The Banqueting Hall, set up for a lecture. The stained glass window was reinstated in the 1990s after war damage.
Fishmongers’ Hall, home of the Worshipful Company of Fishmongers, stands tight against the north-west corner of London Bridge, and the fortunes of the building and the previous bridge were closely intertwined.
The Fishmongers’ Company is one of 109 livery companies in the City of London, and was originally a medieval guild that regulated the sale and quality of fish and seafood. With a succession of Royal Charters given after 1272, the Worshipful Company of Fishmongers seems to have had a monopoly on the control of sale of fish in London until the fifteenth century.
The Banqueting Hall, set up for a lecture. The stained glass window was reinstated in the 1990s after war damage.
Its most celebrated member was Sir William Walworth, a Prime Warden of the Fishmongers’ Company, who also served as Lord Mayor of the City of London. During his second term as Lord Mayor he is credited with doing much to quell the Peasants’ Revolt of 1381 by stabbing the leader Wat Tyler, who seemed to be threatening the life of the boy King Richard II during a meeting at Smithfield. A dagger displayed at Fishmongers’ Hall, long reputed to have been used by Walworth, is now acknowledged to be of a much later date.
A Fishmongers’ Hall was first recorded in 1310, but the first in the City of London stood on the present site in 1434. That hall, along with forty-three other guildhalls, was destroyed in the Great Fire of 1666. A new building, designed by Edward Jerman, was completed in 1671. This seems to have been an elegant building personally approved by Sir Christopher Wren. It allowed for a narrow public pathway between the Hall and the river, but suffered from dry rot because of poor foundations near to the tidal Thames. The company may actually have welcomed the idea that it be demolished, when, in 1827, a 20 ft (7 m) wide strip of its property was requisitioned in order to rebuild London Bridge.
Part of the vaulted entrance to the building facing the river is original, beyond which the Thames Path now crosses. Inside stand statues of a fisherman and a fishwife by sculptor Alfred Turner, installed in 1902.
Designed by Henry Roberts, with George Gilbert Scott his assistant, and built by William Cubitt & Company, the new building was a two-storeyed hall of Portland stone in a classical Greek style on top of a base in the style of a Roman aqueduct. The base was faced with the same Devon granite as the new bridge. The design of its riverside terrace was influenced by the that of the newly completed Somerset House upriver.
The Fishmongers are ranked at number four in the league of the twelve top City livery companies in order of precedence. Unlike those companies that have effectively become charitable organizations and education trusts, the Fishmongers retain a strong connection with their trade. If the Fishmongers no longer operate with quite the absolute authority that King James I gave the company, the staff – known as fishmeters – retain the power to inspect seafood imported into Billingsgate Market. The company’s inspectors have powers under the Food Safety Act enabling them to take action within Billingsgate should hygiene regulations be contravened.
Additionally, the company has statutory powers under legislation that includes the Salmon and Freshwater Fisheries Act, the Fisheries (Oyster, Crab, and Lobster) Act and the Sea Fishing Industry Act. The company formed the Salmon and Trout Association, and in 1967 launched the Atlantic Salmon Research Trust. The shellfish industry is also represented by the company.
Fishmongers’ Hall has generally thrived, although it has suffered some setbacks. From the start of the First World War the first floor became a hospital, and the Royal Red Cross Hospital for Officers treated more than 800 men until closure in 1917. In 1925, Adelaide House, then the tallest office block in the City at eleven storeys, sprang up close by in King William Street, and rather stole the Hall’s light from that side. In an air raid during September 1940, Fishmongers’ Hall suffered heavy damage, but was largely rebuilt by 1954. Its position just on the upstream side of London Bridge is probably fortuitous, because the bridge was the limit of navigation for most ships and protected it from rough contact with large vessels that frequented the Upper Pool. Smaller craft used the private wharf at Fishmongers, and for years the company leased space to commercial tenants, having two levels of basement warehousing. This has long been converted into offices – the upper warehouse having a brick barrel-vaulted construction and a timber floor. The latest London Bridge was completed in 1973 and does not seem to have done Fishmongers’ Hall great harm, although there was some encroachment as the bridge was double the width of its predecessor and built on the same centreline. Fishmongers’ Hall is not open to casual visitors, but it is possible to join a booked tour at certain times of year.
The short corridor known as Fish Passage shows the brighter style of decoration that was introduced in the 1920s.