During the ensuing four centuries the company built no less than six Curriers' halls in London.[6] After the sale of its sixth and last hall in 1921 it moved in with its longstanding trade and livery partner, the Worshipful Company of Cordwainers, with which it maintains a close relationship. Along with many other livery halls, Cordwainers' Hall in Cannon Street was itself destroyed by enemy action in 1941 and since then the Curriers have been without their own hall. However, from 1942 onwards the company has been housed at Tallow Chandlers' Hall, where it holds its Court meetings. Historically several streets in the now London Borough of Camden's environs were named after the currying trade, eg. Curriers' Alley, Curriers' Lane, etc.[7]
Charitable activity
The Curriers' Company donates to charities which benefit the young, the elderly, the disabled and the socially disadvantaged. It primarily supports City of London charities and cultural organisations, general educational establishments and the training of young people in leathercraft.
The educational institutions which it regularly assists financially include: the London College of Fashion; Capel Manor CollegeEnfield and Northampton University's Leather Conservation Centre;[8] these foster the conservation, creation and restoration of leather objects and materials.
In 2000 the Curriers' Millennium Healthcare Bursary was established.[9] This annual bursary endows research or personal study to improve the health care of underprivileged sectors of London's population or elsewhere. Though originally directed towards general practitioners, the scope of the bursary was widened in 2003, since when it has also attracted submissions from dentists, pharmacists, nurses, midwives, mental health workers and an ophthalmologist.
Annually, each newly elected Master Currier has the option of designating a charity of choice: Master's Charitable Appeal. The Master and Company make initial donations: liverymen, freemen and others are invited to follow suit. The Company encourages any enterprise which supports its charitable giving.
(2) Circa 1583 the Curriers' Hall was situated close to the site of the Boar's Head Inn, on a property which had been devised to the company in 1516. It stood in the parish of St Alphege, on the south side of the street leading along London Wall; Boar's Head Alley lay between Philip Lane and Little Wood Street. Curriers' Hall was one of the 44 (out of 52) livery halls destroyed in the Great Fire of London early in September 1666.
(3) Curriers' Hall in 1670 was perhaps the most attractive of the company's five halls on the Boar's Head site.
(4) In 1820 a new and smaller hall was rebuilt to the east of the old one.
(5) The Curriers' Hall begun in 1873 and completed in the following year extravagantly was demolished in 1875 before it could even be furnished.
(6) Between 1874 and 1876 a new Curriers' Hall was built in the French Gothic style.[17] It abutted on London Wall. It was sold in 1921 and destroyed by enemy action on 29 December 1940.
Arms
The arms of the Curriers' Company are blazoned:-
Arms: Azure a Cross engrailed Or between four pairs of Shaves in saltire Argent handled Or.
Crest: Upon a Wreath Or and Azure out of Clouds Proper two Arms embowed in carnation the shirt sleeves folded beneath the elbows Argent in the hands a Shave Argent handled Or.
Supporters: Dexter, an Elk Proper attired and unguled Or; Sinister, a Goat Argent flashed Sable.
Caroline M. Barron, "The Parish Fraternities of Medieval London", in C.M. Barron and C. Harper-Bill (ed.), The Church in Pre-Reformation Society, 1985, pp. 13–37.
Caroline M. Barron, London in the Later Middle Ages: Government and People, 1200–1500, 2005.
John Bromley and Heather Child, The Armorial Bearings of the Guilds of London, 1960.
D.A. Farnie, John Rylands of Manchester, 1993.
Ian Gibson, The Erotomaniac: The Secret Life of Henry Spencer Ashbee, 2001.
Edward Mayer, The Curriers and the City of London. A History of the Worshipful Company of Curriers, 1968.
Edward Mayer and Donald Adamson, The Curriers' Company: A Modern History, 2000.
Richard Pantall, George Jarvis (1704–1793) and his Notorious Charity, 1993.
John Strype, A Survey of the Cities of London and Westminster by John Stow, 1720.
Laura Wright, "The London Middle English Guild Certificates of 1388–9", Nottingham Medieval Studies, 1995, pp. 108–145.