Fishmongers' Hall was the first of forty Livery Halls to be destroyed by the Great Fire of London, which broke out in the early hours of Sunday, 2nd September, 1666, at a bakery in Pudding Lane.

Thanks to the unique position of the Hall, John Lee, the Clerk, aided by Thomas Tanner and a Lighterman named William Dawkes were able to save the most important documents, the iron money chest and the Company silver , which were conveyed away by water. Tanner, who later succeeded Lee as Clerk, was granted an extra gratuity of £30.00 "for his service in the tyme of the late dreadfull fire." Dawkes received forty shillings. Out of destruction came a chance to enlarge the site. It was considered that premises next door, downstream, which were acquired in the sixteenth century, could be combined with the existing site to give more room for a Hall beside the river and for tenants beside the street. London Bridge was still over 50 yards away.

After the Fire the Government considered legislation for a Thames Quay along the entire shore of the City, separating buildings like the Hall from their wharves by a public way. At first the Company, being used to its private door to the river, ignored such interference and planned to build close to the water. But the first stage of the Hall, begun in 1668 when money was short, included only the parts away from the river.

At that stage Edward Jerman, who was the Company's Surveyor from 1654 until his death in 1668, supervised the erection, around three sides of a courtyard, of parlour, courtroom, Clerk's office, and kitchens.

Jerman was very busy elsewhere in the City building the Royal Exchange and other livery halls, and with his work as one of the City Surveyors. Such views as we have of buildings completed by him show a skilful old-fashioned style of artistic design. When he died in November 1668, the ground for a riverside block was not yet cleared of the old storage vaults.

The riverbank was staked out for new building several months later, after a young master-carpenter, Thomas Lock, had been put in charge. Both Lock and the mason-carver, Edward Peirce, had recently worked on one of the first post-Restoration modern houses, Horseheath Hall in Cambridgeshire: they were more up to date than Jerman had been. By May 1669, foundations were begun for the Fishmongers' riverside dining hall which was to be keyed into the parts already built.

THE POST-FIRE HALL (1667-1827) CONTINUED

Current as at August 09, 2003