The Public Buildings In This Ward Are, Guildhall, Mercers' Chapel
And Hall, Grocers' Hall, The Poultry Compter, The Churches Of St.
Mildred, Poultry, And St. Lawrence Jewry.
Guildhall, the town house of this great City, stands at the north
end of King Street, and is a large handsome structure, built with
stone, anno 1666, the old hall having been destroyed by the Fire in
1666.
By a large portico on the south side we enter the principal
room, properly called the hall, being 153 feet in length, 48 in
breadth, and 55 in height. On the right hand, at the upper end, is
the ancient court of the hustings; at the other end of the hall
opposite to it are the Sheriff's Courts. The roof of the inside is
flat, divided into panels; the walls on the north and south sides
adorned with four demy pillars of the Gothic order, painted white,
and veined with blue, the capitals gilt with gold, and the arms
finely depicted in their proper colour, viz., at the east the arms
of St. Edward the Confessor, and of the Kings of England the shield
and cross of St. George. At the west end the arms of the Confessor,
those of England and France quarterly, and the arms of England. On
the fourteen demy pillars (above the capital) are the king's arms,
the arms of London, and the arms of the twelve companies. At the
east end are the King's arms carved between the portraits of the
late Queen, at the foot of an arabathram, under a rich canopy
northward, and those of King William and Queen Mary southward,
painted at full length. The inter-columns are painted in imitation
of porphyry, and embellished with the portraitures, painted in full
proportion, of eighteen judges, which were there put up by the City,
in gratitude for their signal service done in determining
differences between landlord and tenant (without the expense of
lawsuits) in rebuilding this City, pursuant to an Act of Parliament,
after the Fire, in 1666.
Those on the south side are, Sir Heneage Finch, Sir Orlando
Bridgeman, Sir Matthew Hale, Sir Richard Rainsford, Sir Edward
Turner, Sir Thomas Tyrrel, Sir John Archer, Sir William Morton.
On the north side are, Sir Robert Atkins, Sir John Vaughan, Sir
Francis North, Sir Thomas Twisden, Sir Christopher Turner, Sir
William Wild, Sir Hugh Windham.
At the west end, Sir William Ellis, Sir Edward Thurland, Sir Timothy
Littleton.
And in the Lord Mayor's Court (which is adorned with fleak stone and
other painting and gilding, and also the figures of the four
cardinal virtues) are the portraits of Sir Samuel Brown, Sir John
Kelynge, Sir Edward Atkins, and Sir William Windham, all (as those
above) painted in full proportion in their scarlet robes as judges.
The late Queen Anne, in December, 1706, gave the City 26 standards,
and 63 colours, to be put up in this hall, that were taken from the
French and Bavarians at the battle of Ramillies the preceding
summer; but there was found room only for 46 colours, 19 standards,
and the trophy of a kettle-drum of the Elector of Bavaria's. The
colours over the Queen's picture are most esteemed, on account of
their being taken from the first battalion of French guards.
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