The Livery Newsletter and Gazette Issue 32 Spring 2020 | Page 27

the Cripplegate area was badly damaged. When the
Barbican Estate was reconstructed after the war, that
part of Whitecross Street was swallowed up by new
construction and the short section between Silk Street
and Chiswell Street/Beech Street became part of Silk
Street. The only section remaining is that part which
runs north from Milk Street, including the famous
Whitecross Street market.
While we are fortunate today to meet and dine in
rather grander surroundings than taverns in side
alleys, our Smoking Club continues the Tobacco Pipe
Makers’ tradition of gathering together several times a
year in some of the less formal but no less interesting
places around the endlessly fascinating City of
London!
Jacqueline Burrows,
Honorary Archivist
In 1864, a newspaper article about the history of the
company (then 78th on the list) noted that “they
formerly transacted their business at Curriers’ Hall,
but now they meet at the Guildhall”. Between
1485 and 1921 the Curriers’ Company occupied six
different halls. This article probably referred to a hall
dating from 1820 which stood in [Blue] Boar’s Head
Alley on the south side of London Wall. In 1921
the Curriers sold their hall and moved in with the
Cordwainers, but the Blitz destroyed the Cordwainers’
Hall in 1941. Since 1942 the Curriers have been
housed at Tallow Chandlers’ Hall. A memorial plaque
to the various Curriers’ Halls can be seen today in St
Alphege Garden, just off Wood Street, EC1.
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