Inside Stationers’ Hall: living Livery history
- London On The Ground
- 19 hours ago
- 6 min read
A 17th century City of London Livery Hall for a 600 year old company around the corner from St Paul’s Cathedral.
Tucked away in a small courtyard off Ave Maria Lane near St Paul’s Cathedral, Stationers' Hall has stood on the same site since 1606. It is one of those locations, where time appears to stand still, that are hidden away across the City of London.
The Stationers are among the 39 City of London Livery Companies that have their own Livery Hall, used for dinners, receptions and other formal occasions. Stationers’ Hall is one of the oldest and most impressive of these halls and one of only a few to pre-date World War II.
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The Stationers' Company (or the Worshipful Company of Stationers & Newspaper Makers, to use its full current name) is one of the 114 Livery Companies of the City of London.
Growing from medieval trade guilds, Livery Companies were often granted monopolies in their trade or craft. They regulated product standards, trained apprentices and cared for widows and orphans, the sick and elderly. Today, they are active in charitable works and still play a part in City of London governance.
For more on the City Livery Companies, please read London's livery lampposts: The Great Twelve at the Royal Exchange.
The Stationers' Guild was formed in 1403 as a merger between the scriveners and booksellers, who manually copied and sold books and writing materials, and the limners, who decorated and illustrated books.
St Paul’s Churchyard was the main location for booksellers, mainly because there was only a small market of literate people, among whom the clergy were a significant proportion.
Rather than sell from trays and barrows in the same way as many other tradesmen, booksellers were allowed to establish permanent stalls or stations, hence the name 'stationers'. They sold stationery goods from stationary stalls.
Not long after the invention of the printing press, printers were admitted to the Company at the start of the 16th century. Printers had more or less ousted the manuscript trade by the middle of that century.
In 1557 the Stationers gained Livery Company status through a Royal Charter from Queen Mary and were also granted a coat of arms. The Charter gave the Stationers a monopoly on the sale and production of books.
Mary was seeking to regulate the book trade in order to prevent the spread of anti-Catholic publications. Members’ rights to printed works were recorded in the Stationers' Register. The Stationers were empowered to seek out and destroy copies of unregistered works.
The Charter was confirmed when Elizabeth I took the throne soon after, but now it was motivated more by the suppression of the Catholic faith.
The term ‘copyright’ has its origins in the Stationers' Register, which detailed who had the right to copy and sell each title. At that time it was printers/publishers and booksellers, rather than authors, who held the rights. Authors only started to gain copyright in 1710 and the Stationers’ Register lasted until 1923.
In 1610, only four years after the Company moved to its current location, scholars met at Stationers’ Hall to finalise the King James Bible, after translating the original text into English. It became one of the most influential books in the English language.
Unfortunately, the book’s printer, Robert Barker, later lost his job and was heavily fined after missing a catastrophic typo in one of the Ten Commandments. The 1631 edition of the Bible included the words, “Thou shalt commit adultery”. Barker died in debtors’ prison in 1645.
The two senior members of the syndicate that produced and sold Shakespeare’s First Folio (the first collection of his plays), bookseller Edward Blount and printer Isaac Jaggard, went to Stationers' Hall on 8 November 1623 to record in the Register their rights to 16 plays they did not already own.
The original hall was destroyed in the Great Fire of 1666, during which the Clerk, George Tokefield, is credited with saving the company’s records and taking them to his house in Clerkenwell.
In some ways, the Great Fire did the company a favour, as the old hall had become unfit for use. The current hall opened in 1673, with wooden panelling completed the following year (by Stephen Colledge, a staunch Protestant, who later became the last man to be executed for printing treason after campaigning against the succession to the throne of James II, on the grounds that he was a Catholic).
Remodelling of the frontage and the Court Room and Stock Room took place in the 18th and 19th centuries. Some restoration was required after the hall suffered damage during World War II.
The Court Room is where the company’s Court of Assistants (its elected officials) meets. The Stock Room is named after The English Stock, a very successful company owned by members of the Stationers that exploited its monopoly over publications including almanacs, prayer books and primers - for profit and to support poorer members - from 1603 to 1961.
Below are some of my photographs of Stationers’ Hall, taken during London Open House in September 2023.
Livery Companies are always proud of any of their members that serve as Lord Mayor of the City of London. Below are my photos of portraits of two of them.
Vincent Keaveny, the first Irish citizen in the role, was Lord Mayor in 2021-22 (and presented my class with our City Guide badges at Mansion House in 2021).
Sir John Boydell, Lord Mayor in 1790-91, was an influential engraver, printer and publisher, whose art collection formed the basis for the Guildhall Art Gallery and whose advocacy of the public patronage of the arts led to the founding of the National Gallery in 1824.
Stationers’ Hall has an impressive display of stained glass windows, which commemorate many aspects of the history of the company and of books and printing. A few of them are shown in the photos below (see my post Secular stained glass: ten of London's best for more stained glass windows).
The Caxton Window was a gift of Joshua Butterworth, the company’s Master in 1894. It portrays William Caxton, the first Englishman to set up a printing press in 1473, presenting his work to the King, Edward IV, and the Queen. His apprentice, Wynkyn de Worde, shown at the bottom left, succeeded Caxton in c.1500 and moved the press to Fleet Street, just down the road from where the Stationers were to build their hall.
The Stationers’ Company has a long and rich history, in which it has played a central role in the development of the printing and publishing sector in the UK.
Although it no longer enjoys a monopoly, it still draws much of its membership from the communications and content industries. It supports education, training and charities, mainly with a connection to its historic areas of activity.
Stationers’ Hall offers periodic public tours and private group tours can also be arranged. Details of tours are on the Stationers’ Company website.
Walks available for booking
For a schedule of forthcoming London On The Ground guided walks and tours, please click here.
Splendid article. Great read and fascinating images.
Wonderful post. I particularly love the Julian Bell painting which I’ve not seen before!