Founders' Hall

Founders' Hall
Middlesex
Type:	Livery hall
Location
Grid reference:	TQ31998175
Location:	51°31’9"N, 0°5’57"W
City:	London
History
Address:	Cloth Fair
	Built 1987
By:	Sam Lloyd
	Livery hall
Information
Owned by:	The Worshipful Company of Founders
Website:	Founders: The Hall

Founders Hall is the livery hall of the Worshipful Company of Founders, one of the livery companies of the City of London.

The founders historically were workers in brass and brass alloys or tinplate known as "Iatten" or "laton", producing small cast articles such as candlesticks and pots and pans. Their workshops were situated in and around Lothbury. John Stow wrote of them:

This street is possessed for the most part by Founders that cast candlesticks, chafing dishes, spice mortars, and such like copper or Laton works, and do afterwards turn them with the foot and not with the wheel, to make them smooth and bright with turning and scrating (as some do term it), making a loathsome noise to the by passers that have not been used to the like, and therefore by them disdainfully called Lothberie.

History

The Founders acquired their first hall in 1531, when 18 members of the Company joined together to buy two houses and a garden in Lothbury and proceeded to build a hall on a site that still bears the name of "Founders' Court". This first Hall was apparently completed in 1549 and brought in a welcome rent.

In 1666 the Great Fire of London destroyed Founders’ Hall. The Liverymen dug deep into their own pockets to build a new hall, of brick and stone. It became known for hosting meetings of dissenters and the Scottish Presbyterian Church in London.

In 1845 the Company built another Hall in Founders' Court. It was later, in 1921, leased to Brown Shipley and Company, Merchant Bankers, and sold freehold to the bank in 1964.

In 1964 the Founders' Company acquired freehold premises in St Swithin's Lane, but only occupied it in 1966.

From 1985 to 1987, the Founders’ Company built a new hall in a new location, at the east end of St. Bartholomew the Great in Cloth Fair. The new Founders’ Hall was designed by Sam Lloyd and the building much reflects the traditions so ably established by his grandfather, William Curtis Green (1875-1960), one of the leading Arts and Crafts house architects. The design rejects the modern movement and is finished in traditional materials in a manner that is in keeping with this historic part of the City. Founders' Hall was opened by the Lord Mayor, Sir David Rowe-Ham, in September 1987.

Outside links

• Founders: The Hall