The Livery Newsletter and Gazette Issue 32 Spring 2020 | Page 26

Halls and Taverns: the historic meeting places of The Worshipful Company of Tobacco Pipe Makers Since the Company’s revival in the 1950s, our Court meetings and dinners have taken place in the beautiful and historic surroundings of various City Livery Halls. However, in previous centuries our peripatetic forebears met in more down-to-earth surroundings – the inns, taverns and alehouses tucked away in the myriad ancient alleys and side streets that made up the City of London before the Blitz. August 1807 saw a Special Court taking place in the Castle Tavern, Cateaton Street to decide what to do about a new manufactory being set up by pipe-makers who were not Company Freemen. Cateaton Street (or Catte Street) no longer exists, but if you stand on Gresham Street just outside St Lawrence Jewry you can imagine its original route. In 1845, Gresham Street was created by widening and amalgamating Cateaton Street, Maiden Lane, St. Anne’s Lane and Lad Lane. Cateaon Street was that part of Gresham Street which now extends east from Ironmonger Lane, past St. Lawrence Jewry, to Milk Street. Its name is retained in the Cateaton Meeting Room, for hire at 85 Gresham Street. As to the Castle Tavern, next time you visit St Lawrence Jewry, pause for a moment on the west corner of King Street where it meets Gresham Street and look up. Mounted on the wall you’ll see a stone sign for the Castle Tavern. certainly not far from its original location, a reminder of London past and past meetings of our Livery Company. 2 October 1809 saw the Company meeting at the Edinburgh Tavern, Sweeting’s Alley, Cornhill, discussing an “unnecessary and improper conspiracy” amongst Master Pipe Makers to increase prices by 25 per cent, risking damage to the trade of many licensed victuallers in the City. Swithin’s or Sweeting’s Alley / Sweeting’s Rents was situated at the east end of the Royal Exchange. In 1760, an Edinburgh Coffee House is recorded in Sweeting’s Alley. This probably became the Edinburgh Tavern, which was still in existence at 1 Sweeting’s Rents in 1832 but had disappeared by 1840, swept away with the rest of Sweeting’s Alley to make way for the new Royal Exchange Buildings which opened in 1844. The site is now covered by the paved area of Exchange Buildings leading to Threadneedle Street. Such signs, made in stone or wood, were a common sight in the City until early Victorian times. Many are now stored in the Museum of London and put out occasionally during a temporary display. This sign is 26 On 19 January 1819, the Company met at the Peacock Tavern at 34 Lower Whitecross Street, Cripplegate to agree the price of pipes following a wage rise for Journeymen. At that time, Whitecross Street ran from Old Street in the north to Cripplegate in the south. The Peacock brewhouse dated from at least 1550 and the Peacock tavern (the brewery tap) had been called a “House of Humming Stingo” by Ned Ward in his famous London pub guide of 1718. It moved to 12 Whitecross Street during the latter part of the 19th century but was destroyed during the Blitz when