Barber-Surgeons' Hall

Barber-Surgeons' Hall
Middlesex
Barber-Surgeons' Hall
Type:	Livery hall
Location
Grid reference:	TQ32308162
Location:	51°31’5"N, 0°5’41"W
City:	London
History
Address:	Monkwell Square
For:	The Worshipful Company of Barber-Surgeons
	Livery hall
Information
Owned by:	The Worshipful Company of Barbers
Website:	http://www.barberscompany.org

Barber-Surgeons' Hall is the livery hall of the Worshipful Company of Barbers, one of the livery companies of the City of London, and which ranks 17th in City's order of precedence. Its compound name is a legacy of the former livery company; the Company of Barber-Surgeons. The barbers and the surgeons were separated in 1745.

The hall stands on Monkwell Square in the City.

History

Barber-Surgeons' Hall in 1830

The first mention of the Barbers' Company occurs in 1308, when Richard le Barbour was elected by the Court of Aldermen to keep order amongst his fellows. As barbers wielded razors with skill, they came to perform basic surgery too, though in 1368 a separate Fellowship of Surgeons was created. It merged with the Barbers' Company in 1540, forming the Company of Barbers and Surgeons. The traditional barber's pole of red and white, for blood and bandages, dates from this unity of the trades.

The Barbers' Hall was established in Monkwell Street in the 14th century.

After the licensing of dissection in 1540, public demonstrations took place four times a year in the Great Hall of Barber-Surgeons' Hall – with a crowd surrounding a table. Attendance was compulsory for all 'free' surgeons. The dissected corpses were buried in the churchyard of St Olave's, Silver Street. By 1568, the Court of Assistants of the Company ordered wooden raised seating to be erected in the Hall during anatomies. By the 17th century, travellers noted that the universities at Padua and Leiden possessed purpose-built anatomical theatres. Inigo Jones was commissioned to design and build one for the Surgeon-Barbers, but died (1652) before it was finished. The work was completed by John Webb in 1636.

The anatomy theatre was the only Company building to survive the Great Fire of London in 1666. The second Hall was designed by Edward Jarman, whose plan provided a courtyard, with the main part of the Hall on its west side again using bastion 13 of the Roman wall. The buildings remained substantially the same until 1784 when the anatomy theatre was demolished to make way for housing.

Rising professionalism amongst surgeons, transforming the surgeon from being a mere saw-bones, let in 1745 to the creation of a separate body, which would become the Royal College of Surgeons. The livery company has since reduced its name accordingly.

In 1869, economic constraint necessitated the leasing of the dining hall and kitchen areas for warehouse use, the Company retaining little more than an entrance lobby and Court room (which became the new dining hall) on the ground floor, and a staircase leading to a committee room and accommodation for the Beadle.

On the night of 24 August 1940 the hall and its environs were slightly damaged by a high explosive bomb (the first to fall on London in the Second World War). Then on the night of 29 December 1940, the Hall and surrounding area were almost totally destroyed by incendiary bombs which started fires that raged for three days.

On 13 May 1969 the current Hall was opened by Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother.

The Company today

Barber-Surgeons' Hall

The Company no longer retains an association with the hairdressing profession, and principally acts as a charitable institution for medical and surgical causes. In modern times, between one-third and one-half of the Company's liverymen are surgeons, dentists or other medical practitioners..

Outside links

("Wikimedia Commons" has material about Barber-Surgeons' Hall)

• The Worshipful Company of Barbers
• Barber Surgeons’ Hall Gardens, London Wall (Museum of London Archaeology Service) archeological survey March 1997

References

• Jackson, B. (1 May 2008). "Barber-Surgeons". Journal of Medical Biography 16 (2): 65–65. doi:10.1258/jmb.2008.007066. 
• Young, Sidney (1890). The annals of the barber-surgeons of London. London: Blades, East & Blades. https://archive.org/details/annalsofbarbersu00youn.