim a share in the work of the Reformation: Richard Grafton, a member, printed the Great Bible - the first English translation placed in Churches by the King's Order - and the two Prayer Books of Edward VI. The Company also played a part in the Restoration of Charles II by entertaining General Monck at a banquet at Grocers' Hall, and conferring upon him the Freedom of the City and the Company. Moreover, the Lord Mayor, Sir Thomas Alleyn, who welcomed the King on his return, was a member of the Company.

The Great Fire in 1666 nearly ruined the Company, destroying not only its Hall, but its property in the City. The generosity of some of its members, notably Sir John Moore and Sir John Cutler, permitted the renovation of the Hall. The Hall was then let as a residence for the Lord Mayor.

King Charles II honoured the Company by being enrolled as a member, and in 1689 William III conferred a more signal distinction upon it by accepting the office of Sovereign Master.

The second Hall was leased in 1694 to the newly-formed Bank of England, of which Sir John Houblon, a Grocer, was the first Governor. The bank remained as tenants for forty years, by which time the Company had recovered its prosperity.

For nearly a century, as confidence returned and its affairs improved, the history of the Company was generally uneventful. However, in supporting William Pitt in 1784 and by entertaining him at the Hall when the Freedom of the City and the Company were conferred upon him, the Company can claim to have contributed to Pitt’s success during the crisis in his career.

The second Hall was replaced by a third, completed in 1802, which in turn was superseded in 1887 when the Court of Assistants decided it would be economically advantageous for the site to be cleared and a new Hall to be built in its place. This was completed in 1893 and was one of the few Livery Halls to survive the Second World War, although it suffered minor damages to the North Wing, later restored in 1957.

The Fifth Hall and its Contents

The fourth Hall was almost completely destroyed by fire during the night of the 22nd of September, 1965. The fire was described as the largest in the City since the Blitz. Forensic experts from Scotland Yard traced the source to a cupboard under the grand staircase where it is possible that a light bulb was inadvertently left on just below an oak lintel which smouldered and eventually burst into flames. The Hall contained a great deal of panelling and the fire spread rapidly destroying most of the building and many irreplaceable items. As with the Great Fire of London, the muniments miraculously escaped and are now housed in the Guildhall on indefinite loan. They include the first Minute Book of the Company, commenced on the 9th May 1345. The greatest loss was the Company's Charters, which were on display on the first floor landing.

The contents of the Plate Room escaped undamaged, as did the Walter Hale collection of early English glass housed in the Library. Other losses included the Gainsborough portrait of Mark Beaufoy, the Kneller portrait of William III showing the mounted monarch leading his troops at the Battle of the Boyne, the Hoppner portrait of William Pitt the Younger (Honorary Freeman, 1784) and the Winterhalter portrait of the young Queen Victoria. The bronze bust of Winston Churchill by David McFall and the bust of F.W. Sanderson - the great headmaster of Oundle - by Edward Lacey had totally melted, but the casts for both were still available and the busts have been replaced. Most of the furniture was destroyed, although the badly charred Master's Chair was restored. The chandeliers in the Livery Hall and Court Room had melted and there was no trace of the three hundred Livery Hall chairs or tabling.

The Court decided to build a new Hall on the site it has occupied since 1427. The fifth Hall, capable of dining some 150 people, was opened in November, 1970. Beard Bennett & Wilkins were the architects and the interior decoration was entrusted to Colefax and Fowler Ltd.

Visitors to the Hall will see what is possibly the oldest bell in the City from the Church of All Hallows, Staining Lane, dated 1458. Badly cracked in the fire, it was re-welded and restored at the Whitechapel Bell Foundry. The Entrance Hall contains a fine portrait of Queen Charlotte by Allan Ramsay, and the Queen Anne mirror was purchased in 1968. The Reception Room is dominated by three tapestries designed by John Piper and produced by Pinton Frères in Fellitin, near Aubusson in France. The tapestries depict in brilliant colours the many spices and foreign food in which the wholesale traders and early members of the Company dealt, en gros. The "Piper Room" was refurbished in the summer of 2001, the main purpose being to rehang the tapestries as a triptych as intended by John Piper. At the same time the period pieces and the busts of Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother, Earl Alexander of Tunis, Sir Winston Churchill and F.W. Sanderson (former Headmaster of Oundle School) were removed from the room and located elsewhere in the Hall.