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, enabled the Hall to be rebuilt and let as a residence for the Lord Mayor.

Charles II honoured the Company by allowing his name to be enrolled as a member, and in 1689 William III conferred upon it the unique honour of accepting the office of Sovereign Master.

In 1694, the second Hall was leased to the newly formed Bank of England, of which Sir John Houblon, a Grocer, was the first Governor, and they remained as tenants for 40 years, by the end of 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, 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 his success at the crisis of his career.

The second Hall was replaced by a third, completed in 1802, which in turn was superseded in 1887 when the whole site was cleared and a new Hall built. The fourth Hall was completed in 1893 and was one of the few Livery Halls of the City to Survive the 1939-45. Unfortunately it was almost completely destroyed by fire on the night of 22nd September, 1965. The fire, described as the largest in the City since the Blitz, was traced to an electrical fault under the grand staircase. The old Hall contained a great deal of panelling and the fire spread rapidly destroying not only most of the building but many of its irreplaceable contents. As at the time of 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 that of the Company’s Charters which were on display within the Hall.

The Court decided to build a new Hall on the same site incorporating part of the surviving facade. The fifth Hall (the architects of which were Beard, Barrett and Wilkins, the interior decoration being designed by Colefax and Fowler) was re-opened in 1970.