Farmers' and Fletchers' Hall

Farmers' and Fletchers' Hall
Middlesex
Farmers' and Fletchers' Hall
Type:	Livery hall
Location
Grid reference:	TQ32068179
Location:	51°31’11"N, 0°5’53"W
City:	London
History
Address:	3 Cloth Street
	Built 1986-1987
For:	The Farmers' Company and The Fletchers' Company
	Livery hall
	Red-brick
Information

Farmers' and Fletchers' Hall is a modern building at 3 Cloth Street in the City of London, which serves as the livery hall of two livery companies of the City; the Worshipful Company of Fletchers and the Worshipful Company of Farmers. It is externally neat if unremarkable though its interior design has been much praised. The ceremonial great hall itself is in the basement.

The hall was built in 1986-1987 and was the first entirely new Livery Hall to be built on a new site in the City of London for some 200 years, as other companies had built after the Blitz on the sites of preceding halls.

History

The Fletchers' Company is recorded as having hall on the east side of St Mary Axe in the reign of King Henry VIII and it occupied several halls on that site during its history, but these properties appear to have been let out from the middle of the eighteenth century to provide an income.

Only in 1978 did the Company formally resolve to acquire a livery hall, and in 1983 a site was identified and an agreement made with the Farmers’ Company, which also wished to acquire a hall, to share.

The foundation stone for the new 'Farmers' and Fletchers' Hall' was laid on 4 April 1986 and it was officially opened on 9 June 1987 by The Princess Royal. The hall underwent extensive development and refurbishment from 2013 to 2015.

The companies

The Fletchers' Company is an ancient livery company, founded at some time before 1371, when the Company first appears in the records. Its members were concerned originally with making arrows, which was an important craft in the Middle Ages. The invention of the musket eventually rendered arrow-making unimportant in London, but the company remains, dedicated primarily to charitable endeavours. It has military affiliations, as one of the five 'warrior' livery companies. It also actively promotes archery as a sport.

By the time of Henry VIII the Fletchers' Company had a hall in St Mary Axe.

The Farmers' Company is a modern livery company, founded in 1946 and born out of the wartime work of the Chairman's Committee of the British Red Cross Agricultural Fund, which was set up during the Second World War to raise funds for the war effort. It was granted livery in 1952 and a royal charter in 1955. There is no farming done in the City of London, but farmers trade to the City, and it has an active role in education and the promotion of an understanding of agriculture.

Outside links

• The Worshipful Company of Fletchers
• The Worshipful Company of Farmers

References

• Thanks to the Clerk to Fletchers' Company